You were off from school this week, so Ana and I got to have a day out with you on Friday. Ana had it all planned that we were going to go to the Exploratorium, and maybe cable cars, and maybe Salesforce Park, and, well, who knows? That’s the cool things about our outings – they just sort of unfold with the day.
I was up in Rohnert Park, north of San Francisco, working at a casino event, so I drove down to meet you guys. You and Ana took the ferry over (you ate a Kit-Kat on the way), and I had already parked near the Exploratorium. I started walking toward the ferry terminal, and you all were walking from the ferry terminal toward the Exploratorium. But I saw you first, and hid behind a big column. Then I just started walking behind you. It looked like this:
Elena and Ana, loose in San Francisco
So I snuck up behind you two and just started walking right behind you. After a minute or so, I think you sensed me being there, and turned to look. You almost jumped!
“Aby!”
And I got a big hug, which was awesome. Now, we were supposedly heading for the Exploratorium, which would have been fine. But Ana said, “Elena said they might be hungry.” It was 10:30am.
Rules, and grandparent rules
All grandparents know that there are two different kinds of rules:
Rules
Grandparent rules
#1, the “Rules” list, applies to you, all the time, no matter what. For instance, “Wear your seatbelt,” “Say please and thank you,” – those are rules all the time, whether you’re with your parents, your grandparents, or any grown-up. But grandparents get to modify some of the rules. That’s the second list.
You had asked your mom that morning when lunch was, and she said, “You have to wait a couple of hours.” But a grandparent rule is that if you’re hungry, then it’s fine to eat. So Ana found us a tiny little sushi place that was a five-minute walk away.
We got inari (lots of inari) and avocado rolls, and Ana got a sushi roll of some sort. Didn’t matter that it was 10:45am – grandparent rules say you can have sushi for brunch.
Then we went to the Exploratorium, but first we had to stop at the rope jungle gym.
Once a climbing kid, always a climbing kid
Then we finally made it to the Exploratorium. But that’s the whole point of days out with Ana and Aby – we just let the day unroll and see where it wants to go.
Once we got inside, there were infinite things to see, so we just started strolling through, enjoying everything. You’d wander along until an exhibit caught your eye, and then you’d stop and investigate it. Ana and I would just wander at your pace, your stops, having a blast the whole time.
But pretty soon, it was time for you and me to go to the Tactile Dome. When you first heard about it, you were really excited to sign up for it, so we had a 12:15p appointment there. The Tactile Dome is a giant two-story dome in the middle of the Exploratorium, and it looks like this:
What it looks like on the outsideWhat it looks like on the inside
I can’t see a thing
The whole point of the Tactile Dome is that you’re crawling through a series of rooms, tunnels, hills, and slides. In. Absolute. Darkness.
Ana sent us on our way to it, and you were sort of bouncing around as we made our way toward that exhibit. E-blast, one of the best things about you is that you have your emotions right out in front where everybody can see them.
“Are you excited? Nervous?” “Excited. And nervous. And excited.”
Which sounded just right.
We got inside the exhibit, where our guide, Luis, lowered the lights and explained how everything was going to work. We took our shoes off, and put all our “stuff” in cubbies, because if you dropped something inside the Dome, well, it was going to be a while before it got found.
There was just one other woman for the tour that we were doing. Luis let her go in first. When she got half way (he can see people on infrared cameras) he sent us in. He pulled back a curtain, and in we went.
“Aby, where are you?” “Right here.” “Oh, there’s your arm. Okay.”
You wanted to immediately try to find our way to the next room, but I wanted to stand up and feel around. But pretty soon, you said, “I found a door!” Off we went.
At first, you stayed very close to me, and wanted to kind of hang on. But as you began to figure out the general idea, you became more adventurous. I would stop and reach up – I found a chandelier made out of forks and spoons.
At some point, Luis came on the speaker, and said, “You’re halfway through.” I could hear your excitement in the dark – “Aby, we’re doing this!”
Pretty soon, we were climbing up a hill, and we could begin to make out red light in a big round room. One sign said “Up,” and the other sign said “Out.” If you went up, you got up on a shelf, that circled the entire room. Half of the shelf of padded vinyl, the other half was fake grass. We chased each other around the shelf for a little while, then sat in the dim red light, proud of ourselves for making it through the “dark forest.”
