About the traveling part of the trip. First snow in Pittsburgh as I was getting ready to go the the airport. A friend took me to the Pittsburgh airport with two full bags - one at 49.5 pounds and the other with a sewing machine in it, in case I get bored. Bags were full because daughter Julie asked if I would bring clothing I was no longer interested in for the woman (Vat??) who cleans her house. So I did a partial closet clearing before I left home and brought clothes and shoes for Vat. Certainly won't miss the stuff and could easily do the same thing all over again.
Anyway, to the airport, checked in, I'm one of the folks that gets that new pat down - can't seem to avoid it - and no one wants to see inside of the prosthesis which seems to me to be the place to hide combustibles. I was plenty early and it was time for lunch. So sat down in TGI Fridays in the Pittsburgh airport and while picking up the menu realized that my arm (minor surgery on Monday) was bleeding beyond the bandage. Ate lunch, then stopped at info desk and asked if they had a nurses station around where I could stop in and get a little help in changing a dressing. Answer was no, but they would call the airport based paramedics. So, the paramedics came, we walked to my gate then they changed the dressing. This was no big deal.
The big deal was that the plane was a bit late in leaving Pittsburgh. Snow delayed the incoming flight from somewhere in the midwest. So, finally headed out of Pittsburgh - landed in Detroit at 4:55 pm, at the end of Terminal C, the small plane section of Detroit airport - quite a jog to the "big plane" section - terminal A. I had asked for a wheelchair and the young man with the job did a speedy trip from the end of Terminal C to the Terminal A gate. Plane to Amsterdam was to leave at 5:55 pm. This flight was boarding when I got there, but because of the wheel chair they took me to the front of the line. My boarding pass was rejected. Then the gate agents told me I was not going to Amsterdam until the next day, that I was a day early. I suggested they look again. After looking a couple of more times, they realized that I had been automatically rescheduled for the next day because the Pittsburgh plane was late and the computer, I guess, didn't approve of the connection. Delta had given my nice aisle seat towards the front of the plane away. They did get me on the plane, and after some fussing, they did get me an aisle seat - with an aisle accessible to right non-leg. It worked. The flight out of Detroit was a little - but not a lot - late. Next is Amsterdam where I have been assigned a seat in the middle someplace for an 11.5 hour trip. I said that wouldn't work. After some fussing - and being told multiple times that there were no aisle seats available, (my trip to Cape Townwas cancelled when Detroit Amsterdam leg was cancelled and when reinstated, seat was changed) an aisle seat was somehow found. I was on my way to Cape Town - as scheduled originally.
I had a book I was reading, knitting, my folks music loaded up on my new IPod touch, and sleeping to do, so I made it through the long flight. Did do a lot of it with the prosthesis sitting next to my leg instead of on it. Seemed to work.
Arrival in Cape Town - wisked through customs by someone pushing me in a wheelchair and on to baggage claim. Guess where my bags were? In Detroit of course. So after an hour plus waiting and filling out forms, I got out of the controlled area to find daughter waiting. (It's now 1 am in Cape Town on Dec 3. Left Pittsburgh at 3:30 pm on Dec 1. Subtract 7 hours from Cape Town time to get to Pittsburgh time (8 hours to get to Madison time). Jules took me to her house and we just went to bed.
Slept the first night and the second night in Julie's house, and moved into my beautiful little space yesterday. The children slept here with my last night, but I am on my own tonight as they have school tomorrow and son-in-law Kevin has orthopedist appointment tomorrow morning prior to surgery scheduled for Wednesday on his very broken collar bone. Kevin was riding Maeve's bike in an emergency run for keys (don't ask!!), fell off and broke collar bone in several places. Then my nephew David (the tango dancer) is arriving from Santa Fe tomorrow afternoon. Julie is driving this little VW polo - driver's side on wrong side of car. I can't drive polo because I need gas pedal on the left, Kevin can't drive polo because he can't drive anything right now. Julie is sole driver and tomorrow will be hard.
Regardless, I am soaking up Cape Town ambience. It feels a bit like the southern Calif coast - between Oceanside and San Diego - felt in the 1960s. I loved Leucadia back then. I think the house I am in is about 900 square feet - two bedrooms, living room, dining room and kitchen. You are instructed to carefully lock yourself in, and also to lock up and alarm the house when you leave. (This is different the southern CA in the 60s). All houses have wrought iron gates on the front doors and on all windows. Surrounding poverty breeds theft. I will visit a township before I leave, but the message is it is best to be accompanied by someone who lives in the township area or, at least, has friends in the township. Will work that out.
Hope to visit Kruger National Park - see those grand animals. Also have to work that out. It requires an airplane ride and a couple of nights stay over. More on that later.
Now, as I am alone at last, I am going to go to the Kiva web site and do a micro loan and then to the Heiffers International web site and buy goats for Xmas from my grandchildren to the places of most need. Just finished Nicholas Kristoff's book, "Half the Sky" and gotta do something. Was gonna do the goats anyway, but the book has spurred me on. Recommend it to all of my friends if you haven't already read it.
Probably more than you ever wanted to know in this story. Regardless, I will try to do some entry every few days to keep you posted and to help me remember.
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