Musings of an Inveterate Traveler Ii

By Dr. Robert H. Schram

Musings of an Inveterate Traveler II is the personalized experience of a pleasure traveler to: Alaska, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Israel. It includes text referenced pictures, personal comments, insights, history, travel snafus, animals, plants, people, places, humor, ironies, and the sheer joy of travelling as one of lifes greatest gifts. The book will be enjoyed by experienced and inexperienced travelers of all ages who can relate to the manifold experiences or who enjoy those adventures vicariously from the comfort of their easy-chair. The writing, like life, is filled with humor, ironies, ups and downs, twists, and curves. It is written without trying to judge the world, its leaders, or its economic systems; it takes place over four years, one unrelated trip at a time, with my partner Jean (aka JeanLu, Jeanala, JR,) and me as the only repeating characters. Each chapter contains opinions, personal preferences, various insights about people and me. My musings involve experiences common to all travelers; e.g., travel connection problems, errors and omissions, comic cultural contacts, joyful interludes, camaraderie, dining, shopping. Uncommon to many travelers I include spiritual musings about humans, animals, plants, rocks, the Earth, and the universe, Read, laugh and most of all, ENJOY!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 28, 2010
• ISBN: 9781456802189

Dr. Robert H. Schram

The author Dr. ROBERT H. SCHRAM is a fellow in the American Association for Intellectual Disabilities and Autism for his meritorious service supporting children and adults with Intellectual Disabilities and Autism over forty-two years in Bucks County Pennsylvania. He has degrees in Political Science and Personnel/Counseling with a Doctorate in Public Administration and is Executive Director Emeritus of BARC Developmental Services (1977-2020). His prior published books include the following: Maximize Life by Living for Peace, Harmony, and Joy Oh My God it is all the Same! Zohar - The Book of Radiance Revealed Life is but a Dream! Musings of an Inveterate Traveler Musings of an Inveterate Traveler II Musings of an Inveterate Traveler III Illusafact the Inevitable Advance of our Technologies & Us Musings of an Inveterate Traveler IV Company Management…Policies, Procedures, Practices Mixed Marriage . . .Interreligious, Interracial, Interethnic Worldwide Human Corruption

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MUSINGS OF AN INVETERATE TRAVELER II

86029-SCHR-layout-low.pdf

Dr. Robert H. Schram

Copyright © 2011 by Dr. Robert H. Schram.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4568-0217-2

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4568-0218-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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86029

Contents

INTRODUCTION

AIRPORTS, FLYING, TRANSFERS

RIVERS, OCEANS, TRAINS, CARS, BUSES, FEET

ACCOMMODATIONS AND DINNING

PEOPLE

PLACES

THINGS

LIVING LIFE THROUGH TRAVEL

INTRODUCTION

Musings of an Inveterate Traveler II is the personalized experience of a pleasure traveler to: Alaska, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Israel. It includes text referenced pictures, personal comments, insights, history, travel snafus, animals, plants, people, places, humor, ironies, and the sheer joy of traveling as one of life’s greatest gifts. The book will be enjoyed by experienced and inexperienced travelers of all ages who can relate to the manifold experiences or who enjoy those adventures vicariously from the comfort of their easy-chair. The writing, like life, is filled with humor, ironies, ups and downs, twists, and curves. It is written without trying to judge the world, its leaders, or its economic systems; it takes place over four years, one unrelated trip at a time, with my partner Jean (aka JeanLu, Jeanala, JR,) and me as the only repeating characters. Each chapter contains opinions, personal preferences, various insights about other people and me. My musings involve experiences common to all travelers; e.g., travel connection problems, errors and omissions, comic cultural contacts, joyful interludes, camaraderie, dining, shopping. Uncommon to many travelers I include spiritual musings about humans, animals, plants, rocks, the Earth, and the universe. Read, laugh and most of all, ENJOY!

