A stay in Bangor, Maine

In mid-November I was back in Greater Atlanta, Georgia. I intended to take pictures in a park nearby for a fall blog post. Time went by too quickly and instead I just took a couple of photos of the leaves in the backyard.

In lieu of this fall blog post I'll relate my summer stay in Bangor, Maine. In early June my daughter asked me if I would like to drive with her, my son-in-law and the kids to Bangor, Maine. I replied, no thank you - it is too far. I had only planned to drive the two hours north to Paducah, Kentucky. Nashville, Tennessee to Bangor, Maine is about 1,330 miles (2,140 km) about the same distance as Brussels, Belgium to Budapest, Hungary - it's quite far as I said.

She explained that three of the four grandchildren were going to attend several weeks of Chinese language immersion summer school in Bangor. She only could stay with them part of the time but then had to get back. As an enticement she offered to have me fly there and then she would come back when the Chinese school ended. She said we could drive down the coast of Maine and on the way stop a day in Kennebunkport, Maine, then New Hampshire and also in Newport, Rhode Island where I had always wished to go, and then stay in Boston a couple of days and I could fly back from Boston. So I went. Because Bangor is close to Acadia National Park summer lodgings are difficult to find. My daughter could only find a small farm to rent. The owners lived in another house adjacent to the original farm. The owners, the wife, drove a Prius, a Toyota hybrid (instead of one of those big SUV vehicles) and the husband, a pick-up truck. Actually, compared to Nashville and Atlanta, there were a lot less SUVs in Maine (where winters are rigorous and they could say they need them, not like in Deep South downtowns ... but in Maine they are more mindful of the environment.)

The farm was built in 1900. Chickens were free to roam and would come to the front door. They would run to greet us as soon as we drove into the farm. Horses were in the back near a wildlife trail. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

I took some photos of the interior but found some better ones on the owners' site (theirs were taken in winter.) The farm has 3 bedrooms, a large bathroom, a kitchen with eating area and two front rooms with a piano. I stayed in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

My daughter and her family drove to Maine a week prior to the start of the Chinese summer school so they could visit the area and Acadia National Park. This park is about 41 miles from Bangor. It is located on Mount Desert Island and Isle au Haut. The highest mountain on the Atlantic Coast of the US, Cadillac Mountain, is in this park.

In its 49,075 acres (76.7 sq mi or 198.6 km2) the park contains wetlands, forests, meadows, mountains, lakes, streams, beaches and a large diversity of animal and plant life. Millions of visitors come to the park and I believe reservations are required now to enter it, at least in the summer months, because of the congestion. In 1929 the name of the park was changed from Marquis de Lafayette Park to Acadia National Park in honor of the former French colony of Acadia that used to include Maine. The center photo is of my son-in-law - he had to fly back to Nashville after a week in Maine.

My daughter flew back to Nashville after her 3 weeks and left the big van in Bangor. They use this large van to transport the 4 kids, 3 adults (including the au pair) and two dogs (no SUVs for member of my family.) For commuting to work they just have two small passenger vehicles. But the van is quite high and long - I was afraid to drive it. Fortunately the au pair stayed during my time there and he drove. He is an Italian of Moroccan ancestry and his family lives in France now, so he speaks Italian, Moroccan Arabic, French and English. We ate most evenings in local restaurants and pubs, apart from the day the Italian soccer team won the European Soccer Championship, its first time since 1968. Our au pair was so overjoyed that he treated us to a pizza dinner. That week was also my youngest grandson's 10 years old birthday. He requested a chocolate cream pie. I found a bakery in Bangor that was able to bake one especially for him. Below is the van, the bakery, the pie, the au pair with the Italian flag wrapped around his shoulders and my grandchildren. The grandson in the center is letting his hair grow to donate to a group helping young cancer patients who lost their hair.

The first Sunday after I arrived I was pleased to meet one of my blogging friends for lunch in Bangor. I had been reading her blog for years until she eventually stopped blogging. Ruth's original blog was named "synch-ro-ni-zing" and her last blog, ended in 2017, was called Birds of the Air quilts where she showed the quilts she made. Ruth and her husband retired and moved to a small coastal town in Maine, not far from Bangor. It was so much fun meeting her after having read her blogs for over a decade. We met at the Mason Brewing Co. Restaurant along the Penobscot River. We ate outdoors as it was a warm day and also because of Covid.