To get out of the exhibit, there was one more slide we went down (in pitch darkness) – it landed in a giant pool of what felt like beans. So there we sat in the dark, buried to our waists in beans. The one other lady had left long ago, so it was just the two of us. I suggested we exchange gratitudes. You said,
“I’m grateful for crawling around in the dark. And sushi for breakfast.”
Those seemed like two good gratitudes, and I expressed something similar.
Then we went back into the little preparation room, and put on our shoes and jackets and stuff. Luis raised the light levels a little so our eyes wouldn’t be freaked out when we got out to the main area.
Ana was waiting for us, and we went to see more exhibits.
Frozen in time
One of the coolest exhibits was showing the work of Harold Edgerton, who invented strobe photography. A “strobe” is a super-fast blink of light that can capture insanely fast things. Like a drop of milk hitting a glass of milk:
At the Exporatorium, you could be part of your own strobe photo. They dropped a drop of water into a pool of water, with your face watching the whole thing. Of course, our eyes can’t see the beautiful thing that happens, but the strobe caught it. Here’s you, not seeing the beautiful pattern from the water droplet:
I completely lost track of all the different exhibits we went to. I do know that occasionally Ana or I would say, “Are you about done, or do you wanna see more?”
“I want to see more exhibits.”
And so we did. But finally it was Hungry O’Clock, and we’d been on our feet a lot. So we went to the restaurant at the Exploratorium and had snacks, leftover avocado sushi, and chocolate milk. Which was all it took to revive you.
“I’d like to go on the Tactile Dome again.”
Life is short, and when you find a ride you wanna go on, you go back.
Ana was perfectly happy for the two of us to do it again, and Luis was happy to see us again. This time, there were two moms and their daughters. One of the moms was game to go through, but the other one was going to send her daughter, who is 12 (minimum age to go by yourself) on her own.
She went first, and Luis let her get halfway through before he sent you and me in. This time, you were ready to rock and roll from the jump.
“C’mon Aby – we go through this door, then up a ramp…”
We moved relatively quickly through the tour this time, and you knew exactly where you were at all times.
Flying solo
After we got out, you and the two girls were ready to go back in. By yourselves. The one mom had had enough of the darkness, and I had already gone through three times.
You and the two girls, both of whom are about your age, went in as a trio. Luis, the two moms, and I sat in the dim light of the ante-room, and listened as the three of you chattered and laughed your way through.
Was this the same E-blast who, earlier that same day, was excited, nervous, and excited about going into the darkness with a granddad in tow? Sure was. Now E-blast was a confident adventurer, making their way through the darkness without the least hesitation, calling their position out to the others (“I’m in the rope room!”).
For me, it was almost – almost – as much fun hearing you confidently making your way through the tunnels and ramps as being on the adventure with you.
Eventually, you all came shrieking down into the bean pit, and it was time to go.
You all: “Can we go again again?”
Luis: “Sorry, time’s up.”
You all: “Aw.”
We put ourselves back together and went outside. Ana was sitting on the same sofa, waiting for us to get back from yet another adventure.
A big crazy adventure
This time, it really was time to go. We made our way to the exit. You and Ana were going to walk back to where your ferry would take you to Alameda. My car was parked across the street, so I was going in the opposite direction.
You dove in and gave me a hug like I don’t think I’ve had from you since you were maybe 4-5 years old. E-blast, I’m going to tell you something: those hugs never get old. That full-body, face in the hoodie hug – man, my heart is good to go for a week after one of those. So thank you.
As I was walking back to my car, I got to thinking about the Tactile Dome, and going through tunnels and slides in the dark with you.
I rarely know where I’m going in life, and sometimes it feels like I’m stumbling along in the dark, going through secret doors, and crawling up ramps. But Elena, if I can hear your voice, feel your hand in mine once in a while, I won’t care in the least. Life with you around is a big old adventure, and tripping in the dark is just part of the fun.
