Standing just outside of the security checkpoint at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, Micki and I hugged and said our final goodbyes.  I watched her walk out of the lobby, then grinned as she peered in from the outside window and waved one last time when she caught sight of me.  I waved back, then watched her climb into the car with my mom, who had driven us to the airport.

When the Chevrolet Impala was out of sight, I shouldered my carry-on bag and walked to the security line.  Other than a moment's confusion at how the screening process worked, I had no problems getting through the checkpoint.  I asked the man at the scanner if the x-ray machine would damage my video tapes or my digital camera memory cards.  He told me that they would be fine, so I handed him my bag, removed my shoes, and walked through the machine.

After retrieving my gear from the x-ray area, I made my way down the concourse and was pleased to find that my gate for the flight to Dulles was the second one that I came to.  The first flight of the day would be a short jump from Charlotte to Washington, DC, where I would have a four hour layover before getting on the plane to Africa.  I took a seat and waited patiently for my fight to begin boarding.

The small jet was mostly empty, with only a handful of business commuters aboard for the early morning flight.  The flight passed quickly, and I spent most of the time looking at my tickets for the South African flight and anticipating the moment that I would arrive in Africa.  There was a good bit of turbulence, and I could only hope that the trip to Africa was smoother.  As the plane taxied down the runway after an extremely bumpy landing, I caught sight of the tail section of the South African Airways plane that I would be aboard later that day.

When the plane pulled up to the gate and they let us disembark, I stood beside the luggage compartment to make sure that my bags had made the flight with me.  As I was standing there, a lady and her husband walked up and asked me if I was headed to Africa.  They had seen the SAA brochure that I had been reading on the flight, and they told me that they too were headed to Johannesburg.  They would be touring Krueger National Park.  We wished each other well and promised to say hello if we saw each other aboard the big Airbus later that day.

My bags did indeed make the journey, so I headed on into the airport and walked over to an information booth to ask directions to the International Departures area.  They got me headed in the right direction, and I hiked across the airport to the South African Airways terminal.  From there I made a quick call to Micki to let her know that I had completed the first leg of my flight.  The next time she heard from me, I would be in Africa.

The layover in Washington went by fairly quickly.  I got a hamburger at Fuddruckers for lunch, then dozed in the lobby a bit as I awaited to boarding call for South African.  A big screen TV showed news from around the world, and as I sat and watched a crowd for the SAA flight began to build.  It was easy to tell the hunters from the tourists.  More people than I would have expected were wearing safari clothes:  greens, olives, and tans.  Some had their bush hats on, and others were already wearing their hunting boots.

I engaged in brief conversations with various sportsmen and traded off a few minutes keeping an eye on carry-on luggage for another hunter as we each took turns visiting the restroom or browsing in the little bookshop across from the terminal.  I kept a lookout for Steve Huettner, a fellow member of the Accurate Reloading African Hunting forum.  He would be aboard the flight, and we had made plans to meet each other prior to the trip across.  I didn't see him, so we were, unfortunately, unable to meet.

At 4:20pm, the call finally came.  They bused us from the terminal to the plane, and once aboard I was pleased to see that I was seated at a bulkhead and had more legroom available than some of the other seats.  I took a few minutes to get settled in, removing my MP3 player from my carry-on luggage and then getting my bag stowed properly for the trip.  I found that I had a fold-out entertainment system attached to my chair, so I took a few minutes to look at the movies that were available for the trip.

The Astronaut Farmer, 300, Shooter, I Think I Love My Wife, and a few other choices that I didn't recognize.  Nothing looked particularly interesting, so I folded the entertainment screen back up under my chair and started listening to an audio book on my MP3 player instead. 

The flight was a bit late getting started, but we were in the air by a little after 6:00pm.  They served us supper at 8:00, and shortly after that I took an Ambien and was soon fast asleep and dreaming of Africa.