6 September 2000

Had several mind numbing days lately!  Trying to wrap up my last video productions and continue with the details of this project – and keep Klondike from going stir crazy because I am not paying as much attention to her as she wants!

Spent hours on the phone the other night exploring the finer details of flying from Colorado Springs to Miami with a dog.  The prices were outrageous but I finally found a pretty good fare in the paper.  Made three calls to the airline (whose name I will not mention here – not even their initials, tee hee!) and got three different prices!  At one point, the reservationist came back and told me she had found an even cheaper fare to Key West.  “But,” she said, “I can’t give it to you.” 

I think I said something like, “Excuse me?”  Of course, she couldn’t see the dumb look on my face.  But I would imagine the look on her face wasn’t too pleasant as the phone fell from my hands and landed on the desk with a considerable WHACK!

After I picked the phone up and apologized, she continued.

“Well,” she said, “I can’t give you that fare because it is round trip and I know you aren’t returning – the one-way fare is considerably higher.”

“So I am being penalized because I was honest with you?” I said.

“Well, um, yes sir.”

Now remember, I have been averaging 15 hour work days for several weeks and had just been on the phone with airlines for at least two hours.

I held the phone away from my head and yelled, “GOD BLESS AMERICA!”  and I think I might have hung up right after that.

I can see her when she got home and told her husband to go check out this site.  “Cool!” he might say.  And she would say, “Yeah, and the jerk hung up on me, too!”

I found something else to do for the rest of the night . . .

Now I am back to my original plan of driving down, as flying with a dog in the summer (due to heat restrictions) is too unpredictable, and too expensive.

So I rented a car.  Okay, so it will take me a few extra days . . . but my dog will be happy!

10 September

NOTE: When your hands are full and you are trying to get your house keys out, NEVER put a dog leash between your teeth when a Siberian Husky is attached to the other end and there is the potential for a squirrel to tease said dog . . . .

26 September

Due to airline regulations for flying pets in, or through, hot regions of the country, Klondike and I are driving from Colorado Springs to Key West. 

2:30 p.m.

As I was passing through Oklahoma, a nice state trooper reminded me that I wasn’t paying attention to how fast I was going.  First, I can’t remember how long it has been since I got a speeding ticket.  Second, having spent eight years in the fire department, I usually could find some way to talk my way out of one.  In this particular case, no opportunity arose -- darn it.

As the trooper began to fill out the ticket, he asked where I was headed.  I explained, and I thought I saw his hat shift up slightly as his brow went up.  I was also thinking it might make him reconsider.  He simply shook his head and said, “Well, that is quite a walk, eh?”  All I could manage was, “Yes, sir, I guess it is.”  And he ripped the ticket out of his pad and handed it to me with a polite smile and said, “Well, you and your dog have a nice trip, okay?”

8 p.m.

As my departure date got closer for my leaving Colorado Springs, I had more people asking me if I was getting excited.  And I kept on wondering why I wasn’t getting excited.  I supposed it has something to do with the massive amount of work that was going into each day – average 15 hour days.  Basically doing everything that must be done to put your life, as you know it, on hold for over 400 days.  But now, as I am deep in the heart of Texas, yeah, I am excited.  For the next 400 or so days, Klondike and I are going on and adventure that is, at least to me, like flying to the Moon.

27 September

Made it to Mississippi and stopped in for a visit with a long time friend of mine, Debbie Berry.  We hadn’t seen each other in four years, so it was fun catching up and Klondike LOVED the size of her yard on account of because it was much larger than the back seat of my car – in which she had been cooped for two days.

As the evening progressed, Deb noted that I was sitting funny and shifting a lot.  So I told her that it had snowed the night before the day I left and the next morning I took Klondike out and in her morning enthusiasm, she pulled me down a set of slick stairs and I wound up on my behind, with bruises in several unmentionable places.

Now Deb has her own massage business (Body Works), so she offered to work the kinks out of my stride.  I’ll tell you one thing, I will leave Key West with a much lighter step!  THANKS Deb!

29 September

Arrived Key West today! Boy have things changed! Not the Key West I

remember from the early 80's. Progress!

The folks at the Southern Most Hotel in the USA have made us feel VERY welcome! We are just a half block from the

Southern Most buoy! Just 90 miles to Cuba!

Wish I had time to relax and enjoy a cocktail or two by the pool!!!

30 September

Madly rushing around to get ready.  My parents, who live in Key Largo, came down and met my partners, Jamie and Huey Allen.  Haven’t seen my parents in four years and it is hard seeing them get up in their years. 

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