P.S. When we got outside the Exploratorium, I put my hand in my hoodie pocket, and felt something. Pulled it out – it was a bean from the bean pit! Faster than a strobe-light could catch it, your hand shot out and snatched it from me. It was the perfect souvenir. Only you lost it at some point during that, or the next day.
So there I was at the Lansing, North Carolina farmer’s market, buying tomatoes from the nice Rose Mountain Farm lady.
Before the farmer’s market people set up their pop-ups
“Where are y’all located?”
“We’re up Big Horse Creek Road.”
“I’m headed up there this afternoon to go fishing.”
“That’s the main reason that anybody goes up there. Do you go for the meditation, or to catch fish?”
Well, let me think about that for a moment. It was 27 years ago that I first tried fly-fishing, thanks to my dear departed cousin Dean C. Jones. Once you’ve had a trout take a dry fly off the top the water, man, you’re way more hooked than the fish is.
But I’m not a studied fly fisherman. I don’t read the books, watch the training videos, take the classes, any of it. Because the truth is that it really is a meditation for me. A few days earlier, I was chatting with the fellow at the Old Orchard Creek General Store and Café, and told him that I was headed out to go fishing.
“I hope you catch some.”
“If I’m standing in a trout stream on a day like this, and I’m not blissfully happy, then that’s on me.”
“Well, that’s right.”
I find myself settled just looking at this picture. Imagine actually being there.
So I was tempted to tell the lady that it’s all about the meditation. But then I had an interesting thought, and relayed it to her:
“The more I meditate, the more fish I seem to catch.”
In the last year or two, I’ve started to have some real success catching fish. On this current trip, I’ve caught a handful of trout in Little Horse Creek, right here in front of my AirBnB.
I don’t stop to take pictures, but I promised my AirBnB hosts one pic. He went right back in.
This is significant because N.C. Wildlife doesn’t stock Little Horse Creek. They do stock Big Horse Creek, of which Little Horse Creek is a tributary. Some fish make it up there, but fewer than in the stocked streams. And maybe they get a tad smarter after being up there a while. So I’m particularly proud of myself for catching fish in a stream they don’t stock.
Here’s the thing: when I go out for a few hours of fly fishing, I’d like to catch one trout. The difference between getting skunked and catching one beautiful fish is enormous. After that, my cup overfloweth. But on this trip, and the last couple, I seem to catch 6-8 fish every day. That’s after years of thinking that if I caught two fish, it was an extra special day.
October 14th, 2023
I headed up to the northern end of Big Horse Creek, to the catch-and-release section. From there to the Virginia state line, you can’t keep any fish. I never keep any anyway, but it’s particularly beautiful and fishy water.
I also have a theory that the fish are a bit smarter. A lot of people in this county fish for dinner, so the stocked fish go from stream to pan. But in this stretch, they get put back. Where maybe they learn their lesson and don’t bite at every single buggy-looking thing that floats over.
I dunno if that’s true or not, but I sure had a tougher time getting strikes than when I was down on the lower part of the creek. Still, I managed to land three rainbows and one beautiful brown.
Around 5:30pm, it was getting dark-ish, and there was a light rain falling. I had determined I was going to have to scale a fairly steep hill up to Big Horse Creek Road to return to my car (it’s just a whole lot easier than clambering back downstream to my entry point).
I was pretty proud of myself for catching four fish in the “tough” section of the stream. And darn proud for climbing out of that canyon back up to the road without too much exertion. All that walking and jogging pays off.
Then a thing happened. I stood up at the top of the hill, and looked down the road, back to the car. Saw this:
I wanted to find the Rose Mountain Farm lady, and tell her I’d been mistaken when we chatted that afternoon. The correct answer is, “Yes ma’am – it’s all about the meditation.”
P.S. On most browsers, you can right-click on any image and open the image in a new tab. No picture will properly convey the beauty of the scene that awaited me when I reached the top of the hill. But you’ll do your heart good by filling your screen with that for a minute and just taking it in.
I think I first heard the expression “Use it or lose it” proximate to vacation accrual caps at a job. I remember that my dad had to take time off from his job at the Department of the Navy, or he would exceed the statutory 240 hours leave time cap.
