As if I haven’t been out of the country or at least the mainland for enough this month, coming up is another trip on the World Traveler’s scheduler. However, this is not my business trip but Jen’s.

Of course, it won’t be the least bit grueling as my trip to American Samoa was the past 3 weeks. In fact, it should be a darn nice relaxing business trip. And once again, I will be going from Island to Island… but instead of the South Pacific, it’s the Eastern Caribbean…

7 Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise

Tough stuff huh…

No, the kids won’t be with us. They’ll be with a friend of the family being well taken care of while we are enjoying the fine art of Cruising. So, you’ll probably won’t see me for a few days…

Getting through customs wasn’t all that difficult. Apart from being exhausted, I got to everywhere I needed to be to get my paperwork stamped and my luggage sent onto Knoxville.

We were able to get a hotel room in Honolulu for most of the day while we were there. VERY VERY tired, we all stayed in the hotel. I actually caught up on some stuff that I wanted to do in Samoa, but was too distracted with the Internet. Luckily I had my cell phone and had set the alarm, because… they cut the power for an hour. Just because…

Oh well… I did get to speak with Jen with only a 5 hour difference. YAY!

So we got back on the plane to Chicago and wouldn’t you know it but I was seated next to this lady who we had seen in the American Samoa airport (but going to Pittsburgh) and she has run in a couple of Marathons. Kinda  nice to chat about running stuff to a live person who didn’t think I was crazy.

We made it to Chicago with a problem, well, the 40 degree difference in Temperature wasn’t pleasant. I bought an over-price bagel, coffee and gatorade and started to continue reading my book. 2 hours later, our flight was ready (and on-time).

The flight to Knoxville was uneventful, just how I like it. They had us on the South end approach to TYS, which if you are coming from the North, you fly right over my house. I was on the wrong side to see my house, but I knew exactly where I was for the decent!

I got a call from Jen saying that she would meet me at baggage. Before the bags started spewing from the mystery hole, I went outside and she and the kids were waiting by the curb. When I stuck my head in the car, the kids weren’t sure who I was and even Ryan started to get a scared/upset look until he realized who it was, then he was all smiles.

I grabbed Eric and took him inside to look for my luggage. Entertained by the baggage carosel, my luggage did arrive and intact. The Samoan Adventure was now complete, after hugs and kisses all around to the family it was time for bigger and better stuff like gymnastics!

We had to go to the best breakfast place on the island on the island, ddw. It provided a good location because we might have to go to the Power Company to get their phone, plus we were close to the Post Office AND we were near the Government Building.

The French Toast was awesome as usual. I called the Power company and to no surprise they did not have their form ready. There was a major shakedown in the offices of the Power Authority and so once the dust settled, there were new people in new position. Regardless, they PROMISED that would mail their form to me in Knoxville. So, it was off to the Post Office.

I had 3 packages to mail. The cheapest one was a Flat Rate Box, but it wasn’t the Long Box. It was the 8.5×11 box, so it just fit normal paper. Unfortunately, I had papers that were longer than 8.5×11. So, I used the trusty-rusty tyvek envelopes and that did the job, however, the cost was just over $14. Next was the granddaddy package… the printer. We had bought a printer to print out our to-do list from the database… incredibly handy and a big timesaver. Wrapped up in non-descript brown paper, it was only $27 and change. I sure thought the printer alone was going to be $50… but nope, everything went Priority (to get on the plane) and was $50something.

Government called, please give them another hour for the form to be ready. Okay… sure. So I went to the store where I had left my credit card. They had dropped it off at the hotel just minutes after we left for breakfast…*SIGHHHHHhhh. Well, I knew it was safe, so it was fine. I went next door to get me some Crocs shoes. I had wanted something comfortable for the plane, and since I knew how comfortable (Cheap imitations of) the shoes were, I thought let’s DO IT. The bonus is that the “real” Crocs don’t make my feet sweat! YAY!

So, off to the hotel to get my credit card. After getting the open door to my financial debt, I played on the computer for about an hour before I headed downtown to the Government Building. The government form was ready, YAY! More errands, though, I had one more form to go get and then I wanted to stop off and get Jen’s gift. Done and Done.

Next, I dropped off the car and the rental phone and so that made the finality of the trip much more real. No car, no phone. Just a plane to catch, but still hours away. Do I need to say that I was on the computer from the time I got back to the hotel until dinner? No? Good.