I was surprised by the long list of beers and ciders. Ruth told me that there are a great many pubs and restaurants in the area featuring local artisanal beers and ciders. Later I read that behind Vermont, Maine has the second highest number of breweries per 100,000 residents in the USA. The 100 or so local breweries produce New England IPAs, English ales, stouts, porters, sours, Belgian, farmhouse, lagers and more. They have the largest variety of hard cider that I have seen outside of France and Belgium. Most restaurants and pubs will offer "sample beers" of your choice in 4 small glasses. I did not try them since I am more partial to cider.

I remember writing Ruth and telling her I was going to stay in a small town in Maine - Bangor. She answered that Bangor was one of the largest cities in Maine, and with 32,000 residents is considered the unofficial capital of northern Maine. Well, when you consider that the population of the state of Maine is 1.34 million, Bangor is ... large. But coming from greater Atlanta with 6.09 million and the state of Georgia with 10.83 million, I thought Bangor was tiny ... oops! The weather was nice though, not as warm as in Atlanta. We did not have to use air conditioning and I was chilly a couple of times. Of course, in winter it must be quite cold - much too cold for me. Here are a couple of photos of the city in winter (courtesy the Bangor Daily News.)

Definitely a city to visit in summer, in July like I did. At least for us southerners ...

10 year blog anniversary, its history and more

Ten years! A very long time when you are a child, but as a senior with a different perception of time, it seems the years went by quickly.  I have enjoyed writing for this blog and visiting my friends' blogs as well.  It has provided me with many hours of fun, creativity and gave me support during my late husband's long illness.  I am back in Georgia right now where spring is exploding with more color than in Tennessee, maybe because azaleas and dogwood trees thrive better here.  Some of the pictures below have already been shown in earlier posts.  The pink azalea bush on the top left of collage was taken yesterday in my backyard.  Click on collage to see better.

Now, let me explain how I started and kept this blog.  I owe the beginning of my blog to three persons, actually.  Ten years or so ago my husband's cousin Lyle who is a physician retired now from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta wrote some of his memoirs for the family.  He constantly urged me to write my remembrance of growing up in Paris so that my grandchildren would know about it.  I did not think my memoirs would be that interesting, certainly not like his memoirs.  When I talked to him on my last visit to Atlanta he gave me so much information on his career in the medical detection field that it would take a full post to explain it.  I'll have a post on him later as he is writing a biographical book and promised to give me an early copy.  He started his career as part of the first Peace Corps medical staff sent to Nigeria in the late 1960s.  He cared for patients during the Nigerian-Biafran civil war, from both sides of the conflict.  He became the staff physician for the Peace Corps in Africa at that time.  Then he pursued a long career as a public health hero at the CDC.  He traveled widely and constantly investigating disease outbreaks and finding ways to stop them, such as the Ebola virus.  He was deployed in many parts of the world and in the US as well.  Through a lifelong dedication to public health, Jim's cousin Lyle is certainly one of the main godfathers of epidemiology.  Below are some photos from Lyle's files.

As we were talking about writing my Paris remembrances then, I happened to read an article on the New York Times about Ronni Bennett, the owner of the popular blog on aging, Time Goes By
(Timegoesby.net, ) who was saying: "The Internet provides people with a new way to tell their story.  When the grandkids aren't interested in listening anymore, older people can still share their stories and get feedback.  The technology makes it simple."  I went to her blog and saw that one could send a story to her and be published.  I thought I could send her some of my recollections and did send her one about a first kiss which was published.  Later I included this story in my first anniversary post "First anniversary and recollection of a first kiss."  Concurrently my husband and I went to celebrate my birthday in Long Beach, California, where our daughter was living at the time.  I told her about writing some articles for Times Goes By.  She replied that only a few of my stories may be published and it would be better to start my own blog.  Of course I had no idea how to do that, but she did.  She helped me set up the blog after we found a title for it.  So I owe my blog to Ronni Bennett, the second person and to my eldest daughter, the third person.  I spent some time looking at photos I have taken during these last 10 years to include in this post.  (Click on collage twice to enlarge photos.) 