As you age, you hear the phrase in a more important context. That which you want to have available to you in life, you must exercise. Want your heart to keep beating regularly? Push your heart rate to higher-than-normal levels so it stays in shape. If you want your muscles to continue working, you exercise them, remind them how to do their job.
We even have a phrase, “I’m rusty.” Just like a gate. If the gate doesn’t open and close occasionally, it rusts in one position.
Which brings me to travel. I love going places. It’s often the destination, but sometimes, as Stephen Stills put it, “It’s no matter, no distance – it’s the ride.” A few weeks ago, our granddaughter, Elena, asked if we could take her on another trip on the ferry across the bay to San Francisco. “Why do you want to go, sweetie?”
“Just to see somewhere different,” said a kid who has spent a full third of her life under the shadow of Covid.
I dig, Elena, I dig. I’m excited to get on a plane, or a train, or in the car, and go. To open the hotel curtains to a new vista, to land at a new airport, to taste cuisine that I’ve only gotten from expats. I’m pretty sure I get this from my mom, which is a bit of a sad story. She was born working poor in Charlotte, North Carolina at the beginning of the Depression. In most worlds, she would have never had the chance to travel at all. But thanks to a junior high school journalism teacher, she met my dad. They both got graduate educations, and went onto live a comfortable upper-middle class life that afforded plenty of opportunity and discretionary money for travel.
Thing is, my dad loved nothing more than to sleep in his own bed. Or a tent. So we did a fair amount of camping when I was a kid. We camped across the U.S. twice, and that in itself was extraordinary. But Mom, she would have loved the life of travel that I’ve known, and used to beg me to send her postcards so she could imagine (and look up on Google) the places I went. Hawaii and Alaska. India and Fiji. Australia and France and Russia. Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. The Netherlands, Italy (one place Mom did get to go, which she loved), England, and Mexico.
When I step outside a strange airport, my computer bag on my back, and a small suitcase pulled behind me, I feel alive.
Covid was not as hard on me as it was on many. I was already semi-retired when it hit, so I didn’t have the worries of doing a job remotely. I had the luxury to ask others to bring me groceries if I didn’t feel safe going in the grocery store. And I was fortunate to have my family around me, so I had a pod of loved ones to keep me sane.
But not traveling drove me nuts. After years of going when and where I wished, living overseas, and all those airports, waking up to the same horizon every day was tough.
So my trip to the Washington, D.C. area, and on to London and the north of England, was partially to see old friends, partially to “see another place,” and maybe, almost subconsciously, to exercise that muscle. To prevent rust from forming on my traveling shoes.
It started with Lisa, bless her heart, dropping me at the Coliseum BART station at 5:30am, on her way to Sacramento for her clinicals at UC Davis Medical Center. A person of my age and means doesn’t normally take BART from the East Bay to SFO, and definitely not catching the 5:40am train. No, they take a taxi, or somebody gives them a ride. If they’re tech-savvy, they grab a Lyft.
Where’s the challenge in that?
With my Clipper card loaded into G-pay, I tap my phone on the gate, board the train, and pull into a double seat with my suitcase and computer backpack. Change at Balboa Park and cruise into the International terminal at SFO. Money saved equals a nice dinner somewhere.
The plane is scheduled to leave at 8:30am, but it’s shortly after noon before we get away. If this sort of thing bothers you, then travel is not your bag. Drama-free flight across the country, though I am always blown away at the vistas you get of the United States from 35,000 feet.
Hello, Washington
We land at Dulles, I grab my suitcase and head to the area to catch the shuttle to the rental car center. Wait, no. I’ve leveled up on rental cars. I now use Turo, which is AirBnB for rental cars. So I message Razan, whom I’ve never met, and tell her that I’m headed out exit door #4. She replies that she’ll be there in ten minutes. She arrives, we shake hands, she looks at my driver’s license. I take pictures of the car, and ask her if she needs a ride somewhere. No, her husband is waiting in a car behind us. She wishes me a nice trip and I’m gone – total time elapsed, less than 5 minutes. Hasta la vista, Enterprise.
Bullet point plug for Turo:
It’s way faster than renting from the rental companies. Five minutes rather than 45-60 minutes. Multiplied by two for pick-up and drop-off.
