My cell phone rang at 6 a.m. I was out watering my garden, but I could hear it through the window. I knew it had to be Rick and at this hour, it was not going to be good news. I decided to keep watering with one hand and holding the day's 1st coffee with the other. For me, there is often fortification in a caffeine hit.
Two cups and one hour later, Rick told me me what most of the awake world already knew. A terrorist attack had been foiled at Heathrow. The world's air travel was dramatically snarled. No liquids could be carried on flights. Perhaps no computers as well.
He still wanted to go. So did I. After chatting for a few minutes, Paula, made a little more nervous by the mornings news, concurred. All three of us have long thought that if you step of the plane for fear of terrorists, if you avoid certain cities said to be favored by terrorists, then you are letting them win, all three of us think.
That settled it. I went off for a nice, slow three-miler at breathtaking Sawyer Reservoir. As I walked back into my home Rick calls o tell me about the typhoon that is sweeping in to South China, supposedly the fiercest one in over 50 years. There are two more queued up behind it.
Rick explains that his greatest fear is if we somehow missed a critical connection from Seoul to Paris. It would be almost impossible to then get to Europe where we have a ton of We has already learned that this lengthy nonstop flight was booked solid for three weeks after the one we were scheduled on.
Rick waited a couple hours to talk to spent the afternoon waiting for people he knew on the ground in South China to wake up. He called at 7 their time and confirmed that the area had been hard hit, but perhaps not as hard as had been thought.
But then we got a critical piece of information. it may be the only time I have ever thought a Communist government policy might be better than a democratic way of doing things. During a crisis, such as a typhoon devastating a major city, the government just takes over the commercial airlines a directs them to help evacuate storm refugees.
Two of those planes might be the ones we needed to make the critical connection. If we miss that connection, it would be like a bowling ball knocking over the pins of Estonia, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Amsterdam and the UK.
Yet, Delta could then rightfully declare we had used up our two round-the-world tickets. On the other hand, by aborting the plan, we save the tickets to take the trip another time.
Which is what Rick and I decided to do a couple of hours ago. I wrote yesterday that I thought the toughest part of this trip was getting out of North America. I had no idea how true that this would prove to be.
If you are among the people we were planning to see on this trip I am sorry--believe me--extremely sorry to be announcing this postponement. I will be sending you email in a couple of days. Rick and I need some time before we regroup and figure out the next chapter to this saga.
There is one person, however, who seems somewhat jubilant about how this came out. My wife Paula is trying hard not to show just how relieved she is with this decision.
We're celebrating by driving to Tahoe with the dog for the weekend. The packing is easier by a long shot.
By the way, I just checked my work calender. It appears that I have no appointments for the next 30 days. Just so you know, I will consult for mortgage money.