 I thought my blog would include more stories from my past in France, but then we found out that my husband Jim had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  This changed my blog.  I read everything I could find on Alzheimer's as I knew very little.  I found out that each person's disease is unique but that stimulation to the brain (reading, talking, socializing, traveling, etc.) as well as a healthy diet could slow down the disease.  I also realized that as my husband was losing his short-term memory he could, for a long time, remember events if he saw pictures of them.  I started to take many photos of the same subject, with different cameras, and then showing them to him, and asking him to decide which picture to publish.  It slowed down the posts, but I do believe that it helped him.  He patiently waited during our travels while I took picture after picture of buildings, flowers, animals, food and more so he could better recall them later (I did not tell him why I took so many.)  It would take a while for him to check them as he would have to study up to 300 pictures per post!  For stimulation I also asked him to read every paragraph I wrote, telling him to correct my English.

I remember as we would visit historic buildings, castles in Europe or mansions such as Bulloch Hall here in Roswell that has yearly Christmas and spring quilt shows, I took a great number of photos with both my Nikon and another little camera, my Sony or Cannon.  Then it was Jim's turn to decide which ones I should use.  I know it was a good tool for his brain stimulation.  Now of course, I need to go back and delete all these duplicate photos taking my computer memory.

I would spend hours figuring where we could go, far away or close by, so he would have many visual opportunities, and we would write posts on them.  I studied all the offers on the Internet for budget travels such as 2 for 1 price cruises - as those we took to Hawaii and Alaska.  I would also find out if there were any special events or festival close by, as you can see by the 3 top pictures in the collage above - a re-enactment week-end.  I have not had time to write posts on many of these trips and have enough pictures and material to write posts for the next 3 or 4 years, even if I don't step away from home!  Of course we took many photos of animals and visited several zoos to see them, in Atlanta, Columbus, OH, Houston, TX, Brooklyn NY, Paris, France, Memphis, TN, in Hawaii, West Palm Beach, FL, Tampa, FL, the kangaroo Center in North GA, and many other places (in addition to hundreds of cat and tree pictures.)  Or we saw them in the wild, such as the baby alligator in Florida, the lambs in a field in the Louisbourg National Historic Site, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, the reindeer in Norway Arctic Circle, and the bear below while in the Yukon Territory of Canada.

Birds were another favorite.  Toward the end of his illness my husband could not read anymore but he could look at bird books all afternoon as well as each cat in his one-cat-a-day calendar.  It was difficult now to choose which bird photos to include here.

Flowers of course with such an array of colors and shapes were always included in our series of photos and required critical inspection.  My home-made therapy for my husband's disease was quite time consuming.  The trips research, the photos, the posts and decision on photos did not leave much time to take care of the house.  I thought I would do it later - and am doing it now.

As my husband's illness progressed it was difficult for him to remember the beginning of sentences and we would have to read my post paragraphs 6, 7 or more times.  Then when he could not longer read it was the constant reappraisal of the photos.  I did try to be patient but at times it was not easy.  I knew that my blog was our therapy, so we kept at it - for almost ten years!  Even as late as early last year I would ask his opinion on my photos.

Even when we went to eat with family or friends or even to restaurants I took photos and included them in posts so he could remember the meals.  I don't think he realized that I used my blog to help his memory - he believed he was helping me write and select photos.

I am so used to taking many photos for my posts that I don't think I'll change now.  Looking at my photos and selecting some for this post has been a walk through his illness in a way.  It has been bittersweet.  I started my blog ten years ago on my birthday.  Now when my birthday comes around I'll always be reminded of the beginning and evolution of my blog, and what it has meant to my husband and me.  It has helped him, has been fulfilling for me and brought me new friends.  I am very grateful for their taking time to visit my posts and commenting.  I brought my cat Mitsouko with me to Georgia this time so she would not be lonely in Nashville now that her companion Cody is gone.  She had not been here in over one year but quickly jumped into their place by the window, looking out at nature and the sun.  I took a picture of her - my latest picture at the bottom of this collage (to be truthful, I took about 8... can't stop myself...)

