Thursday, April 17, 2008

April 14, 2008











I am back again! Annoying all of you with my
travel tales....(-:


We parked the RV for the weeks leading up to the
25th of December in a parking lot/RV park that
was attached to an Econo Lodge in Ashland. It was
convenient, right next to the Interstate exit. A
very useful thing if you are doing any Holiday
shopping at the last minute...

Our plans were to find a place to store/park the
RV, and both dogs (Allie and Frankie, Naomi's
dog) while we all met up in Hawaii. Sarah was in
San Francisco for her conference and then had
some vacation time, so she was going to fly to
Kona on the Big Island on the 24th. I was going
to fly from Medford, OR, and meet her that same
day.

Naomi and then boyfriend Ross were going to work
on the 24th til 9 pm, then drive 5 hours north to
Portland, OR to catch an early morning flight to
Kona on the 25th. I dont know why, when they
could have flown from Medford, only 10 miles
away, but...I have stopped asking these
questions! They were going to spend Dec 25-30
with us then go to Oahu, where Ross' family
lives, until Jan 5.

Zach and girlfriend Courtney were going to drive
from Tempe, AZ to Denver, meet up with Courtney's
sister, drive to Cheyenne, WY, have xmas with her
family, drive back to Denver, get on a plane to
Kona on the 27th, and stay with us until Jan 3rd,
then go back to Wyoming for several more days,
before driving back to AZ. Zach has a little
Honda with no snow tires. Again, I stopped asking
questions.

Ken was going to spend xmas eve and day with his
daughters, then get on a plane on the 26th to
meet us in Kona. He and I were staying in Kona
til the 3rd of January - and after putting Sarah,
Zach and Courtney on planes, going ourselves to
Kauai and then Molokai.

The weather was getting progressively colder and
wetter as it got closer to the time to leave. We
found a storage place close by that would let us
park the RV for three weeks for $65.00, which was
a whole lot cheaper than paying for it to stay in
the RV park! But, we had to winterize it, meaning
drain out all the water, the holding tanks, the
pipes, and put in a special RV/people friendly
antifreeze. Which meant that we had to move out
of the RV before we put it in storage, which was
before we went away. So we lived for several days
in a La Quinta Inn, because they are dog friendly
- and they had a pool and a continental
breakfast.

Then Naomi and I found the North Pole Kennel a
couple of miles outside of Ashland. It sounded
like a great place to leave your dogs, yes bring
their beds and special treats and food - yes they
get to go out several times a day, yes we will
let them go out together if it makes them both
happy.

We brought the dogs over there on the 23rd, in
the morning. Allie has never been to a kennel
before (in 14 years), and she knew something was
up. Frankie is still a (very large) puppy, and he
could have cared less about staying in the
kennel, but he managed to look pretty pathetic
when we were trying to leave. Allie was trembling
nonstop, and literally moaning; Frankie was
yipping and trying to escape the wire cage, Naomi
was crying, and I was thinking that my dog would
be dead before my vacation was over...

Get in the car and run away as fast as you can,
and don't think about it much....Naomi's in the
front seat saying "I have to go back and get my
dog, its a horrible place, I cant leave him
there, do you want Allie to die?" It was not fun.

On the morning of the 24th, Ken got me up at 4:30
am (he's so good about that stuff!) so we could
drive to the tiny Medford airport and I could
catch my 6:05 am flight to Los Angeles. It was
probably the first time I have ever gotten to the
airport for an early morning flight with lots of
time to spare.

And, they wouldnt let me on the plane...But dont
you understand, I'm EARLY for once!!!

Why? Because I didnt have the paper ticket with
me.......what paper ticket? Oh crap! The paper
ticket is locked in the RV, which I havent seen
for days, which is locked inside a storage unit,
which doesnt open until 7 am, which is after my
flight leaves!

They would, however, book me on a later flight -
without having the paper ticket. Which would get
me to San Francisco late afternoon......."By the
way? ALL the flights from San Francisco or
Oakland or LA to Hawaii on the 24th have been
completely oversold (by about 60 seats apiece) -
so you will be stuck in San Francisco til
tomorrow anyway."

So, as stupid as I felt for completely forgetting
I even had a paper ticket (who gets paper tickets
anymore?) I did feel a little better knowing that
I would have been stuck in LA anyway...now at
least I would be stuck in San Francisco! And hey
- I could call Sarah, who was waiting for her
flight in Oakland, to see if she could be one of
the "bumped" people from her oversold flight -
and then we could spend the night in San
Francisco together! And fly together to Hawaii on
Christmas day, even if on different airlines.

Which is what happened...

Sarah brought some excellent wine and cheese with
her when she met me at the airport, which was a
great thing, as all the restaurants in the
neighborhood were closed by the time we got
there.

As it turned out, Naomi and Ross were actually
the first ones to arrive in Hawaii.....they got
there about half and hour before Sarah and
several hours before me. So they all took a cab
to the condo we had rented (4th floor,
oceanfront, 3 bedroom, 2 bath - really
lovely,which was amazing because it had terrible
reviews), and left me a message to pick up the
rental car and meet them there.

What rental car? Was I supposed to rent a car? I
didn't....and then I couldn't...In case anyone
has not heard, the weeks from Dec 21 to Jan 6 or
so are the absolute busiest in Hawaii for
tourists. There were no rental cars available for
the time frame we needed. With both Sarah and I
calling every rental agent on the entire island,
we managed to get one car for three days, and
then a truck for 24 hours a few days later, and
then another car for the last 2 days.

So here are some pictures of the sunset over
Kona, on my way from the airport to the condo on
the 25th....from the window of the rental car...

and Naomi, Ross and Sarah

and Allie in her hula outfit

more Hawaiiana to come....

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