Km: 15 Walking time: 4:03 Rattlesnakes: 2
A tearful farewell from the family. Makes you think why I am doing this. Ms M had made a little farewell card too that I am bringing with me, as well as her “Turbo” little furry stuffed animal.
The trip to the US was a long one. Then already at the Oslo airport gate there was trouble, apparently an AC sensor was showing an error so we had to wait for the “press the reset button” mechanic. Already at that point I realized the changes of making the connection in Copenhagen were slim.
An hour delay, and indeed connection missed. Got rebooked on a flight via Chicago. Felt like we were hitting the immigration queue as soon as the airplane door was opened. It must be a good hour and a half of queuing before I finally made it to the front. “Business or pleasure”, the immigration officer asked. “Mostly pain and suffering, but hopefully some pleasures too”, I answered. Then he asked me for how long I was going to stay, when I replied “5 months hiking the PCT”, he goes “you what?”. Then with a few more questions of how I can do that with work, showing my return ticket, he asks me to wait and goes back to manager’s office to get advice on my case. Even though I have a B1/B2 visa, the immigration has a lot of leeway to decide. A couple of tense minutes before he returns with both thumbs up and a “so you must be some sort of outdoorsy type then?”. Granted stay until November 30th.
With the long wait, I am starting to worry if I will make my next connection to SFO.
The bags were already waiting for me and customs didn’t enquire too much about the bag full of Alun’s potato chips and the Norwegian freeze dried meals. A guy helps me recheck my bags, as I see my bags get swallowed by the baggage, I glance up at the departure display and notice that the SFO flight has been cancelled. Oh joy. So I ask the baggage handler what will happen to my bags now? “They will be on the first flight to SFO, with or without you”.
Airlines have become a lot better at dealing with adversity. I immediately got a notification on my phone for the rebooked flight. Onboard the flight attendant asked me to move seats to let a dad with baby stretch out. I of course complied and we got talking. I told him about my hike and he not only came up with suggestions for hiking playlists (check out the Okee Dokee brothers) but also gave me lots of beef jerky, snacks and a couple of miniature bottles of Bourbon. I can’t promise you Karl that they’ll last all the way to the border, but I will find a special place to drink them and know you will be in my thoughts. (For other readers we shared some stories that made an impression. The strange meetings of strangers).
This was not all that happened on this flight. My seat mate one sest over had brought a pizza on board, this being Chicago and all. I am pretty sure I only gave the pizza a quick glance, hut he ended up offering me half. I must already have acquired good Yogi skills! :-)