Mitsouko, my little cat, is right.  Looking forward to the sun and keeping darkness behind is the way to go forward.  (Below photo of the beach at Dana Point, California, taken during our last trip in 2016 to our eldest daughter's wedding.)

 "Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you."  - Maori proverb

Armchair traveling to ...Simla, India

Just a few more knee therapy sessions and it will be over.  It seems that this second knee surgery was easier than the last one.  But in the last few days I have developed more pain in my left ankle and foot - I had an injury there years ago and the ligaments are gone.  I'll see an orthopedist soon.  As the character of Gilda Ratner, Roseanne Roseannadanna, in the TV show Saturday Night Live used to say: "...it's always something - if it ain't one thing, it's another."  C'est la vie!  I spent much time reading the first few weeks after surgery, not in an armchair, but in a sofa bed since I was not allowed to step upstairs to my bedroom.  (Below painting is "Reading Girl on a Sofa" by Isaac Israels (1865-1934) a Dutch Impressionist painter.)

The last time I went to our house in Georgia I gave about 400 more books to the library, but there are thousands more to go through.  For years my husband and I gathered books from book sales and second-hand bookstores.  Many are still unread and it is difficult to decide which ones to keep - of course my husband, because of his advancing Alzheimer's disease, cannot read anymore.  I brought several boxes of books to Nashville and while recuperating from my knee surgery I read "light reading" mysteries.  Then I decided to read a slim paperback I had bought in Monreal, Canada, years ago.  It is called "The Pool in the Desert" by Sara Jeannette Duncan.  It contains four novellas originally published in 1903.  The back of the book says "Sara Jeannette Duncan was the first Canadian woman to achieve international success as a journalist, novelist, and travel writer.  Born in 1861, she wrote more than twenty books during a career which took her to the Far East, India and England."

Sara Jeannette Duncan was a vey interesting and successful woman.  She was the first woman to be employed full time in a daily newspaper, the Toronto Globe, in 1886, and also worked for the Montreal Star.  She embarked on a world tour with a fellow journalist and while stopped in Calcutta, India, met Everard Cotes, a British civil servant.  She returned to India within two years to marry him.  She then spent the rest of her life in India, although visiting her family in Canada often and traveling to other countries.  Most of her books describe India in realistic local colors and her stories are in the setting of the manner of the Anglo-Indians of the British Raj, as the ruling party, the British Crown, was called in the Indian subcontinent from 1858 to 1947.  (Click on collage twice to enlarge.)

The book The Pool in the Desert contains only 189 pages but it provided me with hours of research and travel.  The stories are set in Simla, India, as it was called then; now it is called Shimla.  I researched this city and its history.  It turns out that starting in the early 1800s the British took refuge from the summer heat in this western Himalaya town because of its cooler climate.  At some 2,100 m (6,889 ft) above sea level, Simla, surrounded by deep forests of cedar, oak, deodar and pine, was a cool hilly town with green pastures and snow-capped peaks.  In 1864 it was confirmed as the British imperial summer capital of India.  It was nicknamed "The Queen of the Hills."  Below are some old engravings of Simla (be sure to click on collage to see well.)

Every year close to 5,000 British civil servants (imperial clerks and staff,) viceroys, military attaches, wives, children and servants made the tiring 1,200 miles journey from Calcutta to Simla.  There they built houses, cottages and bungalows (bungalow is an Indian word) in timbered houses, in mock-Tudor architecture, flower gardens, etc.  They also established several schools, a theatre, art exhibits, a post office, a mall with exclusive shops and a big bazaar.  They played croquet on the lawn, golf, and took afternoon teas.  It became a popular British "Hill Station."  Here are some vintage postcards.

To serve the Anglican British community Christ Church was built in 1857.  Below is a vintage postcard of the church back then and the way it looks now.

The English novelist, journalist, writer and poet Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) visited Simla yearly with his family.  His father, Lockwood Kipling was asked to serve in Christ Church.  Kipling wrote often about Simla.  Other personalities visited and some built summer homes there, including Lord Kitchener, commander of the British Army.  Artists visited Simla as well, such as the English artist and poet Edward Lear (1812-1888) who drew a series of watercolors of Simla and the surrounding areas.  (Shown below courtesy The Houghton Library, Harvard University.)