After dinner, we chatted with the hotel personnel and she was telling us that people line up at 6pm to check in. Well, seeing that it was 7:30, that create fear and panic in the rest of the team. So, we decided that we would meet back down there at 7:50 so that we could get in line. We got in line at the airport at 8pm. At 9:30, I had my boarding pass. Next I had to go to Immigration and have my boarding pass stamped. Then I waited in Security. Getting through security was not a problem and in face one of the TSA agents saw all my chocolate and tipped me off that there was Cadbury in the Duty Free shop. SAH-WEET-TAH.

So, at 10:15 we sat down in the transit lounge. Sometime around 11:30 we heard a low rumble and sure enough some strange lights were moving on the runway. upon closer inspection, it was the Hawaiian Aircraft to take us part of the way home. At Midnight they started boarding…

Moving around like the cattle that we were, we boarded the plane and took our seats. At 12:25am, our plane lifted off the ground. Yeah, I wasn’t counting minutes… nope. Not at all. Once airborn, I started reading my book, 1776. I didn’t get very far until I was tired and closed the book and my eyes.

I woke up about an hour later when they were giving out sandwiches. Turkey (to make us sleep) Croissant Sandwiches, Lays potato chips and an Oreo 2pack. I think I started watching (but with the $5 audio) of The Devil Wears Prada with Glenn Close and the chick from The Princess Diaries. It’s also supposed to feature my new fave Top 40 song, well it’s not new… it’s actually over a year old in Britain but it was catchy and I am going to put it in my Running Set… it’s Suddenly I See by KT Tunsell. If you watched “So You Think You Can Dance” it was the song that they played for the girls when they left.

But it must have not been that enthralling without audio because I fell back asleep only to wake up when they started to do the Custom Forms. It was about 5am Samoan Time (6am Hawaiian) and I probably got about 3-4 hours of sleep. Now, to go get my luggage…

I am back in Tennessee. Safe and Sound.

The picture link works now, sorry… in a haste and misspelled the URL, so that’s all fixed.
I hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I am having some crazy jet lag and after almost falling asleep, literally at the table, I took a 3 hour nap and now it’s 1:30 in the morning and I am on the computer.

I do have the last few precious (cough, cough) days of American Samoa to post. Of course, I have to get this done, before P3 World Traveler heads out for another trip… this time, all pleasure and NO business, sorta.

okay, I get to leave now a little faster than expected…

Here are two picture albums to satisfy your American Samoan desires for now…

The National Park (you’ve seen some of these in the blog entry)

Just “some more a”[sic] of Samoa

When the alarm went off early in the morning, I knew it was either now or never for getting a long run in while here in Samoa. So, I woke up and got all my stuff together and headed out. I made it out the door a little after 6am, which should cut down on the traffic noise. I was recording the core of audio for Episode 003 of my podcast Gravity @ 1053 and I didn’t want lots of background noise.

The gray sky was a welcome sight, even though the potential for a torrential downpour was eminent, I would rather run in the rain than the unrelenting sunshine. There was a nice breeze, enough to at least keep the gnats at bay, which is a good thing.

The path that I followed started off like my other routes that I ran here in Samoa, except that where I would turn to head back toward the hotel, I kept going straight. This would lead me to the intersection of the “airport” road and American Samoa Route 001.

I then proceeded East toward the village of Nu’uuli. Once I made it to the main road, the cars died down, which was nice. Unfortunately I did have technical problems with the audio, which I found out later… sigh. When you have a $3 microphone, these things happen.

Once past Nu’uuli, the road becomes paved as it hugs the curves of the southern part of the island. It looks like this part of the island was “designed” as there is a significant seawall, but the problem is that once I past the last mart, there is very little between here and Faga’alu. So I was isolated to a point.

Also, at this point I was exposed to the wind and the clouds, almost like a sacrificial offering. I was fortunate to have the wind not be a problem… this would, of course, be temporary.

Some where near mile 5 or so, about a mile before the turn around point, the wind changed directions. I didn’t realize what was happening, but all of a sudden… RAIN. The wind was now blowing in my direction and the rain was steady but not overwhelming. I contemplate turning around, but I was only a mile or so away. Plus I thought the amusement of the Samoans… “Look at the white guy running in the rain”.

Good for me: The storm was moving East to West; Bad for Me: I was soaked and my shoes were soaked and not providing any cushioning. So as I reached my designated turn around point, the rain had gone to a sprinkle. I turned around and ran back.

Bad for me: The storm was moving East to West much faster than I was running and the clouds began to break; Bad for Me: little cushioning and concrete = tired legs.

