1dream

Coming soon to an airport near you...
What happens when you travel the world looking for your hoop dreams?

Completed segments in GREEN
Coming soon segements inGOLD

Paid Tickets in Economy
The Airport Shuttle
Los Angeles - Denver: United #314
Priority Pass Buys Me Dinner
Denver - Wichita: United #458
Wichita - Chicago: United #4062
--------------------------------------------
ANA Mileage Around the World Ticket (Business Class unless noted)
145,000 Miles + $780 in taxes
Chicago - Seoul: Asiana #235 Seat 2A
Seoul - Bangkok: Thai #659 Seat 15A
What would you do?
Marriott Marquis Queen's Park Bangkok
Bangkok - Hong Kong: Air Asia #509 Economy Seat 16C
Hoopin' in Hong Kong
JW Marriott Shenzhen - My Home for 16 Days
Basketball Never Stops in Shenzhen
Patrick Beverley (L.A. Clippers) Stops By Shenzhen
Bangkok - Singapore: Thai #409 Economy Seat 12A
Intercontinental Singapore - A Tad Tired
Singapore - Johannesburg: Singapore #482 Seat 19A
The Best Airline Dessert EVER
Johannesburg - Durban (paid ticket): Comair #625 Economy
The Capital Pearls Umhlanga
Umzolozolo - A Day on Safari
Nambiti Hills - A Day on Safari
Durban - Johannesburg (paid ticket): British Airways #6220 Economy
UH OH - How I Missed My Flight
Johannesburg - Accra: South African #56
Accra - Kumasi (paid ticket): Africa World Airlines #104
Kumasi - Accra (paid ticket): Africa World Airlines #109
Where in the World is Kumasi?
Accra - Washington D.C.: South African #209 Seat 2K
Washington D.C. - Los Angeles (paid ticket): United #2154 Economy
Los Angeles - San Luis Obispo (paid ticket): United #5748 Economy

www.HOOPSANDTRAVEL.com

YVRStarFlyer

This is gonna be good....SUBSCRIBED

WesternCDN

Wow, epic journey ahead for you! Looking forward to seeing this thread develop.

757

Looking forward to these reports! What an awesome sounding trip.

roadwarrier

This looks like a stunning report in the making. Especially interested in the Ghana segments.

ironmanjt

Keep an eye on that South African flight - they've been notoriously aircraft swapping on the ACC-IAD route lately.

RussianTexan

I love developing threats!!! <3

1dream

Why am I taking 17 flights and spending over 30,000 miles in the air?
Well, I'm a teacher and I'm on summer break so I'm a free man for several weeks... and as the late Paul Harvey would say, "and now the rest of the story"
First stop Kansas - Mother In Law's Surprise birthday party
Next up Bangkok - a few days of R & R before nearly 3 weeks in China
Hong Kong / Shenzhen - Directing our 6th annual basketball camp - We have a special NBA guest this year, should be fun!
Back to Bangkok before positioning flight to Singapore - will the Trump and Kim look alike still be there?
South Africa - A couple of days in Umhlanga (near Durban), great beach, where we spent our honeymoon, then a couple days of safari
Ghana - 3 days in Kumasi with some of the best people I've ever met
Then back to the good ole USA, just in time for school to start.

1dream

The day was here.

The 42-day journey around the world was ready to begin. I live in San Luis Obispo, California which Oprah has called the “happiest city in America”. Oprah only speaks the truth and most of the time we are pretty happy bunch living the “SLO LIFE”. We have incredible weather, beaches within 10 minutes, hiking trails everywhere, a great University (Cal Poly), tasty restaurants and because of all of this skyrocketing housing prices.

Living in SLO as the locals call it definitely has its perks. We do have an airport, SBP but my last few experiences haven’t been too good so I decided to bite the bullet and fly out of Los Angeles instead. My flight today will be on United Los Angeles-Denver-Wichita and to get the 190 miles from San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles I had four options.

1. Drive my car to LAX and pay for parking for 42 days – Cost: WAY TOO MUCH
2. Fly from SBP to LAX – Cost: one way tickets are usually $225-$325
3. Rent a car for a one-way rental – Cost: $105 + gas
4. Take the Central Coast Shuttle from Santa Maria to LAX – Cost: $70

I chose #4 and it was probably the best shuttle of my life!



