POST 1072; MARCH 06, 2013; DETROIT, MICHIGAN

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POST 1072; MARCH 06, 2013; DETROIT, MICHIGAN



For the second night in a row, I will be sitting all night in an airport.

Last night, I flaked out in Seattle SEA TAC…

Tonight, I am…because of the rather significant storm wracking the East Coast…cooling my heels in the Detroit, Michigan airport.

Flew from Seattle to Detroit…then changed planes, arriving at the Norfolk International Airport…plane was 10 minutes from touch down when the pilot advised that we were not allowed to land because of nearly hurricane force winds quartering the runways. Our airplane, the Pilot advised, was not capable of landing in such strong cross winds…alas, we returned to Detroit.

I rushed to Delta “HELP” desk, where I was given a new boarding pass for the next flight to Norfolk. Waited another hour at the new gate, only to be told the flight was CANCELLED due to continuing high winds in Norfolk.

Help Desk gave me a third boarding pass…which routed me to Norfolk via New York City. I refused that flight.

Meanwhile, in Norfolk, Karen’s friend Geri, was waiting at the Norfolk airport to meet my flight. I could not telephone from the airplane, so half a dozen people were fretting over my being “lost”.

Finally reached Craig…WHERE ARE YOU…Geri waited and waited and waited.

Greg informed me that Karen had rescheduled her surgery (to do with her battle of cancer) and would not be mobile for at least 5 days.

Now, I felt like a heel for being the cause of so much turmoil. I decided it would be best if I did not hang around Karen’s home while she was in recovery, so I arranged with Delta to fly from Detroit - via Atlanta - to Wilmington North Carolina – where SAM has been in storage going on 2 years.

So, I finally indulged in a delicious dinner at the airport, found a sitting area with ½ couches – not long enough to stretch out, but OK to catch a bit of sleep. It is going on 48 hours since I last slept.

After checking out SAM, I will walk back to Karen and Craig’s house in Columbia, North Caroling – about 100 miles north on US Highway 17 from Wilmington. Karen should be somewhat recovered by then. Will visit two or three days…then set out on SAM & ME Walk and Roll the 3,100 miles back to the Peace Arch in Blaine, Washington…our starting point in March, 2010.

For the moment, I am very sore from sitting in cramped aircraft seats, having to find alternate routing, and being overly hungry.

Is now nearly 10:00pm. Will post this and try to get some sleep. Delta says they will post my 6:00am Atlanta departure gate to Atlanta.

Delta did not charge me additional $$ fees for my change in routing. Because the problems were “act of God”, Delta does not give effected passengers any food chits, no hotel, and normally charge a substantial fee to change itinerary.

All in all, my lucky day.

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