During the era of the Raj Simla had a reputation for being exclusive and expensive.  It also had a naughty reputation because of the concentration of so many unattached men (civil servants, engineers, soldiers, merchants) bachelors and women visiting during the hot weather season.  Young single women came from England in search of a husband among all the single English men there.  Rudyard Kipling said in a letter that Simla was a place for "frivolity, gossip and intrigue."  An area in Simla is even called "Scandal Point" because of its improper past.  It is a small square between the Ridge and the Mall Road.

Because the British viceroys spent from early April to late October in Simla and ruled the entire Indian subcontinent from there an official residence was built 2+ miles (3.5 km) from Simla in 1888.  British Viceroy Lord Dufferin and Lady Dufferin were the first to occupy the lodge on the 331 acre site, on top of Observatory Hills.  It was state of the art for the time, the first building with electric lighting, its own steam generator, and running hot and cold water.  Below is a vintage photo of the Viceregal Lodge, Lord Dufferin (1826-1902) Lady Dufferin (1843-1936) and one of the dining rooms - photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons Canada.

This magnificent building was in the "English Renaissance" style with elements from castles of the Scottish highlands, and interior walls covered with teak wood from Burma.  Its gardens were a perfect setting for garden parties; the immense lodge could host 800 guests.  At the time it employed a staff of 700.  Notable personalities were its guests and even Mahatma Gandhi visited the then  Vicery in 1940.  Below he is surrounded by a crowd upon his arrival in a rickshaw in Simla in 1940.

After India independence in 1947 the Viceregal Estate went to the President of India who just spent a few days a year there.  In 1964 the building renamed "Rashtrapati Niwas" (Presidentiel Residence,) became the Indian Institute of Advanced Study with the support from the second president of India, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a scholar of comparative religion and philosophy.  Now the Institute offers 2-year fellowships for research and study of cultures, civilization and meeting of different viewpoints.  The building has been renovated.  Several rooms are still open to the public.  (Photo below courtesy Wikimedia Commons.)

India is a large country with an abundance of diverse and beautiful sights to visit so Shimla is not on the regular tourist circuit of common Western travelers.  Shimla is now the capital of the state of Himachal Pradesh.

Owing to its romantic setting Shimla has become an ideal destination for Indian honeymooners in summer and also in winter, under the snow.

In 1903 to afford easier access to their summer capital the British built a narrow gauge 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) railway from Kalka, near Delhi, into Shimla.  Until then everything, including official documents, came to Simla via mules and porters.  This railway is still in working order and a great tourist experience providing dramatic view of the hills and villages of the lower Himalayas.  This toy train travels at a clunky 15 miles an hour through 103 tunnels and 865 bridges.  It is one of the steepest railways in the world climbing from 2,152 ft (656 m) and ending at Shimla at an elevation of 6,811 ft (2,076 m.)  The journey takes almost 6 hours and goes through 18 small stations and 102 caves, making 919 curves and turns where many monkeys appear.  Originally known as the "British Jewel of the Orient" the Kalka-Shimla Railway became part of the Unesco World Heritage Site in 2008.

Once in Shimla one can stop at an outdoor cafe on a hill and observe the mountain tops nearby such as the Pir Panjal Range of the Himalayas, more than 19,000 ft high, the Rakt Dhar at 20,100 ft and the Badrinath at 23,190 ft.  Trekking circuits from Shimla are also popular - one day's travel will bring you to Dharamshala where the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government are in exile (also in the state of Himachal Pradesh.)  It is a spiritual center for Buddhism.  Every year Shimla hosts one of the toughest mountain bike races in India - the MTB Himalaya biking race which covers 400 miles (650 km) in 8 stages and draws competitors from around the world.