It’s cheaper. These people are just trying to make a few bucks – not support a giant company’s staff and shareholders.
Your money is going to fellow humans, not a big company.
Drive over to Maryland, and get to my hotel in suburban Rockville. They want $20 per night to park. I don’t scoff at them out loud, because that would be rude. But the fact is that we are surrounded – surrounded, I tell you – by half-empty free parking lots for the retail and office establishments around us. I choose, instead, to park in the lot for the hotel’s restaurant (clearly labeled as for the restaurant only). You see, the restaurant was shuttered during the depths of the pandemic, so it’s Reserved Parking for a restaurant that doesn’t exist. Three nights at the hotel, that’s another $60 saved. Will the $60 make a difference in my life? Of course not, but part of the travel game is keeping score. I’m a cross-Bay Lyft, Enterprise-Turo savings, and three nights of hotel parking ahead, and it’s still my first day on the road. [1]
Three days spent in the D.C. area visiting friends and family. The big treat for me was fishing in Watts Branch, a couple of miles from the house where I grew up. I was driven over Watts Branch probably 3-4 times a day for most of my growing up years. As an avid fisherman, I always thought, “I wonder if there’s fish in there.” But it was a long hilly bike ride, and by the time I could drive, other priorities had taken over.
Now, I had a car and no higher priorities, so I drove out to Watts Branch and spent two hours not getting a single strike on a handful of different flies. The web says there’s fish in there, and I believe them. But what was important was that I fulfilled a childhood dream – to fish those waters nearly in my back yard.
There’s fish in there – I just didn’t catch ’em
Sunday evening was Lyle Lovett at the Birchmere with friend and poker buddy, Carrie. I missed live music more than I missed traveling, and I haven’t seen Lyle in far too long. “We missed you, Lyle!” a woman yelled from the crowd. “Ma’am, I reckon we missed you more than you missed us.”
Carrie and I had planned to play poker after the show, but it was 10:00pm by the time it got out, and we discovered that we were old. So we agreed to meet the next morning at the MGM National Harbor. We helped start a $1/3 game (my buy-in already secured), played for a couple of hours (both booking wins), then had brunch and caught up some more.
Then I was back to Dulles, dropped the car with Razan (two minutes total time together) and checked in for my overnight flight to London Heathrow.
Fishing a boyhood memory, then dinner, Lyle Lovett, and poker with a good friend, and get on a plane to cross the Pond. All in under 30 hours. This is how you work your travel muscles.
Goodnight, Washington
Transatlantic overnight flights are where we separate the “tourists” from the “road warriors.” The more of them you do, the more tricks you learn.
Wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothes. Be prepared to layer for both cold and warm.
Stay hydrated.
A hoodie with zippered pockets is invaluable. The hood allows you to keep the cold fan air off your head. The zippered pockets are where you reliably store phones and passports.
Conversely, putting a phone or passport in a seat-back pocket is a great way to destroy a trip.
Protein bars are your friend
Yes, I know you can choose from 50 different movies and 25 TV shows. Do not do this. Your job is to sleep if you possibly can. Whatever will help you to sleep (white noise, alcohol, medication), use it.
If your finance permit, paying for seat upgrades is often good value.
In my case, I’d stumbled onto a cheap fare that included business class travel eastbound from IAD-LHR. I must have reviewed that itinerary 15 times before I actually believed it.
Pro tip: the eastbound travel (U.S. East Coast to Europe) is five times harder and more grueling than the westbound leg. I’m sure it has something to do with flying overnight and time advancing. If you have to choose, upgrading the eastbound fare is far more important.
Another pro tip: if you’re sitting in business class, they’re going to offer you a fancy meal and expensive wine right after take-off. Say no thanks (beforehand) – put your eyeshades on, and go to sleep immediately. You don’t have that long to actually sleep so you need to make the most of it.
I’ve had the same eyeshade for longer than I can remember. It’s soft, comfortable, and produces pure darkness. I stretched the full-recline seat out (OMG, is this real life?) and said goodnight to the Atlantic Ocean.
