Travel During February

It is now Saturday night. A group is having a convention at the Cathedral so I have had power Friday night until after 8 PM and the National Power came on around 6 AM this morning. With the convention continuing today I have had electricity all day. Ice is forming in some of the bottles of water in the little refrigerator. This is my first chance to sit down and think about the last three days. I will start the story and until power stops. Then I will resume Sunday after church. But the story actually, starts a couple weeks earlier.  (Part of this is a repeat of an earlier post.) Double clicking on the pictures will make them larger.

One reason the trip was delayed to late February, is that my granddaughter Sydney Carmichael Johnson was being baptized in the Washington, DC area on February 16^th. We headed to the airport early on Thursday morning, February 13^th, the morning of a major snow storm hitting DC. Just after we were dropped off at the airport, I received a text message that our flight had been cancelled and we had been rescheduled on a flight later that afternoon to Detroit and another flight the next morning to DC. We talked with a Delta agent and she confirmed us on the Detroit flight and set us up on a stand-by flight direct to DC. We got to the gate and found that the stand-by flight was the only flight to DC that was not cancelled.  But it was delayed and we were number 11 and 12 on the standby list. They started to load the plane, then stopped and unloaded and increased the delay. Later they started to load again and unloaded again. After several hours of delays, they actually loaded and we found out the there were 13 open seats. People had taken flights to other cities or just went home.

We arrived in a mostly deserted Reagan National Airport. We were the only plane among and array of trucks and loaders trying to remove the 10 inches of snow. We walked out to the METRO light rail and rode a train to L’Enfant Plaza to change trains. When we got to our final destination, Hyattsville, Maryland, I realized that somewhere along the route I had left my backpack with my Laptop, camera, spare memory, battery chargers, Sally’s hair dryer, presents for Sydney and Caroline. I suspect I either left it on the train from the airport or up against the wall at L’Enfant Plaza. Either way, no one has turned it in to lost and founds. I had to replace the camera and the computer and reload it with software and the past Nigeria files. Other than that we had a great visit with our son Corey, daughter-in-law Caroline and granddaughter Sydney.  After the baptism on Sunday we had a combination Baptism, Caroline’s Birthday, Sydney Early Birthday and Housewarming Party. We had over 40 people over to their little town-home. Pictures were posted on the previous posting.

The computer replacement had its own problems. I bought a refurbished Dell from MicroCenter. When I picked it up I insisted on testing it to see if what was inside the box was the same as advertised. When we opened the box it was not packaged like it should have been and there was loose memory  boards in the box. We opened it up and found the correct memory inside. Then we started it and was surprised that windows was already initialized. We decided to send it to the Technician and have the system re-installed. Later that night the technician called and said the hard drive was acting up and he would run an overnight diagnostic. The next morning the diagnostic showed a bad hard drive. I went in and exchanged it for another one that was a little cheaper because it was an open box and the box said it had a smaller 160 GB hard drive. We plugged it in and checked it out. The box was wrong. This one had the 250 hard drive and was in better overall condition. The last time I bought a recondition from MicroCenter the box said 250 GB hard drive but it had only a 160. I guess I am even now. I spent the next two days updating windows and adding on all my software. The only thing I forgot to add in was my drivers to use my cell phone to access the internet from the USB cable.

Obama coming to Minneapolis when I am trying to leave.

To start this trip, I arrived at the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport Friday morning to find that my flight was delayed 30 minutes. My connection in Chicago was scheduled at 51 minutes with my flight landing at C Concourse and the Flight to Frankfurt, Germany leaving from Concouse B. An easy 10 minute walk.  The delay was because the Air Force One was due in a little before my flight was scheduled to depart. The incoming planes were caught in a holding pattern as they cleared the air space for AF1.  They closed the airport and moved all personnel inside. AF1 landed and quickly moved to the Air Reserve Base and the President’s motorcade left the airport. I was impressed by how quickly everything got back to normal. Of course the reverse would happen when President Obama leaves later Thursday.