AIRPORTS, FLYING, TRANSFERS

Since we had not gone overseas in two years due to our involvement in a two-year spiritual direction training obligation we had more anxiety than usual 48 hours prior to launch. Jeanala could not sleep for two consecutive nights and I slept very little the night before our 7:30 AM take off from Philadelphia International. Our anxiety was complicated since this was the first time we were allowing someone to housesit the Lane . . . Magda, the nineteen year old daughter of our first generation Polish immigrant housecleaning lady Margaret. We knew Magda had a boyfriend and were concerned that her first serious opportunity at independent freedom might not go well for us . . . in the end it went very well for all concerned. Additionally our one year old cat Shecky had an undiagnosed skin disorder that caused her to lick, bite, and scratch her fur off on her underbelly, legs, and hind quarters. After trying unsuccessfully to fall asleep I went into the living room at about 1:30 AM and read until 3:00 AM while Jean did the same in the bedroom. At 4:00 AM we awoke . . . or I should say stopped trying to fall asleep and left in the early dawn (5:00 AM) for the airport. Traffic was light and we arrived at the offsite parking lot on time and caught the shuttle, with other early travelers, for the airport. Jean put her credit card in the convenient check-in kiosk and printed out two boarding passes. After waiting twenty minutes in line for security x-rays of our bodies and belongings, the marshalling guard informed me that my boarding pass was in Jean’s name. I had to leave for the nearest kiosk and obtain a boarding pass in my name. I inserted my card and once again only Jean’s pass was printed. On the second attempt I was more patient and obtained both Jean’s and my boarding passes. Since Jean was already securely in the terminal I threw her second pass in the garbage and re-entered the line where I had exited. The marshalling guard allowed me to cut in front of the others and I soon rejoined my partner. At the gate people were already boarding the plane and very shortly we were safely on board only to be told by the pilot that our flight was delayed by a malfunctioning passenger seat in the fully booked flight. A maintenance man soon arrived and within twenty minutes we began our slow journey to the runway as the sky became overcast and stormy. As we waited one half hour to take-off the pilot again came on the intercom to tell us due to the weather we had to return to the terminal to refuel since our flight had been re-routed due to weather. On the way back to the terminal the pilot again informed us that we no longer had to refuel and would be able to take our originally planned route. We were on the ground for two hours when we finally became airborne . . . another annoying beginning to a hopefully tranquil, restful vacation.

When we finally landed in Seattle we had been awake for eleven hours (in actuality Jean had been without sleep for over forty-eight hours and I was on my thirty-fifth sleepless hour) and it was only 11:30 AM Western time. To our disbelief the flight ran out of any substantial breakfast (for purchase) by the sixth row; we were in the 21st row and the only food available was junk food (cookies, potato chips, pretzels, and salty noodle soup). We both had a soup and coffee that tasted terrible.

At dinner the third day in Juneau we heard a flying tale that dwarfed our two most nightmarish ones when we had to sleep on the Dallas Airport floor due to severe lightening storms and when we were waylaid in LA for twenty-four hours when a man had a heart attack on our flight from Philadelphia necessitating an unscheduled landing in Denver. Diane had just joined us for dinner on the Volendam Cruise Ship in Juneau with her broken-kneecap-mother after having her flight from San Francisco to Vancouver delayed over five hours thus missing the Volendam’s departure from Vancouver. After spending an overnight in Vancouver the only flight they could get the next day was from Vancouver to Seattle with a connecting flight to Juneau necessitating another over night in Juneau awaiting our arrival the next day for dinner . . . about a sixty-hour delay. She also related a tale of her father many years prior when the airline agent misheard his request for a one-way ticket from LA to Oakland as from LA to Auckland. Her father flew all the way to Australia only to wait for another plane to return to LA and then onto Oakland.

We arrived at the Seattle Amtrak train/bus terminal later than expected and it was exactly as we had remembered it with major renovations taking place since it had not been touched since the late 1800’s when it first opened, as claimed by bus driver Joe. I had my doubts but when I saw a young woman pulling (with an electric vehicle) a very old metal-wheeled luggage wagon I began to believe him . . . he proffered that the wagon was the original one from the time the station first opened. Joe had retired from public transport service in Canada after twenty-nine years to operate the Vancouver to Seattle run four-to-six-times weekly for Amtrak. We met Cliff, a fifty-five year old engineer from LA who was also connecting to Seattle International Airport for his flight home. He had researched airport connections from the train station to the airport on the Internet and discovered a relatively new (less than one year in operation) elevated train very close to the train station called the Lite Link Sea/Tac Airport train. Since he knew his way around we decided to take a ride with him as a new adventure and to save a zero (i.e., a $5.00 train ride instead of a $50.00 cab ride). We were not at all disappointed and marveled at the wisdom of the planners to initiate, construct, and operate the conveyance that was a huge economic boon to the city since its thirteen stops made for an efficient public ride to work, pleasure, or transport connection (train station and/or airport). We boarded at the Stadium (sports complex adjacent to the train station; the fifth of thirteen stations) stopping at Sodo, Beacon Hill, Mount Baker, Columbia City, Othello, Rainier Beach, Tukwila International Boulevard, and finally the Sea Tac/Airport. Parts of the ride were elevated but most of the track was laid on flat ground along Martin Luther King Boulevard. We arrived at the airport hours before our ‘red eye’ flight leaving at 10:00 PM WST and arriving in PHL at 6:00 AM EST the next morning. No other flight options were available that evening so we settled down for our last meal of the day; sliced chicken over a bed of spinach, tomato, and cucumber for Jean and bourbon chicken over fried rice for me. After seven days of gourmet Volendam faire we were most pleasantly surprised at how fresh and tasty the airport meal was.

