I had to get up at 3:00 am in order to catch my 6:30 am flight out of Anchorage. Rather tough, not being a morning person. The cab that I reserved the day before arrived right on schedule to take myself and my boxed bike to the airport. No problems – until, after 1 hour of sitting on the plane at the gate, the Captain came over the intercom and announced that we were still waiting for all the checked luggage to be loaded. Seems the conveyor system in the terminal broke down and the ground crew was busy running from conveyor to conveyor to find all the baggage that was supposed to be on my flight. So I immediately had visions of arriving in Oslo sans bike. But they assured us that everything was loaded. I hope.
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My bike and camping gear, all boxed up and ready for the long ride.
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My airline tickets from Anchorage to Oslo. Notice the seat numbers - all First Class. Click to enlarge.
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I was hoping to get a glimpse of the Juneau Icefield as we flew south out of Anchorage, but there was a continuous cloud layer from Anchorage to just north of Vancouver, British Columbia. But soon the clouds dissipated and I was able to get some nice views of the mountains north of Vancouver, British Columbia.
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View of the coastal montains in southern British Columbia, on the way to Seattle. Click to enlarge.
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Looking north toward Seattle. Sea-Tac airport is visible near the upper center of the photo. Mt. Baker is the large snow-covered mountain on the horizon. Click to enlarge.
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After leaving Seattle for Los Angeles, we flew past Mt. Rainier. Here’s a photo of it from my left-hand window seat as we flew past it at 16,000 feet.
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View of Mt. Rainier from the west. Click to enlarge.
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Farm fields in the central valley of California. Click to enlarge.
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Wow - look at all those exotic destinations. For me, it's British Airways Flight 268 to London. First time out of the U.S.! Click to enlarge.
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Here's my ride for the next leg of the trip - 10 hours non-stop from Los Angeles to London. My seat is right up front, windows 6, 7, and 8 back from the nose, but over on the left-hand side so that I can get a view of Greenland as we pass over it.
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First Class definitely has its privileges over cattle-class. Wide seats, plenty of legroon, free meals and drinks, and real silverware (including metal knives and forks!). That was just on Alaska Airlines. I’m writing this from British Airway’s First Class lounge at the Los Angeles airport. This is definitely the way to go if you can stomach cashing in the requisite boatload of airline miles. All the free seafood, wine, champagne, snacks, etc. that you want, plus private showers! I loaded up on seafood and champagne and took a long hot shower, and can’t wait to get on the 747 an hour from now and settle into my First Class, 6-foot long sleeping pod for the 10 hour overnight flight to London.
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OTR 
July 29, 2010 at 1:08 am
I see you are making progress. May God be with you!