Santa Maria is 30 miles south of San Luis Obispo and a $90 UBER ride so luckily I have family in SLO and with some promises of souvenirs upon my return I was able to bribe one of them to drive me to Santa Maria… event though it required a 6:30am pickup from my house. Upon arrival at just past 7am it was a quick check in and the other five passengers and I boarded about 7:25am for the 160 mile drive to LAX. Our driver, aka Mr. X was absolutely incredible. Not only did he take some side streets to bypass parts of the impenetrable 101 South near the 405 interchange, but he offered fun facts along the way. I learned that the two elderly people walking along one of the side streets with huge cameras probably going bird-watching were probably going to get the middle finger BIRD, as the area they were about to infiltrate in hopes of seeing their flying friends was actually a homeless encampment along the river. I’d like to see some of the pictures they get!

We arrived at LAX at about 11am which Mr. X says is a near record for his 5-time per week journey. I immediately headed to the security line and thought that my eyes were deceiving me. Where the hell was everyone?



After a 5 minute wait I was through security and sitting down at the B Grill for a delicious albeit expensive ($17.49) bacon, avocado and pimento cheeseburger with french fries.

The journey has begun!

1dream

I haven't logged every flight segment in my 44 years but I'd guess the number to be somewhere around 500 take offs and landings are on my resume. The landing I had today was the most eventful and definitely the scariest.

Boarding in Los Angeles looked like it was going to be a chaotic and crazy mess, but surprisingly people adhered to the announcement and queued up like ladies and gentlemen.



Seated in seat 41D in a Boeing 777 with 335 of my closest friends we departed Los Angeles a few minutes late but with smooth skies ahead. Barely fitting into my seat, I am 6'5" remember, there was a battle for the armrest which I didn't battle too hard for due to the extremely nice woman sitting next to me. The knees weren't enjoying the lack of legroom too much.



The first two hours were uneventful, the WiFi wasn't working, the inflight magazine wasn't interesting and the flight attendants were enthusiastically trying not to enjoy their job. The pilot announced our final descent and that is when things got interesting.



A little turbulence hardly bothers a seasoned traveler like myself. Just close your eyes and you think you are on a city bus going down a bumpy road. Today's turbulence took it to another level. I was thinking that I was back at Magic Mountain losing my stomach on a huge roller coaster, but instead I was in a huge metal tube thousands of feet in the air. We endured several stomach churning drops but we were getting close, probably about 500 fee from the ground and we could see the runways when all of a sudden we stopped descending and we roared upward. I think the pilot felt a serious cross wind and he'd had enough and wanted to reboot and try it again. It's that same feeling you get when you are at a stoplight, not paying attention, the light turns green and you are clueless to the world until you hear that first honk. Then all of a sudden you hit the gas hard and speed away to ensure no eye contact is made with the driver behind you.

Our pilot did just that. He hit the accelerator and we rose to around 3,000 feet and proceeded to circle the airport for the next 30 minutes, enduring another round of roller coaster ups and downs. A few passengers were throwing up, several were I'm sure in silent prayer while my seatmate was clenching the seat in front of her with her eyes closed. Personally, I had the clammy sweat and a nauseated feeling running through my bones... not my favorite feeling.

Luckily our 2nd pass was more successful and the pilot brought us down with a loud landing and received a round of applause from the 326 thankful passengers.

The first flight of the summer is now in the books, but it will always be remembered.

YYCowboy

That is one epic itinerary ^

1dream

PRIORITY PASS BUYS ME DINNER
After surviving a harrowing descent into Denver, the sky had calmed, the nausea had lifted and I was hungry! It was time for me to check out one of the newest offerings from our friends at Priority Pass.



As most of us know the Priority Pass is diversifying from lounge only facilities to some fun dining options. Having had a couple nice meals in Portland at Capers Cafe Le Bar my next opportunity to check out a Priority Pass "non-lounge" option was during my 3-hour layover in Denver at Timberline Steaks & Grill which proved to be a very tasty option and just the remedy for a tired and hungry traveler who had just endured one of the worst landings of his life.



As I don't transit through Denver often my knowledge of the airport was very limited but great signage and a relatively uncrowded concourse made the journey from Concourse B where I landed to Concourse C where Timberline is located an easy 5 minute trip. Coming up the escalator from the trains, Timberline is located on your right hand side and there were about 15 people congregated out front waiting for a table. Luckily, I only had to wait about 10 minutes before I was seated with a full menu of tasty options placed on the table in front of me.



A very friendly waitress helped attend to my every need, basically my food and two water refills, and as instructed I immediately told her about my Priority Pass card. She informed me of the $28 credit that would be applied to my final bill and I settled on the rib eye steak, with mashed potatoes and a side salad. Total with tax was $32.40 so my out of pocket cost would be just $4.40, not bad for a steak dinner!


