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| It seemed like the middle of January during Thursday's drive to Iron Mountain. |
27 degrees/cloudy/calm winds
Pentoga Road
If Thursday's snow wasn't bad enough, we received another inch last night. To put the frosting on the cake, a foot or more is forecast to fall Sunday night into Monday.
In goes the lawn mower/out comes the snowblower. Hard to believe that I was barefoot while helping Mississippi Brother Garry plant corn just a few weeks ago.
Be sure to continue reading to the end of today's entry. Stefanie, a former student of mine from northern Maine, has granted permission, via my friend, Eileen, to publish the letter she wrote to her parents and family, Uncle Bert and Eileen, a few days ago.
Stef and Rob have been teachers at an international school in Beirut, Lebanon, and have been on the front lines of not only the civil unrest, but how that country is dealing with the current Covid-19 virus. The account of their departure from Lebanon and arrival back in the US is quite the story. I hope you find it as interesting as I have.
Sargie and I did make our way to Iron Mountain Thursday morning for supplies. No one seemed to be in a panic at any of the stores where we shopped. Supplies were plentiful and people were courteous. Sargie even found our preferred brand of toilet paper and Lysol disinfectant.
I find it strange that both clerks/managers and shoppers seem to fall in two distinct categories:
1) full on preventative gear, masks, gloves, etc. Many have a distrusting look in their eyes as if they might bolt out the door at any moment, practice careful measured steps to maintain at LEAST a six to ten foot distance. Several were garbed in clothing similar to that of Neil Armstrong's during the first moon landing.
2) Others who look, act, and shop, as if nothing out of the ordinary is occurring. They disinfect their grocery cart, practice distancing, then go about shopping as usual.
Just a casual observation.
My buddy, John, the retired Superintendent of Schools in Sitka, Alaska, sent me the following picture. Now calling Boise, Idaho, his part time home, John has a friend who caught this fifteen and a half inch perch that weighed 2.33 pounds.
The fish reminds me of some we caught years ago while living in northern Maine when perch in the two pound category were the rule rather than the exception.
I'm not sure what today will bring. It's still cold and snowy and I don't think I want to work on the backhoe, even if it is housed in the barn. Tomorrow's high is to be in the fifties and I may wait until then.
Jambo and I are going to meet on the road in a few minutes and take our walk to Pentoga. Otherwise, I think Sargie and I will install that last piece of tile in the bathroom and put the trim back in place.
And now, here's Stef and Rob's story with comments about the Phoenica from Mom, Eileen, at the conclusion.
Greetings,
I am not sure if Robb reached out or not about us being officially stateside for the foreseeable future but I wanted to let you know what we have been up to since we landed and tell the tale. It is 8:10 am Beirut time, which is why I am up. It's 1:10 am EST. We are going to try to keep our Beirut time schedule as much as possible this week just to seal the deal that we are in fact still working!
So the embassy flight was mostly full leaving Beirut. It was a combined flight of Canadian and US citizens, mostly UN and diplomatic families from what we could tell, and more Canadians than US people. Getting to the airport was a trick because it was after curfew but Mak from the Phoenicia was kind and offered to take us, a crucial step in the process. Thankfully he drives a blacked out Escalade type of SUV with a short license plate number (That usually indicates some sort of big wig, politician, security detail) and we made it without issue. Entering the airport was interesting. They scanned our passports and checked our temperature before we could even get in line at the ticket counter. 2 of my students were in line with us, both Canadian. We were the only faculty from ACS on board as far as we could tell. The social distancing was enforced from there on. All the airports were closed or drastically minimized in their retail offerings. Beirut was boarded up and cleaned out. No duty free, no lounges, no bathrooms. The entire flight spread out over 8 gates to wait for boarding. Some people boarded with those white hazmat suit coverings, face shields, masks and gloves. The flight was fine, although eerie and quiet. Luggage, including the bike, all got checked with no additional charges. The whole experience reminded me of a cheesy Stephen King tv movie, The Langoliers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiTMGWi_mlc.
Doha was the same, although they had a coffee shop or 2 open. We purposefully went to Dallas because when we booked we looked at the airport restrictions on entry, the state of the state as far as infection rates, and how crowded the plane was at the time of booking, Dallas won and it was a great flight. We selected the middle section so that Robb was on the aisle seat and if I had to get up and out I only had to pester him. But because of social distancing, they shuffled everyone around and gave us an empty seat so we had the entire row to our selves. No medical check on arrival here.
Dallas was interesting. We expected something better to be honest. We were never checked! We had been checked by medical staff upon arrival in Beirut over a month ago when we returned from Istanbul (temperature before entering passport control), and Lebanon is actually testing their repatriated flights twice AT THE HOSPITAL (once on arrival, and another one a week later so they have test kits; they boarded busses to get there). But nothing in Doha or the US. Immigration just asked me, not Robb, if I had traveled in the last month. Our trip to Istanbul was just 1 month ago to the day, so no. We got bags, including the bike and found a check in counter for American Airlines. I had already checked us into the flight when we were in Doha and bought the luggage, but we needed the stupid tags, and with all the shuffling of flights we needed updated boarding passes. Once that was taken care of we had to go back up through security and find the gate in a different terminal. American Airlines is a hub in Dallas, but they have closed much of the airport and terminals. Our original flight was to BWI in Baltimore, but within 24 hours of booking, they changed the destination to Regan National in DC, changed the time, and the terminal. Even during our 15.5 hour flight from Doha things changed. When we checked in the terminal and the gate had changed. Glad we did not go with our digital boarding pass!