After traveling all day by ship, taxi, bus, elevated train, and foot we were pleased that we had planned appropriately; i.e., allowing sufficient gaps between connections in anticipation of the inevitable snafus. The downside to snafu planning is when they do not occur . . . ergo we had to wait four hours at the airport for our ‘red eye’ back to Philadelphia. It was a full flight as we watched our plane dock at the gate to unload, clean, and reload us. We saw one luggage handler take a black carry-on off the unloading cart and carry it up to the passenger entrance tunnel . . . we both had a momentary thought that it could be my lost bag . . . it was not. The flight became our fastest transcontinental flight of our experience absent any delays . . . we arrived in Philadelphia at 5:30 AM just a little over four hours. We found our economy seating in row 13 very difficult to comfortably catch deep sleep so we took catnaps and the time in the darkened cabin went quickly. We secured Jean’s bag from the luggage rotary and called #34 for a ride back to our offsite parking garage advertised at $7.95 per day. I had a two-day free parking pass and anticipated a bill of $79.50 for the ten of twelve days. To my surprise the bill came to $103. 37 and when I inquired I was told the airport taxes brought the total from $7.95 to over $10.00 per day. I mentioned that it was an unheard of tax amount (over 25%) but paid and drove off angrily thinking scam. We ran into light traffic on Route 95 as the hour proceeded the weekday rush hour. Instead of our post trip breakfast at the Five Points diner on New Falls Road near the Lane we went to the Eagle diner on Route 13 and were welcomed by the only waitress working telling the manager that she sucked at numbers! The waitress called everyone ‘honey’ and asked us ‘if you kids wanted some coffee?’ She had to be asked for coffee refills and forgot to give me more milk necessitating getting it for myself after a regular customer seated behind us showed us its location. After two weeks of gracious and refined service, our return to our local reality was a huge cultural shock.

I returned to Justin’s abode, formerly my home where son Justin (JT) grew up, in Piscataway, NJ. After playing with JT’s two cute-as-a-button cats, Mr. Hurly, and Twinky I left for the Lane at 9:30 PM, arriving for some last minute packing and sleep for an early rise to catch the 7:10 AM US Airways flight to Boston. Son Aaron gave one last phone call at 10:30 PM to inquire about passports (not needed from the USA to Canada when we traveled but changed shortly thereafter for security purposes), my digital camera, and our communication instruments (i.e., cell phones with chargers).

Jean and I left the Lane at about 5:16 AM (I do not understand why people always need to have estimates end in a zero or five) and arrived at Philadelphia around 6:07 AM. Jean dropped me off right in front of terminal B and I went right up to the electronic check-in, inserted my visa credit card, and voila . . . out came my boarding pass. I whizzed through security, as the lines were light, and plumped myself down by the gate to read Newsweek and Discover Magazines. First the flight was delayed from 7:10 AM to 7:25 AM, then, an agent announced maintenance problems delaying boarding until 7:45 AM. The problem was a brake indicator light in the cockpit; it did need some brake part replacement, which fortunately, they were able to do. We boarded about 8:31 AM and arrived in Boston at 9:33 AM. Thanks to our cell phones, Aaron knew when I was on the ground, but Air Canada Jazz was flying to Halifax from Terminal C-14 and US Airways let us off in Terminal B . . . a bus ride away. I ran through the airport, ala OJ Simpson for Hertz . . . pre-wife murder. The security line was enormous, but I was allowed to pass, only to be told by the final security marshal, that I needed a boarding pass from a ticket agent. The first electronic boarding pass issuer, rejected me since it only accepted Delta travelers. I quickly ran to Air Canada, only to be told that my 9:50 AM flight had departed and the rest of the flights for the day were overbooked. Within an hour I could have flown to Toronto or Montreal, but the flights from each were also overbooked to Halifax. I spoke to Jean and Aaron by cell to let them know I would be flying out of Boston, at 12:30 PM, 3:30 PM, 7:30 PM or on Sunday sometime. I figured I would take my chances with stand-by in Boston, rather than Toronto or Montreal. As good fortune would have it . . . three travelers did not show up for the 12:30 PM flight and I, along with two others, were given their seats. I was lucky to get a no-show seat in Executive Class, so I had some wine and a nice cold lunch for the two-hour flight. Aaron picked me up in the PT Cruiser he rented and the holiday began, following a typical tumultuous genesis.

Coming home we boarded our small ten-row twin-engine prop airplane arriving on time in Boston from Sackville, Nova Scotia. We bussed over to US Air