Good morning, Heathrow
Landing in London at 6:00am is the poster child for testing travel muscles. If you’re in absolute top form, you might get 4-5 hours of sleep on the plane. Then you’re woken up when your body thinks it’s 10:00pm, and wants to settle down and do nothing. But instead, you’re marched off the plane half-asleep (why you never put a phone or passport in a seat back pocket). I think the walk to customs and immigration is on the order of half a mile.
T2 – the Queen’s Terminal. A lot nicer than baggage claim at other LHR terminals
Smooth sailing through customs, get my bag, and start walking toward the Heathrow Express. Another half mile away, and now I’m hauling my roller bag.
En route, I get a text from the Heathrow Express people. They warn me that there’s a transit strike, and the London Underground (aka “The Tube”) is pretty much non-operational. But they are running normally.
Jump on the Heathrow Express and it’s a quick 15 minutes to Paddington Station. Sure enough, signs outside the Paddington Tube station warn of “longer journey times.” Oh, the British are so very understated.
Traveler pro tip: before you leave, see if your mobile phone plan has an international option. If not, they’ll probably sell you a two-week package or similar at a reasonable price. Buy it. Lisa and I somehow stumbled into a T-Mobile plan (for old people) that is all you can eat phone, data, text, and hotspot for $90/month for two lines. And it includes 2G coverage in 40-odd countries. I cannot overstate the joy and relief of taking my phone out of airplane mode at Heathrow, waiting 30 seconds, and getting a text from T-Mobile that says, “Welcome to the UK,” with a bunch of information about data rate limits, and such.
Why did I just bring this up? Because when I see that the Tube isn’t running, I just fire up Google Maps. It’s 2.4 miles to my hotel near King’s Cross. And it’s hardly raining at all.
Visualize your trainer at the gym walking up and increasing the slope on your treadmill, just for giggles. This is what the Universe did for my travel training. Fortunately, I’d been doing my walking training too, and 2.4 miles didn’t seem like a big deal at all.
So I set a course on my phone for my hotel, and walk out of Paddington Station into a drizzly, grey London morning, feeling alive, alert, and grateful.
The walk along Marylebone Road looked like this, only grey and drizzly.
Hello London
I spend the next two days bombing around London and seeing a couple of friends who live there. But mostly just enjoying the town, which has always been one of my favorites. I eat curry and scones because London, and Lebanese food in Edgware Road, because to miss that would be awful.
Mostly, it’s an opportunity to visit a city that I love, and I revel in the fact that I knowmy way around London. This isn’t because I’m cool, or important. It’s because I’m lucky. So wandering the streets of London, going significant distances without looking at Google Maps, is a way to experience gratitude. And to keep my travel muscles in shape.
Going North
I had a date with an old PokerStars buddy to go fly fishing with him near his home in Ilkley, in North Yorkshire. I’d never been to North Yorkshire, so this was an awesome opportunity to see an old friend and see somewhere different.
Everybody in England travels on the train, and, in small enough doses, it’s kinda fun. The train to Ilkley, via Leeds, leaves out of King’s Cross Station, [2] so me and my two bags rocked up there. There is something iconic about a London train station, and King’s Cross, being one of the biggest, doesn’t disappoint. Get my breakfast at Pret a Manger (doesn’t everybody get breakfast at Pret?) and am on my way northward.
The difference between London and the north of England is like that between New York City and the rural South of the U.S. In fact, the parallels run close in many ways. It’s nearly a different language, and a different way of life – a different world.
This is provably not a London hotel.This, however, is provably a cheese shop. If you think this is funny, it is.
Colin and I caught zero fish, and had to get out of the River Nidd earlier than we wanted because, well, it’s like this… when you’ve gone to the trouble to drive to a river, get all your gear on, and wade in, it can be tempting to just stay there and fish. Even if conditions aren’t optimal. Now, if that means “not catching any fish,” don’t make me laugh – fishing can be great even if you’re not catching anything, and Colin and I both dig that.
However, there comes a time when you think, “This could end poorly.” Very specifically, when the water level is 18″ higher than normal, the river is really ripping around you, and you think, “If I fall at this point, the best case outcome is that I come up very wet and very cold. The worst case outcome, I don’t even want to think about.” That’s when wise fishermen get out of the water. Colin and I knew when to climb out of the River Nidd.
