Well, what a sh*t show at the airport.  The hotel helped me arrange a shuttle to the airport.  I made sure to arrive extra early, but alas, there was another airline that had a flight departing before me, so they actually wouldn't let me into the small terminal until a set time.  Thankfully, there was a little restaurant outside so I grabbed a snack and hung out.  I paid for my ticket with my American debit card, and the charge had clearly posted.  However, the airline had all kinds of problems verifying that and couldn't check me in.  It was getting to the point that I thought I was going to miss the flight.  Charging me for bags was another story and they were clearly trying to rip me off.  In all of the fiasco, the supervisor was involved trying to figure out why I couldn't get checked in and then assisted with baggage.  I have a short stopover in Dar es Salaam before catching a connecting flight to Zanzibar.  They only wanted to check my gear to Dar es Salaam, but I really put my foot down and made them check it all the way through.  Then they wanted to charge me double.  Then the exchange rates they were telling me were horrible.  In the end, I paid cash in US dollars to avoid anymore headaches.  I also saw them put my bike flat on a luggage cart and start to pile suitcases on top of it.  I quickly got that situation corrected, but lucky I even saw it happen.  I left for my one hour 45 minute flight stressed and hoping there were no more hiccups and incompetency!  Zanzibar is semi-autonomis from Tanzania so passport control has to be passed through again.

I haven't mentioned my other favorite artist in awhile.  Can't post it on here, but I did post a video link of Billy Joel's song "Zanzibar" on my Facebook page.  Seemed appropriate.  The flight from Dar to Zanzibar was only 15 minutes.  It might just be the shortest flight I've ever taken (unless you count the flights where I jumped out of the plane!)  I got a hotel super close to the airport so I would not have to deal with reassembling my bike upon arrival.  Paid for a short taxi ride to a well reviewed hotel.  My first room had such a musty smell (and whatever other odor it was) that I requested to be moved to another room.  I ended up with a gigantic family room.  The hotel had a nice restaurant and garden oasis courtyard in the middle.  I enjoyed it some, but had to reassemble my bike for the ride into Stone Town tomorrow.  I'm so excited to be here!