After spending so much time with Simla and its history I was hoping to find other books with stories set there.  At the Brentwood library I found the whole 12 mysteries written by British author Barbara Cleverly.  They cover the adventures of Inspector Joe Sandilands of Scotland Yard, after WWI, while on assignment in Simla.  Cleverly recreates the atmosphere of the Raj with wonderful descriptions of the area during the waning years of the colonial culture.  I kept my iPad close by to look up many of the Indian words she mentions.  One of them was "tiffin" as in a character saying "... will  you come and join me for tiffin ..."  Tiffin is an Indian English word for a type of meal, from a snack to a light breakfast or luncheon.  It is still popular today and usually is a packed snack or lunch.  A whole industry now produces tiffin boxes of different sizes.  In a Nashville Indian grocery shop I bought a small tiffin box to carry a snack when I'll drive back and forth to Georgia.  I even found a book of reminiscences and tiffin recipes from an expat from India.  I have read five books of the Simla mysteries and will read the next seven.  I'll be armchair staying in Simla for a while longer.

You could say I am immersing myself with nostalgia for the atmosphere of the old British Empire, but I am reading fiction.  In reality, I think that under the guise of helping faraway lands, Western powers plundered these countries like India on a huge scale.  Instead of being beneficial and humane colonialism robbed them of vast economic resources and wealth.  Imperialism had contempt for native populations, it was arrogant and self-serving.  The British were not benign and considerate, they were in India to exploit and for the benefit of their home country, not the local population.  For example India in the 18th century was prosperous with a 23% share of the world economy but when the British left in 1947 it was only 3% and 90% of the population was poor.  In 10 years (1891-1900) 19 million Indians died in famines alone.  I am just armchair traveling, escaping the realities from the pain of my surgeries, the stress of being a 24/7 caregiver for my husband and the difficulties of moving from Georgia to Nashville, TN.

I'll end this post with a quote from Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who, with Prime Minister Jawaharial Nehru, registered in 1964 the Indian Institute of Advance Studies now located in the former Viceregal lodge of Simla, India.

"The greatest event of our age is the meeting of cultures, meeting of civilizations, meeting of different points of view, making us understand that we should not adhere to any one kind of single faith, but respect diversity of belief.  Our attempt should always be to cooperate, to bring together people, to establish friendship and have some kind of a right world in which we can live together in happiness, harmony and friendship.  Let us therefore realize that this increasing maturity should express itself in this capacity to understand what other points of view are."  - Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

A challenging round-trip to Orange County, California

Our eldest daughter's wedding was to be celebrated on Friday July 22, 2016, in Mission Viejo, California, where the parents of her fiance's live.  So on Wednesday, 20 July, we got up early for our trip to Southern California as we had to board our cats at the veterinarian.  We had no time for breakfast. We live about one hour + away from the airport and usually park our vehicle in an offsite parking, close to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport.  Unfortunately, after we parked, we had to wait a good 20 minutes, in full sun in the parking lot as the shuttle van had a flat tire.  I thought that this would be our only minor problem, optimist that I am  ...  We did make it to the airport, checked our suitcases, went through Security and arrived at the gate.  I always take a picture of our checked luggage, in case of them being lost or misplaced.

We had booked our flights on Southwest Airlines from Atlanta to John Wayne Airport, in Santa Ana, Orange County, California (SNA,) which is the closest airport to Mission Viejo.  We boarded the aircraft at about 2:00 pm for our 2:40 pm departure.  Then we waited, and waited.  The pilot told us that there had been a computer malfunction but we would soon leave.  We left Atlanta at 6:00 pm, sitting in the aircraft with our seat belts on all those 4 hours.  Our flight was not a direct flight, as we had to change in Phoenix, Arizona.  By the time we left Atlanta, I knew we would miss our connection in Phoenix.  I had a window seat and enjoyed the view to Arizona, though.  Below are some pictures I took from Atlanta to Phoenix.  The flying distance between the two cities is 1586 miles (2,552 km.)  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

The top left photo in the collage above is an air-view of Atlanta and the bottom photo on the right is arriving in Phoenix; Atlanta is much greener (one of the cities in the US with the most trees.)  As shown in the aerial views below of Phoenix and suburbs the developers have built communities of homogeneous houses, very close together.  The Millennial and Boomer generations are thought to wish to live in compact developments with easy access to shopping, but in and around Phoenix it looks like builders are still creating suburban sprawl - buying empty lots, further out, and quickly covering them with houses that look alike.

