CHAPTER TWO - EVEN THE BEST LAID PLANS MUST BE CHANGED 2

CHAPTER TWO - EVEN THE BEST LAID PLANS MUST BE CHANGED

Original Journal Post 

The first morning was begun with a beautiful fog to

look through from my 11th floor corner room in the

Marriott Courtyard next to the famous classical

architectural monument, the Philly city hall.

Going to the American Creativity Association

Conference was a warm up for my trip. Some of my

international friends were there from Taiwan,

Singapore, Denmark, Italy, Canada.

Looking back from 2018 I see that I forgot to write a journal piece about when I arrived at the Marriott Courtyard the afternoon the day before.

Remember I had a detailed plan.  I had a great deal of experience traveling internationally since 1977 over 26 years to 30+ countries in 4 continents already.

The Scene

I arrived at the Philly airport on time.

My van ride to the Marriott was smooth.

The bellman helped me with my roller bag and my carry on expanded brief case

I walked up to the check in counter.

"I have a registration for Black".

Handed over my passport and credit card.

The clerk took them, smiling and welcoming me to the Marriott Courtyard in downtown Philly.

A moment later the expression on her face changed dramatically.

"Sir MasterCard is saying your card is on HOLD and can not be used."

The previous week I had called both of my credit card companies: 

1) US-AIRWAYS MasterCard 

and 

2) VISA card 

to tell them about my trip that would involve many countries over the next 3 months.   I had had a hold during a previous trip to South Africa when my cards were put on hold supposedly because of suspicious purchases that I had made without warning the credit cards about and ended up using an ATM to pay for my Guesthouse stay in Pretoria.

Then I gave her my VISA card. That was accepted. Problem solved.

Off to my room on the 11th floor

insert photo from hotel room towards city hall

Once I settled in placing various items on the desk and into the dresser drawers and hanging clothes in the closet I sat down to call the USAIRWAYS MasterCard office to straighten out this mess now in Philly and not in Osaka, Japan days later.

I was angry. Pissed. Far from annoyed.  I tried to keep my cool while trying to get the employee to correct this pain in the ass problem that I thought I had protected myself against happening last week.

It took about 10 minutes of lip and inside of my cheek biting and teeth gritting but it was corrected with a lengthy apology from the employee.

Damn!

Thank fully it happened in Philly where I could speak English with the hotel clerk and not in Osaka where the clerk might not speak fluent English.

No matter how much planning you do LIFE HAPPENS.

The next 5 days in Philly went smoothly.

Most days I walked from the Marriott Courtyard to the hotel where the ACA Conference was being held for exercise and to explore Philly.

During an open time I walked from the MC to the museum that was made famous in the ROCKY movie where Balbora ran up the steps and did his famous victory dance.

Instead I walked along the famous divided boulevard that leads to it from downtown and briskly, taking 2 or 3 steps in my strides to the top at the entrance and did my VICTORY DANCE similar to Rocky.

Each evening in Philly I connected up with ACA colleagues to have dinner in various restaurants.

One night I taxied to the train station and took the train out to Doylestown where I met up with my 4 cousins, children of my late Dad's youngest brother, Stanley.  It had been several years since I last saw them when their complete family traveled the US with a travel behind their car for 13 weeks during their father's extended break from US Steel that was part of his Steelworker's UNION contract.

Annable, Bob, Mike and Jimmy this time were all adults.

That one evening would take chapters to record and was a side trip not part of this GLOBAL ENDLESS SPRING TRIP.

Maybe in my autobiography I will share more about that evening.

I returned to the MC around 1 am to sleep.

Tomorrow will be another day filled with experiences and meet ups with creativity colleagues.

Good Night....need to rest because I leave by plane for Osaka, Japan tomorrow evening.