Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Journal Entry – June 30 – July 6, 2005 Another Whirlwind trip to San Francisco

Author: Pam

As I thought, the taxi driver arrived at 5:30 sharp as I was sitting in the dinghy with my bag waiting for Scott to close up the boat, the police did a good job. The taxi ride to the airport was less than ten minutes and cost $20.00, ouch! I flew Air France to LA, cleared customs and flew United to SF arriving on time. I did not want to be back so soon, but I decided on the trip over that though I thought I wouldn’t go home for at least year after leaving that is not how it is turning out and I am just going to go with the flow. My friends Richard and Joan picked me up at the airport and then proceeded to be wonderful hosts for my whirlwind few days of frantic errands, appointments and coordinating engine parts with the mechanic.

I went to the Dr. first thing the next morning for what I was hoping to be just a follow-up visit. She ended up doing another biopsy and cultures and suggested I not leave the states until I had the results. Of course Monday was a holiday and this could slow down the possibility of getting the results by Wednesday. I spent Saturday morning investigating the possibility of changing my ticket and found out there was no option to do so. I decided I would go back to Tahiti without the results if I had to and if I needed to return to the states then I would cross that bridge later. Fortunately, I got the results an hour before I left for the airport and they were negative. Phew.

I ran around non-stop with the list I had come back with. Amazed that we still needed anything after all we have bought over the past eight months. The list required several trips to West Marine, because as per usual they don’t have what you need at the store you went to first. I shopped again at Big Lots, my new favorite bargain store for canned food. Of course, it is stressful to buy canned food and wonder how you will stay within the luggage weight limit. Trader Joes and Safeway were also graced with my presence. I did not have much time for socializing and unfortunately didn’t even get to call some friends. The few friends I did see had to endure a shopping trip or errand, otherwise it wasn’t all going to get done. I can’t even begin to express how blessed I feel, I think I have the best friends on the planet. As an aside, missing my friends and family has been the biggest challenge for me since we left on our trip. I am used to daily contact with my friends and I have not gotten used to not being able to pick up the phone and call.

I did squeeze in going to the movies with Richard and Joan. We went to see War of the Worlds. It had been three months since I had gone to a movie and a lot longer since I had good popcorn at the theater. In Mexico we saw several movies, but they don’t put butter on the popcorn and hot sauce was not the ticket. Unfortunately, I really didn’t like War of the Worlds, but it was still fun to be at a modern theater with a big screen.

I had many phone calls with the mechanic Terry Tucker from Berkeley Marine Center who helped us diagnosis the engine problem while we were at sea. He tracked down the parts we need to fix the engine and a back-up alternator and regulator. Unfortunately, the parts were not in the Bay Area and did not arrive in time for me to bring them back to Tahiti with me. We are considering flying Terry to Tahiti to fix the engine and if that happens he will bring the parts with him, if not we will have them shipped.

As the bags piled up on the bedroom floor I became more worried about my luggage limit. When the day came to pack Richard and I carried everything down to their garage where I could spread out and get organized. It became clear quickly I would be paying to bring an extra bag. The limit was two seventy pound pieces of checked luggage. Richard loaned me an extra bag and I commenced packing. After the bags were nearly full he helped me weigh each bag. They were all over sixty pounds, but less than sixty five. This felt like a good margin for the possibility of a difference in the scales at the airport.

Kathy drove me to the airport with a stop at In and Out Burger for dinner, that was mostly to make Scott jealous, but of course it was yummy. When it was my turn each bag was hefted onto the scale and Kathy saw weights of sixty nine and a half pounds, she thinks the guy may have even picked up on one of the bags slightly, phew again. The guy checking me in had one computer glitch after another. First he had a difficult time getting the bags to be transferred in LA, but with some help from his co-worker and tweaking the date or something like that he felt good about the results. I on the other hand was a bit concerned about the date tweaking, whatever that had been. He then couldn’t get the computer to accept the payment for the third bag. It took a half hour to check-in and the line was huge by the time he was finished with me. Because I had requested assistance with the connection he asked if I would like Kathy to walk to the gate with me. I had no idea they made any exceptions anymore, but he gave her a voucher and we sailed right through security. It was nice to have her company and a chance to spend more time together. It was a red eye flight back and went smoothly and reasonably quickly for an almost eight hour flight from LA. It was a strange feeling buying a round trip ticket from Tahiti, my how my life has changed.

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