Welcome to Brad's online memory archives.

A Convoluted Journey

My travel yesterday was a crazy roller coaster of a trip. In the morning, the first leg of my trip was outright canceled. Whole plane-load of people had to be manually rerouted. At first, the desk agent sad I would be given a cab to Washington airport and fly from there, but then she found a flight on another airline. This route would have only one stop in San Francisco. I took that option.

The flight was mostly okay, but I had planned for a 3 hour flight, not a 5.5 hour flight. I hadn’t brought any food. I had to buy a box of food from the flight attendant. Then when we got to San Francisco, there was a tsunami warning, so we had to fly in a holding pattern. We got low on gas, so we went to nearby San Jose and refueled. Then back to San Francisco. We waited on the plane for about an hour in San Jose:

20130105-205940.jpg

Fortunately, my flight to Maui was delayed, so I had no trouble there. Another 5 hours on the plane, and I arrived.

It was a LOT of time on airplanes. I did something I don’t think I’ve ever done before: I read two books in one day. I read “The Outsiders” because the 7th grade here is reading it, and I read “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore” at the recommendation of BoingBoing. I liked them both.

Ann (the principal) and Paul (her husband) met me at the airport with a lei 🙂 Only one of my suitcases made it 🙁 It arrived at midnight and will be delivered today.

20130105-210653.jpg

9 Comments

  1. Deanne

    What an adventure! Now… first day of school. Can’t wait to hear all about it!

    • Brad

      Well, my actual first day of school is going to be a little while from now. I’ll need to get transportation and a place to live. Then I’ll get settled at school.

  2. Lauren

    Two books in one day! LOVE the lei!

    Holy cow, you are the king of travel adventures! Thanks be to God for getting you there safely. I am so glad that you didn’t get stuck on the mainland and have to teach via Skype. It was fun tracking your flight there. You were in a plane a LOOOOOONG time, and over an ocean.

    I have so many questions, but you might not get to read this until later. I’ll start with just one: Where do they get their water? Is everyone on a catchment system or wells or what?

    • Brad

      I can’t answer your question yet. To answer a related question, my hosts house does not have heating or air conditioning. Last night I slept with the windows open and the ceiling fan on, and it was wonderfully cool.

  3. Kristi

    Aloha, Brad! Hope you adjust to the time difference really quickly.

  4. Peggy

    Whew! That was some crazy journey! So glad you made it in one day….safe & sound! And that lei is AWESOME! How nice that it’s one you’ll be able to keep always. Now let the fun begin!

    My quesiton: They didn’t serve you anything…no snacks even on a 5 1/2 fight?!?

    • Brad

      They served drinks, but there was no free food… not even peanuts. If you wanted something to eat, you had to bring it or buy it.

      • Peggy

        That is just crazy!

        And your nighttime temperature sounds heavenly! Sleeping with a window open & being perfectly comfortable is the absolute best! Good luck car & apartment shopping!

        (Also, I am amazed at how many people are traveling to Maui in your picture. What the heck?)

  5. Carol

    Lauren inspired me to ask this: At the end of this gig, could you offer to Skype-teach for them next yearand come back home, thereby having the best of both worlds? All they’d need to do then is hire a bouncerroom monitor on their end and you could be back in lovely Bawlmer, Hon, but still doing what you were called to do. (…yea…I know…no direct contact with students would be a bummer, I guess…never mind…)

    Congratulations on a safe arrival – and all in the same week! Blessings on the hunt for wheels and shelter now…

Leave a Reply to Deanne Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

© 2024 bradaptation.com

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