The terminal in Dallas had many more food options, but it was all take away, no seating available and no other retail. Social distancing was enforced in the check in counter, security line, boarding process and seat assignments. We had to scan our own boarding pass which tells me someone just lost a job after this thing is all said and done. One of the many changes that will occur from this global experience! They have had enough time to print fancy floor stickers and posters all around the airport that demonstrate proper distance. I got us BBQ while Robb made some final posts for his lessons that were going to go live before we could get back on wifi. The flight had 16-20 people TOTAL, and we each got a row to ourselves. NO service on the flight to keep us all safe. NO food, NO beverages, nothing. Easy 3 hour flight, and our luggage was waiting for us by the time we got to baggage claim.
Thankfully, Jillian, my former student was willing and able to pick up our car from Chuck and drive it to Regan, which thankfully we were able to inform her of the shift in airports before she got the car. She just finished her quarantine after returning from a Princeton fellowship in Tanzania and was excited to get out of the house! Chuck was super kind in leaving essentials in the car. Coffee, bleach, TP, cleaning wipes, bread, PB, Jelly, pasta and sauce. Enough to get us started for several days. We could not have done this trip without this crucial step. The car was waiting, and lonely as it was the only one around. We were on the road 30 minutes after stepping off that plane. The airport was a ghost town. Driving out of the airport and thru DC on the GW Parkway was super easy! We arrived to our hideout in Berkley Springs, WV at 1:30am. We did stop for coffee at a gas station in Frederick, but 6ft between us and the lady behind the counter getting us the coffee seemed reasonable to us.
The house is a cute, older home that was a rental/fixer upper for a colleague of Robb's. It needs a good cleaning, but I'm on it! We found the key, turned on the water heater in the scary basement, connected to wifi with zero issues, and turned on the heat. I stripped the bed and started a load of wash while we waited for the hot water for showers. We had 30 hours of travel plane on us and were gross. Robb got online right away to be on Beirut time to make sure his lessons posted and check email. I was busy cleaning and unpacking the groceries. We had "breakfast" at 3am, and I was showered and online for my department meeting at 6:30am. My colleagues are in London and Beirut and they offered to move the meeting time to support my time zone, but we were clear when we made this decision to stick to the Beirut schedule. We went from having 3 computers and an iPad to 1 computer and an iPad, so our timing to use the computer will need to be more coordinated. We start spring break on Friday, which is when we can catch our breath a bit.
We were up all day Saturday and left at 10pm for the airport. We slept off and on especially on the long flight, but we made it from 11pm Sunday to 2pm Monday before crashing. I had to sleep by then, but Robb toughed it out a little longer. It works out. We are still on Beirut time! He has a Zoom with his class today in a few hours.
We have no idea if this was a smart decision but we think it was the right one. We have no idea when the airport will reopen, and being a flight away if needed was compromised because of the indefinite closure. This means that those who are departing at the end of their contract like us, may not get to leave anytime soon. These are strange times with a global impact. We were very safe in Beirut, had great medical care provided the country could still provide the services because the economy is bad, and had a great apartment and good friends. But the thought of being stuck did not appeal to us. Lots of countries are closing their boarders thru June, and we need both ends to be open to make a trip happen.
We will try to touch base soon on your time zone. We have wifi so calling is either whatsapp or skype but we do not have SIM cards yet. There is no rush to get that done if we have wifi.
Cheers and thanks to all of you for your support.
Robb and Stef
.... and from Eileen
I just wanted to mention that she mentioned that Mak from the Phoenicia in the email took them to the airport. We met Mak and his wonderful girlfriend (Mak’s wife died) at the Phoenicia. I think it was his grandfather that built the hotel and he is one of the co-owners with his brothers. Mak is an expert on whisky from around the world and they actually took a back room and made a whisky room, complete with whisky from around the world. Robb taught his young son in first grade the first year they were there and they became social friends as a result. We got a VIP tour of the hotel last year, from the $15,000 a night in the pent house all the way down to the cellar and laundry, kitchens, and several restaurants on the main floor. He gave us several bottles of fine wine to take back to US and a white leather bound book about the history of the Phoenicia. He also pointed out several dishes on the lunch menu that we had to try in addition to what we had ordered. The tour was right up there with the highlight of the trip. We were there about 4 hours with lunch and tour. He has a low numbered license plate because he is a big wig!!!
So there you have it. Kind of makes this world a much smaller place, doesn't it?
OK, time to shake, rattle, and roll and take a stroll down this road we call Pentoga.
After all, a man's work is never done.
So are the tales from Pentoga Road...
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| Today's random Alaska picture: And they say the parking lot at Walmart is crowded at Christmas time. Try wading through all the basket sleds to get into church! Most of the congregants were from out of the village and pulled the sleds filled with family and supplies to give or trade. |
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