We arrived in Phoenix at about 6:16 pm Arizona time (3 hours time difference with Atlanta.)

Our connecting flight had been cancelled.  Another flight for Santa Ana (SNA) was to depart around 7:30 pm.  We boarded it at 7:00 pm and waited, and waited.  We were told then that Southwest's technical outage was statewide and most flights had been delayed or cancelled.  At 9:30 pm, still in the aircraft, we were asked to get off the plane as it was not going to fly to SNA and to re-book another flight.  There were hundreds of people waiting in line to re-book flights, it was surreal.  We went out of the area, back to Phoenix departure counters to get a faster reservation on another flight.  The only flight going to SNA was to leave the next evening, Thursday at 6:30 pm.  We could not accept this because if this flight were to be cancelled then we would miss the Friday wedding.  We requested to be placed on any aircraft going closer to California.  The only flight available was one going to Las Vegas, Nevada, around 10:00 pm - we agreed to take it.  We went back through Security and to the gate, and waited.  Since Tuesday night we had only eaten the little crackers and peanuts given to us on the one flight but were afraid to leave the gate.  We watched the almost empty tarmac and the sun going down.

We boarded the aircraft at about 10:30 pm and waited.  Fortunately, we only waited in the aircraft for one and half hour.  We departed Phoenix around midnight and arrived in Las Vegas around 1:00 am or so.  There, we were told that the next flight to SNA would be in the morning, at about 6:30 am.  We sat at the gate and waited, still with no food because nothing close by was open then.  The distance between Las Vegas airport and the SNA, John Wayne airport is 228 miles (367 km) and takes about one hour.  Luckily we did walk to the water fountain at about 6:00 am and noticed that our flight gate had been changed - no one had told us.  Below is a Southwest map showing our flights.

At 7:00 am our flight took off from Las Vegas and we finally arrived at the John Wayne Airport at about 8:00 am.  By then I had been on this trip for almost 30 hours (with no sleep or food) since getting up early on Wednesday (a much longer trip than flying to Paris!)  It turned out that because of a faulty router in their computer system Southwest cancelled 2,300 flights and delayed many more.  That is more than Delta's system outage two weeks ago when 300 flights were cancelled.  At least I saw the sun come up over the Arizona Mountains.  When we reached California it was quite light.

As we watched the luggage carousel turn round and round, we saw no sight of our luggage.  We waited in a long line to find out where our suitcases were - no one knew.  They did tell us that we should get them within a couple of days ... A couple of days!!  The thought of my husband taking his daughter down the aisle with his old jeans and snickers sent tremors through my body - impossible!  Our daughter had planned this wedding for a year, with family wearing complimentary outfits of similar colors; she was to wear a beautiful long ivory gown.  She could not enjoy looking at her wedding pictures throughout her life, with her parents wearing jeans and snickers among the formal party, goodness no.  After we left all our information and picture of the suitcases we went to the car rental reservation where I had booked a Prius with a GPS.  That vehicle had been let go when we did not show up on Wednesday night.  We were given a Toyota Camry without a GPS, but an archaic manual GPS in a small bag.  It turned out that it was defective, which I did not know then... Totally exhausted and weak we boarded the car and drove toward the freeway to Mission Viejo (see map below) - supposed to be a 20 minutes trip at most ... It was close to 9:00 am then, Thursday morning.  Anyone would think we were finished with our troubles then ... Not!

Our daughter had given me some directions to Mission Viejo a month earlier, but I had not paid much attention as I knew we would have a GPS - I had no map, either.  She had advised me not to take one of the toll freeways as one cannot pay for the toll with cash, it has to be done online, and it is not that easy.  Of course our on-again, off-again manual GPS would only direct me to toll roads, then would go blank.  So I would turn right or left to avoid them.  We did that for quite a while.  I did not see many signs.  By 11:30 am (we had left the airport at 9:00 am) completely disoriented, close to tears, I had to admit that we were lost, really lost.  We had kept driving higher and higher in the hills; there were hardly any houses left and we finally had to stop, because the road itself had stopped - there was just a walking path ahead.  I reluctantly decided to call our daughter - I knew she must be so busy because of the rehearsal dinner later on that day.  She told me to stop at a fast food restaurant or a gas station and ask for directions.  A fast food restaurant?  A gas station?  There was nothing around us but rocks and grass - maybe just a small sign on the left.  She asked me to see what the sign said.  I got out of the car and walked to it.  I did a double take and took its picture.  The sign looked like it had been eaten, and it said : "Warning Mountain Lion Country  A Risk ..."

