Day 0: Its amazing we can fly!

Almost did not make it to Oslo in time for the expedition launch.  My United flight was scheduled to connect in Newark, NJ and travel directly to Oslo.  Thunder storms hit the east coast, and we were delayed several hours, long enough to miss the connection.  More than 8 flights where cancelled in Chicago, leaving hundreds of passengers scrambling for seats on other flights.   I called the Lindblad Air department and they worked like champs to reschedule my flight thru Copenhagen.  I only showed up 8 hours late.  Many people have to wait until to tonight just to leave Chicago!

The Captain of the plane came out and showed the doppler radar image of the storm on his IPad.  This was funny because the Lindblad Air folks said it was dry skies in New York where they worked.   But the doppler clearly shows the approaching monsoons from the West.   

All in all, its amazing that I can travel 6000 miles in one day, from Utah to Norway.   The fact that people can travel such vast distances is only capable from science and technology.  I flew in the air for hours at hundreds of miles per hour.  Our elevation in the plane was so high that temperatures where below freezing and pressure was really low.   Man was not designed to do this, but our magic aircraft enable us to get there.   Now, add several hundred people on the flights, and global weather conditions, something is bound to go wrong.  Its amazing our exceptions for the travel industry is that it function perfectly all the time.  My sentiment is that it continues to improve, and there still is a demand to improve the infrastructure and technology.   

I arrived in the afternoon in Oslo, only to meet some folks.   We took an evening stroll and found many young people in the park watching the World Cup.  

I also found a G-Star Raw (Clothing) store in Oslo.  They model Magnus Carlsen, the World Chess Champion in their ad campaign.   In my flyover Norway, at one point, we flew over Stavanger, where Magnus just finished a chess tournament in second place.