Running back was slightly more dangerous. Now it was time for church and so more cars were out on the road. Some of the places that were almost dry when I passed them the first time, were now mini-lakes. This meant that I was having to run in the road to avoid a run-swim-run workout. And there were pedestrians now to dodge as well. The adults were oblivious to me, but the kids found me curious. One asked if I was exercising, I said “Yes, Yes, I am”, others said hello.

Some how, I managed to pull a negative split during the run. My first 6.3 miles was 1:04:01 and my return trip was 1:02:23… don’t ask me how. I was sore, but not bad… not like the hike last weekend. I was ready to get cooled off, showered and get something to eat.

After getting a shower and getting the grit off my legs from the road, I headed to McDonalds for a nice breakfast. Well, it was a standard breakfast really. I had gotten a message in my room that I had left my credit card at a store the day before (I knew that) and they were going to drop it off as opposed to going on a wild shopping spree. That didn’t happen, but I wasn’t worried.

In the afternoon, I was on the computer. Completing online surveys and reading blogs. I had the TV on part of the time and the radio for the other part of the time. Go over to Running into a Brick Wall, frequent Planet3rry commenter and marathon extraordinare, Rae, complete the inaugural Harpeth Hills marathon with her hubby Brent!

In the evening I started to edit the audio for Episode 003 of Gravity @ 1053′, this is when I realized that my audio was hosed, or at least part of it. I believe that the microphone doesn’t like moisture and it cracks, pops and just doesn’t work when it gets wet.

But I wasn’t done when the crew called to go to dinner… Hong Kong House, one last time!

When I got back, I started to preliminary pack my bags. I finished the audio to the podcast and added some new little snippets (nothing too exciting). All I have to do is to export to MP3, upload, change the feed and I will be done.

The “plan” was to wake up at 5:45 and get out the door before the sun was out. You know, out like a grape, back like a raisin. The rain at night was a not a good sign. I had decided that if the wind was still present or it was raining, that I would pass for the day and try Sunday. I set my clock radio to go off a little earlier than normal. This way, I could make an assessment of the situation and then decided to either get up and run or go back to bed.

The alarm when off. Snooze.

9 minutes later, the radio is back on. What time is it? Snooze.

9 minutes later, the radio is back on. Oh, it’s 5:20 something, is it raining? I dunno. Snooze.

9 minutes later, the radio is back on. (straining) It looks a little cloudy, the sun isn’t up yet, perhaps it’s raining… Snooze.

9 minutes later, the radio is back on. No wind, it’s cloudy, I’m tired… Snooze.

9 minutes later, the radio is back on. Hmmm, I wonder if I should just run tomorrow, I’ll decide in 9 minutes… Snooze.

9 minutes later, the radio is back on. Run today? No rain… yet? Snooze.

9 minutes later, the radio is back on. Well, it’s after 6am, I guess I’ll pass until tomorrow. Snooze.

9 minutes later, the radio is back on. Snooze.
9 minutes later, the radio is back on. Snooze.
9 minutes later, the radio is back on. Snooze.
9 minutes later, the radio is back on. I finally got up, mainly because the troops were gathering so that we could go get some breakfast and do Laundry. Since we were going to be here an extra day, that would warrant another washing of clothes.

I talked with Jen during most of my laundering. We did have the Ohio State-Michigan game on the TV, but when we weren’t looking some young girl changed it to some weird dubbed movie, which I can only guess was about these women who would draw symbols in sand… they much of had some power because this HUGE army was attacking them. It was weird. very very weird.

When we got back I got back on to the computer… go figure. I tried to catch up on the blogging. By the time I get to the computer, EVERYONE in the states have already blogged, so I have all of them to read, as opposed to catching them as they happen and it more spread out. Stupid Time Zones.

At about 1pm, I met with Jim and we went out to go get some gifts for the fam. Lucky me, I left my credit card at the store I bought my stuff. Luckily, they are supposed to deliver my card on Sunday. The people here are very nice, luckily I will be here on Monday, just in case they can’t make on Sunday. But I have gifts for everyone but Jen, have NO idea what I am going to get her.

We drove around on another minor road (meaning it was paved) to a part of the island we hadn’t been before. I had a nice view, but it got cloudy again when we got up there. The people who were out waved as us as we went by. Kinda like… “Hey, white guys… tourists… HI!”

Dinner was chosen to be Pizza Hut. It was pizza and it was good. I ate too many pieces but the guys think that I am some sort of human eating machine. Which I did my duty and polished off the last piece. yum. I can only imagine my cholesterol level right now…

When we got back, I was back on the computer and had the History channel playing the background. They had a promo for Shoot Out!, the video game. COOL! So, I decided to start downloading the game and sure enough, it was there, but took forever to download. Our connection here is “sort of” high speed. Okay, “sort of” means “not really”. It finished downloading during the night sometime, but I haven’t played it yet. With Saturday gone, there is less than 48 hours until we leave.

