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Published: August 13th 2006
Goodbye Portland
View from the terminal looking north.I guess all great adventures should start out with a challenge; it’s a question of how big of challenge do you want to tackle. My inconvenience was a potential deal breaker that was discovered at 11:30pm the night before my departure.
My wallet, where is my wallet? Drivers license, debit card, credit card, and my REI membership and rock climbing cards were all missing. I began that agonizing process of replaying in my mind where I had gone and what I had done in the last 24 hours. Had I mistakenly packed the wallet in with my check luggage? Nope. Perhaps under the bed, behind the night stand, on the kitchen counter. Nope, no luck, gone……
After searching for thirty minutes I decided to give it a go in the morning. Perhaps I would be directed to my wallet though a dream.
Beep, Beep, Beep….. 4:59am. I don’t want to miss Teresia before she is off to work. I’ll stealthily search the kitchen, living room and den before I’ll sound a general alarm, I don’t want to trouble Teresia and John with this bit of bad luck.
Teresia has left for the day and I’ve searched every
San Fran Terminal
Waiting for Air New Zealand flight. possible location. No sign of the wallet upstairs or downstairs. I decide that I must share my plight with John and hope that he’s seen the wallet.
It’s only 6:00am in the morning and I’ve managed to raise the house’s collective heart rate. John and I go back though the house scouring each nook and cranny. We searched the street (where we had installed mom’s car bra), the backyard (where we had dinned the night before), and Hidden Park (the scene of our last bocce ball match). My wallet has decidedly left on its own adventure without me.
To make a long story short the wallet and all its contents are on the lam, they are to be considered armed and dangerous.
What did I do to fix the situation? Fortunately I have backup debit and credit cards. I cancelled the missing cards and asked for replacements. At first I thought that the missing drivers license will be a headache for when I return home (think long lines at the DMV). Yesterday I realized that was a poor assumption. I need a license to rent vehicles here. Fortunately I can request through Olympia a replacement drivers license,
who knows how long that process will take. I’m in REI’s database, so no worries here.
To the airport.
Mom volunteered to drive me to PDX. On the way there I stopped off to see Kirsten and Teresia (at her award winning Burn Center Garden). We arrived at PDX at 12:30pm a full three hours before my flight to San Francisco. Said goodbye to mom and then slipped into the terminal (making for sure to put on my serious game face).
What I found inside the terminal was a line of approximately 120 people, their luggage, and two large dog carriers in line for the United ticket line. I soon learned that my flight was two hours late and that United flights were experiencing long delays today.
A long line to a ticket counter is an eye opening experience, you really get a chance to see how people react in stressful situations. Some of the more interesting personality types are as follows:
1. The Amazing Race contestants. They arrive to the airport 50 minutes prior to departure. The leader, in this case a wife, runs ahead of her teammate to scope out the situation. She sees the long line, asks you in a demanding sort of way “is this the United ticket line”, hoping that what she sees in front of her is a figment of her imagination. I along with people in front and behind me respond “yes”, most those in line close ranks suspecting that she may try to cut in line. The wife now turns and yells at her husband who is just coming through the revolving doors (60 feet away) “Larry, I think we’re in a lot of trouble. You’re going to have to do something about this”. Who knows what happens to these people? Perhaps they make their flight, more than likely they don’t, whatever the outcome I can’t imagine that they begin their vacation with a good mood.
2. The 4th and inches type of people. Somewhere in the line there is always a person that will exert a good deal of energy to move themselves and luggage a matter of inches just to be that much closer to the ticket counter. I had a person like that behind me. If I changed my standing position in the slightest the woman would place her luggage just inches behind my heels.
3. The uniformed traveler. “What each piece of luggage can’t weigh 80 lbs?” I watched one group of four people redistribute, toss, and dress at the ticketing desk to avoid a luggage overweight fee. They opened up their bags moved books and clothes to other locations. Tossed that unessential garment and even added an extra layer of clothing to what they were already wearing. This whole process took 10 to 15 minutes. I couldn’t believe the United ticketing staff allowed this given the length of the line that kept growing.
Once I made it through ticketing and security nothing much happened between Portland and Auckland. We left PDX at 5:20pm, arrived in San Francisco and then departed for New Zealand at 9:20pm. The flight to New Zealand was 12.5 hours long. In darkness for the duration of the flight (full moon in the sky). Arrived in NZ at 5:30am local time (Wednesday).
While the length and hardship of the journey was nothing compared to that those traveling by sea would have encountered I did get to try a biscuit for dinner that was nearly has hard as a sea biscuit.
All that I experienced before my departure could not dim my wander lust, I’m so excited about the unknown that lays ahead. I’ll keep you updated on my working holiday experiences.
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Jeanette
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Follow your desire
Follow your desire as long as you live; do not lessen the time of followng desire, for the wasting of time is an abominatiown to the spirit. (Ptahhotep, 2350 BC). One today is worth two tomorrows; what I am to be, I am now becoming. (Benjamin Franklin) I have wandeared all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. (Hilaire Belloc). A few enouraging thoughts to remind you that your choice to travel and see the wonders of the world is a good thing.