January 7th - Detroit Airport

I arrived in Detroit last night about 12:30. The airport was very nice, new, clean. But I was beginning to wonder if I had made the right decision to stay in the airport rather than get a room... Doubts - doubts! I found a nice seating area with a nice clean carpet, so I decided - 'YES, I can do this!'

I put my backpack up against the large window overlooking the runway, laid down, using the pack for my pillow , and my hoody sweatshirt as my blanket. It was great - slept about 6 hours, until two employees woke me talking loud and fast right next to me. They had 200 yards of terminal - and they sat next to me!

So- got up, found nice clean restroom - washed up, then went to MacDonalds for coffee. I still had about 5 hours til departure, so I went for an hour walk around the terminal- then breakfast at Macdonalds, then a little CNN news, the newspaper, and it was 11:30, went and ate a rueben sandwich and then down to the departure gate.

A successful over nite stay in Detroit. Total cost $13.00.

We boarded the plane on time, but then a short delay, then the plane needed to be De-iced. It was a 20-minute wait for the de-ice truck, then 25 minutes to de-ice - so about an hour and half later we took off.

It is a 12-1/2 hour flight to Japan, passing over Alaska. I left Detroit at 1:00 pm Thursday afternoon January 7th, and flew 12-1/2 hours, and landed in Japan at 4:30 p.m. on Friday January 8th.

At Nirita airport (Japan) I just had time to change planes - get off - hurry down long corridor, back thru complete security check, and back into the plane! From Japan to Bangkok is a short 8-1/2 hour flight. So I had 1.5 hours from ATL to DTW, 12.5 hours from DTW to NRT, and then 8.5 hours to BKK. Total flight time was 22.5 hours, plus 12 hours in DTW.