You never know what to expect with airport dining. Most places are overpriced and underwhelming in taste. Timberline was the opposite. Obviously a $4 steak is tough to beat anywhere but a deliciously seasoned and perfectly cooked rib eye is untouchable. The basic garden salad with ranch dressing was nothing remarkable but every bit satisfying as a precursor to the juicy and flavorful steak. The steak came with a heaping mound of mashed potatoes which came to the table hot, delicious and the portion was too huge for me to even finish. The steak was definitely the star of the show as it was every bit as good as 90% of the steaks that I have tasted. I do have a spot in my heart (and stomach) for Ruth's Chris Steak House which are my all-time favorites.

you Priority Pass for branching out and giving us different options than the basic lounge foods that we've all grown accustomed to and definitely tired of. When in Denver, Timberline is a must visit!




Thank you Priority Pass for branching out and giving us different options than the basic lounge foods that we've all grown accustomed to and definitely tired of. When in Denver, Timberline is a must visit!

1dream

My pit stop in Denver enabled me to both settle and fill my stomach. After a white-knuckle flight from Los Angeles to Denver, I was able to calm my stomach down with a 10-minute walk throughout the terminal, before hopping on the train to Terminal 2 and dinner at the Timberline Steaks and Grille. Dinner was delicious and I was eager to board my final flight of the day, my a Boeing 737 in United livery for the one hour flight to Wichita.



Luckily this flight was very uneventful and between the flamboyantly flight attendant who really enjoyed his time on the mic, my 80 year old seat mate from Boise, the blue mood lighting and the premium economy seat I had in 10D it was actually a very pleasant flight.

After spending a few days in Kansas, I needed to re position myself to Chicago for the beginnings of my international journey. Wichita is a very easy airport with a quick security line and strong WiFi throughout. From check in to gate was about 10 minutes and I was posted up and ready for our flight up to Chicago which was ultimately delayed about 30 minutes but with an impending 6-hour layover in Chicago I wasn’t too worried. Lots of green scenery after 3 inches of rain in the past few days.



Boarding was a breeze and I was seated in 2A on an Embraer RJ145. I gate checked my usual carry on and took my backpack aboard but due to some very small overhead compartments, I was forced to store the backpack under the seat in front of me for the 90-minute flight. It wasn’t the most comfortable flight, but sitting across from me was Yoder, a yellow lab who was flying for the first time. Yoder was a service dog in training and he did a great job of fitting in a small space during the flight so if Yoder could survive cramped quarters…so could I.



The Houston based flight crew was outstanding and I think they even dialed up their accents a couple notches for affect. We landed in the madhouse of O’Hare and had to taxi to the “plane parking lot” to wait for our gate to open up. After about 15 minutes of idling we pushed forward and found our gate. It was now 5:45pm and my connecting flight to Seoul wasn’t due to leave until 11:45pm.

Fredrik74

Good start. The rest should be very interesting to read about. Some exotic destinations there.

1dream

The Asian airlines are my absolute favorite. I haven’t flown them all but 99% of the flights I have had with ANA, Cathay Pacific, Singapore, EVA and Asiana have all showcased levels of hospitality and service that is tough to match globally.

Upon checking in at O’Hare I was greeted by an extremely friendly gate agent who happily moved my seat from 3A, single window seat but exposed to the aisle to the much more private 2A. With boarding pass in hand, I headed through security with no wait whatsoever and I was now in one of the most disappointing international terminals in the Western world.

Maybe I’m spoiled as the majority of my international flights depart from either San Francisco or Los Angeles where both options are full of action no matter the time of day. It was 9pm when I passed through security at O’Hare and I wanted to grab a quick bite to help fill the hole in my stomach since I hadn’t eaten since a lunchtime hamburger in Kingman, Kansas 9 hours before.

Once 9pm hit, it appears curfew had been called and the Terminal was closing for the night. With several night flights still on the schedule, this seemed very odd to me and contrary to making money which is the sole reason to have an airport presence. After doing some online research, I decided to try Big Bowl for my late-night dinner. Featuring Asian cuisine which would prep me for my 3 weeks in Asia I was much more eager than their snarky employees.

