November 7, 2010
Free Time Blog
This is Saturday (weekends are when I take a break from my usual DrDave Memory Blog and have “Free Time”)..….(Remember “Free Time?”)
In my last LILAGCS Blog (15) I was sharing about my grade school years. I stopped with 3 grade and will pick it back up in the next Blog (16).
I have been thinking about what would be interesting to write about and have decide to let my mind wander! (I do a lot of that anyway in my normal Blogs)
I have separated out a few of you that have been consistently responding to most all of my LILAGCS Blogs. This is going to be a “Special Blog” to all of you.
I have decided to share with you what happened the day I got on the airplane to fly here to Cebu City from the place I was living in Coralville, Iowa. That was 5 years ago last July 23rd.
Decision to move to the Philippines
My decision to move to the Philippines and marry Evelyn and her 4 children came after much mental struggle for over a year. My biggest struggle was leaving my “stuff”. I felt I was limited to just what I could carry on the airplane. That meant I was going to have to do something with the rest of the “stuff” that I felt I could not do without.
I had traveled by Greyhound Bus out to visit my brother, Jim the Thanksgiving of 2004 in November.
I stayed a couple of weeks at his place and had a good time. I remember when I left the Iowa City, Iowa bus terminal headed for my first stop in Chicago.
I had purchased a set of luggage that consisted of a large travel piece with a pullout handle, a medium sized piece that also had a pullout handle, a small zipper type carrying bag and my special computer carry on bag.
I figured that I would place my two suit cases with the pullout handle and the zipper bag in the luggage carrier and I would keep the computer bag with me . I would place all of the essential items in the computer bag.
I had been working as a volunteer foster grandparent at a local daycare center close to my apartment in Coralville, Iowa.
I was paid a small payment of about $2.97 an hour……It was called a “stypen”…(not sure if that is spelled correctly) and I would work every morning from about 7:30 AM to 12:30 PM.
I was also volunteering at the University of Iowa Hospital in the Pastoral Services area.
Above: University of Iowa Hospital from the air
I did volunteer work in the television studio of the Iowa City Senior Center.
I produced television programs for senior citizens, none of which was essential and I could set my own work schedule at anyone of the above three jobs.
As I pulled out of the Iowa City bus terminal I remember my feeling of excitement and anxiety in anticipation of making a trip by bus that I had never done before.
I had my trip schedule with my connecting busses listed with times and the connecting bus numbers in my carryon computer bag.
My first connection was in Chicago and the bus terminal was in the downtown area. For some reason our bus had been delayed for whatever reason and the bus driver told us that we may miss our connection for the next bus. I panicked a little but decided to just “keep my cool” which I was able to do.
Sure enough when we arrived in Chicago we had, in fact, missed our connection. My first impulse was to go to the scheduling counter and find out when the next bus going East in the direction of Springfield, Massachusetts was scheduled to depart.
I was told that the next bus wasn’t scheduled for 11 hours. After evaluating the situation I decided to call my brother, Jim and tell him I would call him when I reached a location that would put me within an hour or two of his place. I was able to get through to him and that took care of that.
I decided to just be calm and observe the people, which was an experience in itself. If you have ever traveled by bus you might have an idea what I mean. There are some very strange people traveling on buses.
As the time got closer for my connecting bus to arrive I observed that people were starting to line up at the gate where the bus was suppose to arrive. I did likewise. This happened about 2 and a half hours before the scheduled arrival.
I finally boarded the bus and I was again off to Springfield, Massachusetts.
My original schedule put me into my destination about 7:30 that evening. After making transfers in Cleveland, Ohio and passing through Albany, New York I was finally within a few hours of Springfield. Jim’s location where he was going to pick me up was Amherst, Massachusetts about 30 minutes from there.
I remember my connecting bus line at Springfield was called the Peter-Pan Bus line. I called Jim when I arrived in Springfield and Jim told me that his friend, Dave would be there at the bus terminal in Amherst to pick me up and drive me to his house.
It was about 10 PM when I arrived and everything else went fine.
I ended up staying my two weeks then used my return bus ticket to go back to Iowa City and my home. Jim had sent me his credit card number to use when I purchased the round trip bus ticket since I had no extra money.
I can see I am going to have to write this memory in two parts since I haven’t even gotten to the part where I say with brother Jim for almost 5 months. It is during those 5months that I make up my mind to go to the Philippines for good.. So I will pick this up next week…..”Decision to move to the Philippines.”
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