I had been asked by a few of you for some Samoan Words… I haven’t been skirting the issue, I just have been busy with other things, so here are some words:

Talofa = Hello

Afio Mai  = Welcome

Lalelei = Beautiful

Tane = Men

Fahne = Woman

Fa’afetai = Thank You

Matai = Cheif

I’m no linguist, but most words are read in groups of 2, but not always.

So for thank you it’s Fa-Ah-Fay-Tie where the “‘a” is together and “tai” is counted as one syllable.

No one was all that excited to spend an extra day in American Samoa. Richard’s girlfriend has an infection and so his stay in Hawaii instantly crumbed before his eyes. So he has had to go through the process of canceling all of his reservation et al. Also we found out that we are going to have a hotel for our 12 hour layover in Hawaii, some hotel right near the airport. So that will be pretty sweet, I guess, well it beat wandering around the airport for 12 hours. At least I will be able to watch TV and use my mobile phone. Perhaps they will even have free internet.

Friday was very windy. Steady wind too, some where around 15-20 mph. Since I was going to run Saturday morning, I was glad to not face the wind. It did shower every now and then, but of course. What would we expect?

We had a fairly easy day of survey work. It was more of picking up survey forms than anything else. So, pretty simple. While at the hotel for one of our meeting before more pick up, we had a nice chat with a business woman from New York. She had come to see what American Samoa was all about. Her trip was a 2 day excursion from Hawaii… she was, eccentric.

She had great vision for the island. Do this, do that and the people here could be living in a real paradise. The only problem, change the culture of the Samoans. Kick out a couple of villages so that they could buld up some exclusive resorts… it could work and would be successful, but the island doesn’t work that way.

So after 20 minutes, we went back out to wrap up all the rest of survey forms. After a couple of visits and call, we know have some forms to pick up on Monday. I would rather work a little on Monday, since we don’t leave until 11:20pm than to wait for them to “mail” the form back to me.

We ate dinner at the Hong Kong house, no surprise there.

When we got back, I was back on the computer to try to catch with blogging and commenting. I had the TV on, because we get those 6 channels, the only one that might be current is USA network. Everything else is 2 weeks old or the movies are from the 40s and 50s. Having never ever seeing an episode of Law & Order before coming to the island, I have seen about 10 different episodes of Law & Order: SVU and 3 episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

I did get to see Shoot Out! on the history channel. Of course, I also got to some shows on Hitler, Atlantis, Prisons, Iwo Jima, Aircraft and much more. All of which is interesting once, but when the shows come on again, ehhh, not so much. But the commercials are now heavy for the elections. Yes, the elections from earlier in the month.

So major survey collection work is done. Now, we just have to escape, I mean leave, the island back to the main land. The question is… when will that be?

While I slept, our itinerary was changed to reflect leaving 24 hours later than previous discussed. Nothing Like some major jet lag less than 24 hours before a relatively major 8k race, picking up your brother from the airport and having Thanksgiving with the family…

But I’m alive and healthy to do all of those things, so why should I bitch and complain. That would just make a not so great situation even worse, so why waste the energy… I have better things to do.

On that note, it was time to go to work. And the days all run together, so to even try to think WHAT I did yesterday would be a joke… not a Ha-Ha joke. So, we played your local friendly surveyor all morning and afternoon.

Once we got back from work, I decided that I needed to get out and run an easy run. Or rather an easy pace, not this speed demon run. I need to slow down and give myself to a chance to heal and rest up before the race the day, errrr make that 22 hrs, after I get home. Well today, it kinda worked.

I ran the loop around the hotel “block” which ends up being 3.2 miles, I can’t gmap-pedometer the course, so it’s what I go with. My pace for the just over 5k distance was a 8:31 min/mile. A little slower than the less than 8:00 min/pace that I had been running.

Since it had been raining all day (I didn’t mention that), I was worried that I would hit some of the rain. And I did, but it wasn’t bad. More of a light mist more than anything else. I had a couple of people say “Hi” to me as I passed by, that caused me to run faster. So I had to slow myself down. Then a dog came out of no where and that caused me to run faster. Once I was in the clear, I slowed down.

For dinner we at a Rubbles Tavern and the item on the menu that was calling my name… Nachos. They weren’t bad and it was nice to have a nice jalepeno taste in my mouth. Tomorrow would be the last “real” day of the survey and a step closer to getting home!