And yet, we had a blast. He drove me past the super-secret NSA installation (yes, I said “NSA”) in the middle of nowhere in North Yorkshire. Giant golf-ball antennas dotting the countryside, side by side with the cows and the sheep.
Travel is so cool.
Hello London, again
Another train journey, and back to London. This time I stayed hard on the shores of Leicester Square, not least because it put me close to London poker, and was an easy Tube shot to Paddington Station when I was going to fly out of Heathrow.
I spent my time wandering around, visiting old haunts…
If this means something to you, you’re a PokerStars O.G. Looking for a place called Lee Ho Fuks – gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein
Somewhere in Covent Garden, I had an afternoon snack of a fresh baked scone, because London, and a coffee drink, which was their house-prepared hot chocolate from scratch, with two shots of house-roasted espresso poured in, because OMG. Warren Zevon can keep the beef chow mein.
Then I got the covid test that was required to get back into the U.S. That involved two two-mile round trips on foot to get to Boots in Oxford Street, but I didn’t begrudge a single step of it. What was it Samuel Johnson said – “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.”
I ended the day and trip with a ten-hour poker session, which I document in full here. Don’t read it unless you like long poker tales.
Final exam
A story that includes an all-night poker session should probably end there. But the Universe wasn’t done with shenanigans.
I boarded the United Airlines 787 at Heathrow, mentally and physically prepared for the ten-hour flight to SFO. I’d even found a cheap upgrade into Premium Economy, which seemed well worth it. Locked in an aisle seat and was ready to roll.
Get to my seat, 22D, and there’s a guy sitting in it. White male, 24 years old.
“Excuse me, I think this is my seat.”
“Oh, my bad, I’m on the wrong side of the [three-seat] row.”
He switches over, and now his buddy, white male, 24 years old, returns. And he is vibrating with discomfort and angst. Come to find out he’s in the center seat between us. He had poached another random seat in Premium Economy, but had been sent back to his official seat.
It turns out this fellow has claustrophobia. I knew this trip was going too well. He is sitting in the center seat, all but crawling out of his skin. And he’s going to be sitting next to me for the next 10-11 hours.
I’m sitting there, trying to figure out what my options are (the plane is jam packed), when Mindy, the flight attendant, approaches me, and beckons me out of my seat.
“This gentleman is extremely uncomfortable in a center seat.”
“So I gathered.”
“I am not asking you to do this, but would you consider swapping seats with him?”
I pause. I try to show grace where I can, but this is a big ask.
“Tell you what, see what else you can work out, and if you have no other options, yes, I’ll swap.”
She was extremely appreciative, and went back to furious texting on her phone. In the meantime, the guy next to me is vibrating with discomfort. It is clear that we’ll all be better off if I swap with him.
Ten minutes later, Mindy is back, and addresses Vibrating Guy.
“Sir, I have three seats together – 35 J, K, L for you, in economy, if you’d like those.”
“But, I paid 325 bucks for this upgrade.”
The road warriors among you will know what happened, and how quickly it happened.
Me: “Three-seat row in economy?”
Mindy [brightening visibly]: “Yes sir.”
“I’ll take it.”
“You won’t get a rebate on your upgrade, sir.”
“That’s not a problem.”
The road warriors here are laughing. Getting a three-seat row to yourself is 80% as good as being in a lay-flat seat in business/first. No, you don’t get the fancy china and warmed mixed nuts before dinner. But what you do get is space and privacy, which is really what you’re paying for up front. At least it’s what I’m paying for. Given a choice between one Premium Economy seat and three Economy seats, the latter is a snap no-brainer choice.
I grab my bag from the overhead compartment and follow Mindy back to 35 J, K, L before somebody comes to their senses. Her relief and gratitude is palpable.
“Can I bring you champagne?”
“Thank you no, I’m in good shape here.”
“Well, I so appreciate it. Let me know if there’s anything we can get you.”
Mindy, seen from my new seats, plural
Before we took off, the purser (chief of the flight attendant staff) came by to personally thank me as well, and to offer me anything I needed. There’s times when it’s too bad I don’t have a taste for champagne.
