Swimmy Christmas

~ Kana Smith

We’re not having the smoothest luck with air travel this month. Yesterday at 3am we queued up at the airline counter to check in and check our bag… and after a few minutes, someone came up to us and said, “You do know the flight is cancelled, right?” (Of all the dumb questions! If we knew there was no flight, would we be standing there at three in the morning? I ask you.)

The airline had automatically re-booked us for the following (Christmas!) day—a plan to which we objected on several levels, so we got RE-re-booked, instead, for substantially later the same day. Instead of arriving at Palm Springs at 10:30 in the morning, we finally got to my mom’s place at 10:30 in the evening. Significantly longer travel day.

I brushed my teeth and faceplanted directly into her bed. Jon held off long enough to eat, then joined me.

This morning we woke up to a whole new world. Sunshine, and warm, and distinctly un-winterlike. Coffee and SUNSHINE on her patio!

We opened stockings and had our traditional Christmas breakfast of coconut orange rolls, and those are the two most traditional bits of our day. Our least traditional was spending the afternoon at the pool!

This evening we’ve been sitting around the fire, chatting and singing Christmas carols. We actually did one more traditional thing: we went down the street and sang “Silent Night,” in German, to my mother’s German neighbors.

She & I sing a descant together every year on the last verse of “Silent Night”—but our late arrival yesterday meant we missed all the church services. Singing it for Hans & Verlene made up for it nicely.

However you celebrated, Merry Christmas to you and yours!

7 thoughts on “Swimmy Christmas”

  5. Kana,

    Travel can be exasperating!

    A number of years ago when I was still hiking the Appalachian Trail, we found ourselves stuck in Hanover, NH. The area had been socked with a dual hurricane over a week we were hiking. The federal government had closed the Green Mountains completely because of severe flooding. They were even sending in the National Guard to evacuate hikers on the AT it was that bad. Additionally, they imposed a serious fine for anyone that disobeyed the order and refused evacuation. Steam crossing was deadly and some of the smaller trail towns were devastated. we had mailed one of our food resupply boxes to a ski resort we expected to stay at for a night off the trail and found that they entire resort had been washed off the side of the mountain,

    We had to revise our plans quickly. We found out that the trail in Massachusetts was open, if we could figure out how to get there. We finally caught a bus from Hanover to Springfield MA- of course the bus was late. We rode through small towns on roads trying to dodge washed out roads and bridges. We entered one small town and found that the bridge in town was out, and we had to detour to another area of town to cross the creek. The problem was that the bus couldn’t make the ninety-degree turn to get onto the correct street. The driver had to back the bus into a church parking lot in order to get the correct angle.

    Needless to say, by the time we got into Springfield we had missed our connecting bus to North Adams where we could get back on the trail. We were stuck in Springfield in an extremely seedy part of town waiting for the evening bus.

    We were sitting bus terminal, and we decided to get something to eat. One of the local policemen that was constantly circulating through the terminal to make sure that the homeless weren’t using the place as a panhandling spot told us that we dare not exit the terminal. There was a McDonalds there in the building and he strongly suggested that we eat there. Rough Part of Town!!!

    Now John and I had cleaned up in Hanover, showered and changed into our clean town clothes. But there wasn’t much we could do about the hiker-stench from out backpacks. We’d been on the trail for about a month! We placed out packs at the end of a L-shaped bench and sat there. A well-dressed woman came over and sat on the back side next to out packs. As politely as I could I suggested that she might want to find another seat, I couldn’t guarantee that as the place heated up that she might be sitting in a very unpleasant location and she might want to move. She gave me this snotty look, like who in the Hell do you think you are telling ME to move! A few minutes later I was watching her and the tears began to fall as the stench from the packs finally got to her! With a HUMP and an angry look, she moved to another area of the terminal!

    We finally left Springfield late about 7:00 pm and got into North Adams about 11:00 and checked into a small motel for the night. We found a pizza place that was just about ready to close. The owner took pity on us and stayed open after hours and talked to us about hiking the trail.

    John and I have always referred to this as our “Trip to Hell” but I guess it added to the excitement of the trail and always remaining flexible.

    Sorry you missed out on the Christmas services, but it’s warm, and you look like you are really enjoying yourselves. Have a great Adventure!

    “Hardcharger”

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Join the Conversation!