In Transit – June 20, 2017

Three Hours of Peace

The flight to Boston was uneventful. I slept a short while, but mainly tossed and turned. Previous to the trip, my mom presented me with a custom-sewn case for my inflatable pillow. It has a Seahawks print. That fact helped me rest easy.

In Boston, I found my transfer gate and moved to the rear row of seats (up against a wall). It wasn’t long before I started feeling drowsy. Luckily, I had my sleeping pad and bag in the carry-on pannier. I set up on the floor, wondering if an airline employee would wake me with a tone of disapproval. As luck would have it, I slumbered, unmolested, for three hours.

Grounded

At the end of that restful period, I awoke to a somewhat anxious female voice proclaim, over the announcement system, that my Pen Air flight to Bar Harbor had been canceled. After staggering to the gate desk, I inquired about the reason for cancellation. “Crew member injury” was the answer I received. I wondered if that was airline speak for “the majority of our employees bar hop in the evening.”

One Ticket to Paradise

At approximately 2:00 PM, a $200 Pen Air transportation voucher was pressed into my hand. I was told to redeem it in one year. This will be extremely difficult to do; the airline doesn’t fly anywhere that I could imagine going. One possibility would be to drive to Portland, Oregon, and fly to Eureka, CA. It’s difficult to understand why a struggling airline, looking to foster a satisfied base if customers, would issue play money. They safely could have offered us vouchers for ten thousand dollars.

The Long Haul

Two vans were summoned to drive us the five hours to Bar Harbor. The Pen Air people kindly placed all of our checked baggage in the rear of the vehicles. While in transit, I spoke at length with Mark Beede, a tennis coach for the University of Hawaii. He has recently published a book titled “From Go to Pro: Developing the Elite Tennis Player”. After speaking with him, it sounds like much of what he has written would apply to life in general.

A Survey of the Situation - Bar Harbor Airport

We pulled into the Bar Harbor airport at about eight o’clock in the evening. After witnessing me putting my bike together outside, I was invited into the well-lit, small-craft airport by a kind woman running the show. By nine o’clock I had my bike together and was pedaling away, fireflies lighting my way.

I crossed the bridge over to Mount Desert Island and began looking for a camping spot to rest for the night. After nearly choosing the lawn adjacent to the Witness’s “Kingdom Hall”, I free camped in a spot just inside a gated park road. The mosquitoes were out in force, so I set up post haste.

While writing a few daily notes, I heard the yipping of coyotes, a good sign. After they settled down, so did I.