I told her not to worry; we would turn back and stop when we'd reach some houses with people.  There were many new developments in the hills but they were not finished, with no one around.  Finally we saw a sign for "Model Homes."  I thought there could be a staff selling them.  We turned around several empty streets and finally saw a building with some cars parked.  We stopped and I could hear voices in the background.  I came close to the gate and said "anyone here?" a man came forward.  Later on I found out he was from Vietnam and his friends from Laos and Thailand (I had visited these last two countries years ago.)  We were at a community center.  First I asked him to tell our location to my daughter, on the telephone.  He did.  He told us it would take a good 45 minutes for someone to get us and invited us inside to wait.  It was a lovely place with large swimming pools and a profusion of flowers.  He gave us some cool water bottles - which we gladly accepted as the temperature was close to 100 F (almost 38 C.)  It was lovely to be resting for a while in a beautiful place after that trip.  I'll show on the Orange County map below where I think we drove - but I am not sure ...

Our son-in-law, our youngest daughter's husband, came to get us and we followed him back to the hotel in Mission Viejo.  We were able to go to bed for a couple of hours before the rehearsal dinner, which was to be at 5:00 pm (when we finally ate something, but were still in our traveling clothes).  This was the first time we had gone to sleep since Tuesday night and it was 4:00 pm Georgia time (1:00 pm CA time) on Thursday afternoon by then.  Our nephew drove us back to SNA airport after the rehearsal dinner as we never could reach the luggage counter by phone.  Once there and after waiting we found out that the luggage had just been delivered to the hotel.  At least we had our clothes and were very thankful.  The wedding on Friday was very nice and I'll have a post on it when I get more picture.

The week after the wedding we stayed in the area, by the sea, for several days.  I'll have posts about this stay later on (another challenging stay...).  Then we flew back to Atlanta.  I was hoping this trip back would be much better (being optimistic again...).  The flight from John Wayne Airport to Phoenix was on time.  But, unfortunately, the connecting flight to Atlanta was delayed.  I looked out of the window from the plane until there was no more light.

We arrived at the Atlanta Airport at 1:15 am.  The little train carrying passengers to the luggage area stops at 1:00 am.  We were told that we were welcome to walk the 1 1/2 mile in the tunnel to Baggage Claim.  There were many children, infants and persons like me who have problems walking (me, because of my knees) and many carry-on luggage.  Finally, since we were still over a hundred passengers, a special train was sent for us at about 2:00 am.  We piled in the two cars like a box of tight sardines.  Our luggage was there on the carousel at the Baggage Claim.  Then we caught a shuttle back to our offsite parking.  We finally were at home at 4:00 am - it could have been worse!  This is why I call this round-trip a challenging one - it is a trip to remember, or maybe to forget ...

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Addendum -  Monday August 29, 2016 - As I pointed above, I tried not to enter any Orange County Toll Road while driving from the Santa Ana Airport to where ever in the mountains on my way to Mission Viejo, but I must have.  It was a challenge avoiding these toll roads and I, somehow, must have entered one for a moment, and did not realize it.  Just now the mailman delivered a letter from Irvine, California, from the Violation Enforcement of "The Toll Roads."  They are advising me that on July 21, 2016, at 9:47 am I entered a Toll Road without paying the toll.  The notice says "The Toll Roads are collected electronically from a pre-established FastTrak© or ExpressAccount© online via our One-TimeToll© payment."  This was something I was not aware of, apart from my daughter telling me it was a hassle.  So, California tourists to Orange County beware of this.  Oh, the penalty - it is $101.96 (or 88.29 Euros, or 129.56 Canadian Dollars, or 130.68 Australian Dollars or 75.26 British Pounds.)