Day 1 - From Russia with Love — Captain Father John

Sunday, November 13, 2016- Just like old times, the limo picked me up at 3:30 pm for my ride to O’Hare Airport. I am traveling to St Petersburg, Russia today to meet with my Rust-Oleum distributor Zurab Mishin. Zurab lives in Moscow but I prefer to meet him in St Petersburg. I have been to Moscow numerous times and have visited Red Square and the other tourist attractions. Moscow traffic is very congested making the drive to and from Domodedovo airport several hours long. St Petersburg has better flight connections and hundreds of tourist attractions.

John and Priscilla in front of St Basil’s cathedral in Red Square, Moscow in 2014. Red means beautiful in Russian.

This trip was initially scheduled for September but my boss Kurt Hardy had problems obtaining his Russian visa so the trip was changed to November. It will be much colder now but the change of date made it possible for the President of Rust-Oleum Tom Reed to accompany us. Even with the financial crisis in Russia brought on by their the annexation of Crimea, our Russian distributor is still among the largest largest Rust-Oleum distributors in the world.

John and Priscilla in St Petersburg with Peter the Great in 2014.

This trip will take 13 hours five minutes from the time my plane departs O’Hare airport until I arrive at Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg, Russia. I will have a 1 hour 50 minute layover in Munich, Germany. Total miles flown will be 5,635. It is 4535 miles from Chicago to Munich, Germany and 1,100 miles from Munich to St. Petersburg. Thirteen hours might seem like a long flight but compared to the flights I took to Bangkok and Singapore which were 24 hours airport to airport, thirteen hours is not so long. I will fly in business class on the way over and first class on the way back. Business class is OK with lay flat beds but in first class I will have my own pod with no one on my side trying to climb over me at night. The ticket price is $8,813.

My seat on the Boeing 777-200 to Munich is 8J.

This will be my first international flight since my Demi-God status (Global Service) expired with United Airlines. I no longer have access to the secret airport entrance that gets me in front on the Premier security line. No longer will I be greeted by name as I exit the plane and take a private car between terminals to avoid long security lines. Those were the days.

Here a photo of my Russian Visa. It is valid for multiple entries for three years.

Bonus photo