But the Universe had an extra twist coming…
Right before the doors closed, the kid who had created all the drama shows up at my seat. He was pale, and you could see he was in the after-shock of a serious claustrophobic episode.
“Man, you saved my life. If you have PayPal, I can send you money to cover the cost of the upgrade.”
“Thank you, but that’s not at all necessary. I’m perfectly fine here, and I’m glad it worked out. You have a good flight.”
“Well thank you. Now I will.”
On the heels of my all-night poker session, I lay down across my three seats, put white noise on the ear buds, and pulled my eye shade down. We were more than halfway to San Francisco when I woke up.
It’s no matter, no distance…
I had forgotten how much I love travel, and forgotten how much I missed it. This trip reminded me of that, and let me get my travel muscle back into shape. It was grand to be in London again, and a joy to see North Yorkshire for the first time.
But the best part was waking to a different horizon, hearing a London or Yorkshire accent in the voices, and seeing somewhere different.
It’s the ride.
[1] Carrie denominates such wins in “buy-ins.” Usage: Me: “I just saved $40 on a cross-Bay Lyft, $200 on a rental car, and $60 on parking.” Carrie: “That’s a full $1/3 buy-in. Well played.”
[2] We were at the King’s Cross train station for the family’s first UK visit (2002?). It was when the Harry Potter books had just come out. I made the boys stand at a point where I could take a picture with tracks 9 and 10 in the frame behind them. They thought it was lame beyond words. Fast forward 20 years – there is an entire Harry Potter store immediately adjacent to those two tracks, and a giant sign indicating track 9 3/4.
So I’m at the San Leandro Marina, getting ready to go for a 7-mile run. That’s part of my training for Not the Monterey Half Marathon – more about that later. It’s a beautiful Sunday morning, I’m feeling good, and as ready as I can ever be to jog/walk seven miles.
I’m parallel parking our new plug-in hybrid Chrysler Pacifica minivan in a marked space along the road, and as I’m doing it, I incorrectly estimate where the front of the car is (hint: a lot further ahead of me than it is in the Prius). I manage to tap the rear bumper of the car in front of me.
Sh*t.
A 40-year-old black woman in running clothes jumps out of the car that I had just bumped, understandably pissed off. I immediately mask up, get out of the car, profusely apologizing from the start. We look and neither of us can see any evidence of the bump. I offer to give her my insurance info. She says, “Don’t worry about it, but learn to park your damn car.” Which, fair enough.
I get back in the car, assemble my running paraphenalia, put on sunscreen and head out. The woman whose car I had hit had already left her car and headed off down the same direction toward the ocean-side path that everybody takes. I warm up, get my tunes and GPS fired up, and start my running app.
Half a mile into my run, I realize that I better not do any math in my head (“What percentage of 7.0 is 0.5?”) so I need to think about something else. That is when, to quote Elena Catherine, I get an idea from my brain.
Praising all the necessary people, including Lynn Conway (look her up) for the smartphone, I continue walking and tapping into my Galaxy S9. Then I strap it back onto my arm and resume running.
As I’d hoped, a few minutes later, I see the woman whose car I’d bumped (she had a recognizable gait). I put my mask on, turn off my tunes, and catch up with her. She looks at me, and even though she’s wearing reflective sunglasses and a mask, I’m pretty sure she’s not smiling.
“Ma’am, I felt really bad about bumping your car back there. But I saw your sweatshirt…” I hold out the phone so she can see the screenshot of the $100 donation I sent to Black Girls Run.
I think I see her cheekbones rise. I definitely see the thumbs-up she gives me. “I appreciate you. You have a good day.” “Yes ma’am, you too. Enjoy your run.”
Even with the extended slow pace while I was tapping into the phone, I get the seven miles in under 90 minutes, which was my goal when I first set out. My running app puts up a sticker that says it’s a New Personal Record – I’ve had the app for 2-3 years now and haven’t run that far since it’s been turned on. I have 7-8 half-marathons under my water belt, so seven miles isn’t a personal record.
But having my brain come up with an idea for such a quick and relevant apology – I think my app should have given me a Personal Record sticker for that.
