The Flight

After turning in our rental car, we checked in with Delta and found out that we'd have to pay another $120 to check our bags. We had adjusted the contents of our bags so that two of them weighed 49 pounds, one 48 and one 41 pounds. So we were within the 50 pound limit without paying a penalty. At that point we were wondering if we should have left everything at home, and just purchased everything here for the $240 that we spent getting it over here. But we didn't.

Next, we learned that Delta does not have a luggage agreement with EVA Air, which meant that we'd have to claim our baggage in Los Angeles and then check it in with EVA Air and then go through the security check in again. Fortunately, we had 2 hours and 40 minutes which was sufficient to do that. EVA didn't charge us anything for our luggage.

EVA Air is a Taiwan airline which has 14 B777s, 7 B747s, 11 Airbus A330s and 6 MD90s. The Church booked (and paid for) our flight on a B777 in the Elite Class, which is slightly roomier than the Economy Class. It is a huge aircraft, with two huge GE engines (much large than the B747 engines, although the 747 has four engines instead of two). It was the first time that we had ever flown in this aircraft and it was very nice.

We departed SLC at 9:40 PM Sunday night, departed LAX at 1:20 AM Monday morning, and arrived at Taipei at 6:30 AM Tuesday morning. I usually change my watch to the time zone of the arrival city as soon as we depart. So in LAX I changed it from 0120 to 1620 and started thinking in terms of Taipei time (i.e., 4 PM). We received our first meal about 6 PM and then breakfast about 4 AM. We are currently 15 hours ahead of Genevieve on the West Coast, 14 hours ahead of Emily in Colorado, 13 hours ahead of Hannah in Wisconsin, and 12 hours ahead of Annmarie in Kentucky. When you return to Standard Time, then each will be one hour longer.

The trip took about 14 hours and I slept most of the time. We didn't watch any movies. Two or three times I walked all the way to the back of the plane to get some exercise. At 4 AM the stewardesses were preparing breakfast, but they took enough time out to let me take this picture.

Customs check in was painless, once we discovered we had to fill out a little form. Pres and Sis Horner picked us up at the airport and stayed with us most of the day. We looked at possible apartments and chose a furnished one, signing papers and moving in the first day. The total time being upright from Sunday morning until Tuesday night was about 44 hours. It was a good trip.