My order was the last that they would process and even though they weren’t too eager to help me I fared better than the customer who was right behind me in a line of 2 people who was denied service and told, “We Closed!” Thankfully I had placed my order just before she decided to close, and I picked up a Kung Pao chicken and rice dish was worthy of at least one star, but definitely not more than 2. I took my dinner down to the SAS Lounge, coupled it with a Carlsberg Beer and dinner was served.

The SAS lounge gets a lot of love on the internet due to its IKEA like feel. The lounge does have a very Scandinavian feel to it with a minimalist design, however my goal when I get to lounges is some decent food and drink and solid WiFi. The SAS lounge failed to deliver on all three.

First off and very strangely there were no water bottles available. If you wanted water, you had to get it out of a tap in a wine glass. I thought I was back in 1985. The lounge was also lacking juice options while the food menu was very limited with some mini-sandwiches and a salad bar that was light on options. Thankfully I knew that Asiana would have some enjoyable offerings on board, so I didn’t worry much about starvation.

The WiFi was awful. I eventually switched from the SAS lounge WiFi to the airport free WiFi and my speeds increased dramatically. Pretty ironic that SAS had signs all over the lounge touting their fast WiFi. After some phone calls and emails, it was now 11:15pm and time for boarding.

It took me about 10 minutes to walk from the lounge to the gate and upon arrival everyone was queued up in 5 separate lines according to their seat assignments. It was absolute boarding perfection and my hat goes off to Asiana for such an organized and speedy boarding process.

The feeling of turning left upon entering a long-haul flight never escapes me. Tonight’s Boeing 777 featured 24 Business Class seats (no First Class) and only 10 of them were taken for the 14-hour flight. I was in seat 2A.



Mrs. Lee introduced herself to me as she’d be taking care of me for this trip. The flight attendants had it easy for this flight as there passenger load was light and darkness enveloped the entire 14 hours of flight time. Headsets (which were not noise cancelling) were already at our seat upon arrival as was a L'Occitane amenity kid.





Mrs. Lee walked through the aisle with a tray of welcome drinks with the option of water or orange juice. After my spicy dinner I needed some sugar and enjoyed an ice-cold orange juice.

I tried to take some pictures of the menu as all great bloggers do, but before I could snap away, she snapped the menu away from me. Mrs. Lee was on a mission and no idle time would be wasted, and I was totally fine with it. The Western option that tantalized my taste buds was a Beef Stew, but when on Asiana I always go for the local dish of Bibimbap.

Doors were closed and we were up in the air for about 20 minutes when the meal service started with a cold shrimp appetizer. I was joined for dinner by 12 Strong, which turned out to be a solid movie. Shrimp is shrimp and doesn’t really get me too excited, but the dish was accompanying by a few veggies that went untouched and wasn’t too memorable.


Following the appetizer, Mrs. Lee brought out the Bibimbap and accouterments. I was more tired than hungry, so I didn’t gorge myself too much but the Bibimbap had some nice flavors. I didn’t touch the soup, kimchi or the other unidentified dish which accompanied the meal.



Mrs. Lee immediately brought two Korean candies, I ate the rice cake type version and my dinner service was concluded. Not the best meal I’ve eaten at 35,000 feet, but it was nearly 1am and I was exhausted and ready for some shut eye.





The Asian airlines always seem to keep the cabin toasty and tonight was no exception. I always prepare with sweat pants, a light sweatshirt and tonight I borrowed some extra blankets… didn’t need any of them! I fell asleep for the next 7 hours or so and woke up with 4 hours to go with our flight. I watched a few TV shows and prepared for breakfast which turned out to be excellent.

Breakfast featured two croissants (plain and chocolate) and were without a doubt the best pastries I’ve ever had in the air. Moist, fresh and just delicious! Also included in the meal was strawberry yogurt and a fruit plate which was served prior to the main course being brought out.



The main course was banana French toast with a side of sausage and bacon. The French toast was also very soft and moist while the sausage was juicy. I was very impressed. Throw in some crispy bacon and this breakfast ranks as one of my favorites of all time. Green Tea was my drink of choice and upon completion Mrs. Lee was right back at my side clearing everything away.





Thanks to some favorable winds, we landed about an hour early in Seoul Incheon. Reflecting on my flight with Asiana, the dinner service wasn’t great but the breakfast was outstanding. The cabin temperature was as absurdly warm and thus I didn’t need the three blankets that I had stolen from some of the empty seats. I was able to sleep for about 7 hours and although it wasn’t a sound sleep, for an airplane it wasn’t too bad. I can’t say enough great things about the flight attendants as they all had great attitudes, were very sweet and had pride in their jobs. Great job Asiana.