Your plane is waiting for you

When you book your ticket at the last minute you end up on a tiny propeller plan that makes two stops between Vancouver and LA.

Although I've made this trip many times, this time I didn't remember that YVR does not believe that a trip to the US classifies as international travel. I couldn't find the gate

The "gate" was a set of stars that led right down to the runway. I felt a bit like a movie star or businessman boarding my private jet.



That is until the engines turned on and I realized that the reason they are called private jets and not private props should have been more apparent. The 10 foot metal fans spinning fast enough to keep 60 people and an aluminum tube in the air makes a huge amount of noise. A huge amount of noise.

After three take offs and three landings and almost five hours I landed at LAX.

LAX was built in 1958 and you can see it in the groovy lines of the “Encounters” restaurant and in lots of the murals in the terminal. There is a very long tunnel before baggage claim. Three sides of it are bright white while the remaining side is a blocky rainbow of pastels and earth tones.



Every time I walk down it I think about death.