Due to the delay my United flight arrival gate was changed to Gate B20. My Lufthansa flight was at Gate B17. When I arrived at B17 they were announcing my name and trying to announce the names of the Somali family that was also coming from Minneapolis. “Last Call, the doors are closing.” I asked about my luggage and if it would make the flight. The Gate personnel said it would be sorted out as it comes off the United flight and brought straight to the Lufthansa flight.  I was relieved when it showed up at Abuja.

At the Abuja Airport customs went smoothly, with multiple layers of people wanting to see my passport and one that checked my luggage tags and asked “What do you have for me.” I told him my blessings and prayers.  I found a taxi driver who said he knew where the DRACC Guest House was. My phone still worked by the 500 Naira that was on the account when I left was no longer there. I had enough to call Bishop Ben but only for a minute. Here the caller is the only one charged for a call. So Bishop Ben called me back and confirmed with the driver that he was taking me to the correct place. As with many private taxi drivers his car “”worked. It stalled whenever he would slow down or take too long on a shift.  When it stalled, he would turn off the air conditioning and restart the car. He was actually, a good driver. Mostly stayed in one lane at a time and drove at a reasonable speed. Of course, he was driving as fast as the car would go.

DRACC Main Entrance

DRACC is the Daughters of Divine Love Retreat and Conference Center.  This is a very nice facility near the Airport. Daughters of Divine Love is a Catholic order started during the violence of the newly independent Nigeria in the 1960’s. With the two heavy bags I was dragging along I was glad I was on the ground floor. The next morning I received a text that my flight morning flight to Yola was delayed until the afternoon. This is not unusual, if the plane does not have enough passengers it is cancelled and only the afternoon flight is flown. The

DRACC Room

sisters had arranged their driver to take me to the airport at 8 AM but he was not available later in the day. They arranged another taxi. This car was in better condition and the air conditioning worked as long as he was driving fast enough. He was always driving fast enough. He was the kind of driver that I think evil thoughts about if I am driving. When the car ahead of him and one lane over signals that they are moving over into his lane he sped up to get in front of them. In turns he would start on the inside lane and end on the outside lane, honking at the other drivers to get out of his way.  When he reached backed up traffic he went to the shoulder, passed them and forced his way back in.  At the airport where you pay to enter there were three lanes but the back-up was five wide. He passed them all on the right and moved back to the center entrance lane.  There was a lot of honking and hand jesters but he did not care. He said he is going to save his money and come to American and be a driver in America.  God help us if he gets a Visa.

When I had booked my ticket on Arik Airlines from Abuja to Yola I read that I could have two checked bags and 25 Kilograms. I thought that was 25 Kg each. But I found out that it was 25Kg total. My total weight was 41 Kg. It cost me 10,000 Naira ($63.69 at last year’s exchange rate).  Fortunately, I had 31,500 left over from previous trips. By the time I got to Yola I had about 5,000 left.  

New Mattress

Yakubu and Pastor Ruth met me at the Airport and instead of going to the house we went to a mattress seller. The group of travelers from the Minneapolis Synod that had been here in October for the Centenary had seen where I was sleeping and chipped in to buy me a new mattress. The two old mattresses I had stacked together were worn out in the middle. If I used only one I could feel the slats in the bed frame. With two worn out mattresses stacked together I did not feel the wood slates but was sleeping in a valley. Thanks Kris Perry et al. I talked them out of the queen sized mattress and got one that fit the existing bed frame. I like being up off the floor.

The House was relatively clean. It had been used the month before during the Yola Diocese annual convention. However, some kids had broken in through a window and had taken a bunch of small items. Adams thinks they took much of the small wrenches and other small tools. We will do an inventory later to see what is missing. They could only take what fit through the bars on the windows. Less than one square foot.  The left my plates, bowls, silverware, and pots. I had a couple cans of food that they took but they left the can of corned beef.  They did take both pairs of shower sandals. I will be barefoot for a few days. Friday evening I walked to City Market and bought a few cans of food and walked over to food market by the Hospital to get some hardboiled eggs. The same lady was still there selling eggs and bananas. She asked me what I brought here from America. I told her a customer. In the past she has asked me to take her to America. I have always told her that my wife would not let me bring women home.

The internet has been up and down. Currently it is in G2 mode. I will publish this post and try to do another one about Saturday and Sunday before the power goes out. I will have a picture of a live Cobra.