Bernie picked me up at the unGodly hour of 5:30h on 28 April 2000 to go to the Newark airport for an eBay related trip to deliver some art works to Leon in North Carolina.

We stopped at the local Trenton McDonalds to get my the usual coffee and some kind of breakfast egg and meat sandwich.

Traffic was heavy and we reached the airport about 25 minutes BEFORE the flight was supposed to leave (at 9:20h - United Express - I assume that it is a shuttle of some kind) for The Dullas airport in Washington, D.C. .

I waited in line as there were loads of people ahead of me. The lady finally got to me and seemingly took her time looking at my ticket to finally decide that "You had better hurry because it is ready to leave"! I asked her to phone the gate to tell them I was coming, and asked where the gate was, AGAIN suggesting that she call ahead.

OK, after hobbling a LONG distance to the gate, the nice lady said that I was too late, that they close the gate 5 minutes before departure time! I looked out the window and saw that the plane had not even started its engines. Again she repeated her scripted blurb. I said that I had a connecting flight to Raleigh, and that someone was waiting for me there. Nothing! I then got a tad agitated and asked for a supervisor who arrived after a short wait. We went through the same dialogue-- incidentally, the plane was still just sitting there!

His offer was to get me on the next flight at 10.30, and give me a prepaid MCI phone card, compliments of United, to call Leon and tell him of the delay. I was still screeching that the plane had NOT budged an inch in all this time, but to NO avail. The freekin print on the phone card was so microscopic that I really had a hard time reading what to dial. I finally called and left a message on Leon's answering machine and waited patiently for the next flight.

OK, so the girl said I could go ahead of everybody else, a really nice handicapped gesture, and take the elevator down to the plane. Curiously enough, when I got to the end of the passageway, I looked around and found NO ELEVATOR, and called down the LONG metal stairs to the person below, "Where is the elevator?" THERE WAS NONE!

I hobble down to find what looked like a miniature prop plane waiting -- could NOT even take my carry-on with wheels onto the plane - they took it and loaded it from the outside in the back somewhere. I did take the 2 larger framed art works on, and they stored them in a SMALL enclosure near the entrance.

GAWD, I doubt that the thing had more than 12 rows of seats, single on the left and double on the right. Maybe I am used to flying in conveyances a tad larger from my infrequent trips to Spain or elsewhere, and really wondered if the passengers have to peddle or get out and push this one!

Then, with a really great view of the left spinning propeller, our breakfast (I assumed!) arrived - a coffee BAG in hot water and a shittin little bag of some crunchy things! I had never really seen a "coffee bag" before, so I guess I should be grateful for the new experience? I can not really say that I expected a catered gourmet meal, BUT THIS WAS RIDICULOUS!

In about an hour we reached Dullas, somewhere on the outskirts of D.C. It was raining, so I could not see very much from the air.

The connecting flight was to leave at 12.30. The monitor near the scheduled exit door said Raleigh, North Carolina. A message overt the PA system said NOW BOARDING FOR FLIGHT xxx to Raleigh. I got in line, gave the attendant my ticket and got a boarding pass. The door opened and the passengers went out, had to give their SMALL hand luggage to get stowed away, got on, doors closed, the usual spiel about emergency exits and oxygen masks. We were finally taxing to the runway.

As I was resting my head on the uncomfortable window edge trying to perhaps catch 50 minutes sleep -- the first I would have had in OVER 24 hours - the nice stewardess comes over to me and asks "Where are you headed" - which I thought was a nice touch, taking such individual interest in each passenger. I told her Raleigh, and SHE SHRIEKS - "I FOUND THE ONE!!"

I had passed 2 different "checkpoints", handed them my nice and clearly printed computer generated boarding pass with destination Raleigh -- AND WAS ON A PLANE MOVING FOR TAKE OFF BOUND FOR NEWARK!! Problem was, I just came from there! OMG, I WAS LIVID!!

How the hell could I have gone out the door marked "flight for Raleigh", handed 2 different people my Raleigh boarding pass and have been allowed to get on a plane back to where I just came from?!!

So the plane full of passengers (what there were of them!) revved down, and headed back to the terminal. After begrudgingly opening the rear of the mini-plane to retrieve my "carry-on" and literally throwing it at me, I was headed back to the terminal, accompanied by a thin supervisor of some kind who spoke in a voice like a solicitous undertaker-- something about that I should not worry, that my flight had not left yet. Incidentally, NO accommodations for handicapped again, only wooden stairs this time!

The girl at the counter is calling my flight again on the intercom. I give her my ticket and she says that I would have to wait because they changed my ticket BACK TO my original flight time (which had left already!) I really went WILD! My new ticket was made out in Newark because I "missed" my original flight. Now somehow they had changed it back to the old connecting flight and I was on a "waiting list"!! I started screaming all kinds of logical things about how they could have herded me onto a flight back to where I had just come from, then changed my new flight back to something that had been canceled! The undertaker again told me, in a scripted NO-EMOTION voice, that I should not worry, they would take care of me! Yeah, I was really being "taken care of" up to that point and was not about to let them make more stupid mistakes, so I kept yelling that I have a boarding pass for THAT flight and I had better be on it!

She calls more names to board the flight about to leave. I kept screaming. Then, while I stood right in front of her, she says, over the intercom, "Mr.Kardas, please come to the boarding gate!" (my hormones REALLY started bubbling over!) -- to which I answered, "You dingbat. I am right here in front of you!" -- to which she got all huffy and the undertaker said he would take care of me personally!

The nice undertaken personally walked me to the plane, I got on, a lot of people smiled at seeing me actually board after the show in the waiting room, and I even heard a clap or two. The stewardess apparently knew all about my technical glitches, and was extra nice. Said she was also originally from West Windsor, in Trenton.

We took off, she asked each of the cramped passengers what they wanted to snack on, and I timidly asked whether she had red wine (for which I knew they charged $3, BUT I needed something to calm me down/pick me up!) I actually thought I was going to have a heart attack or something inside the terminal! She replied , "For all your trouble I will give you some without charging you!" OMG, a ray of light, finally, in what seemed like a never-ending series of "setbacks"! The wine was great, and I weaseled another 2 mini-bottles out of her stash before we finally landed in Raleigh - in a driving rain!

As I watched them unload the baggage from the storage area, I was amazed that they just piled it ALL on a cart in the heavy rain and let it sit there until each passenger got out and picked up their things! Do I expect too much from other people or what?

In any case, I now know why the D.C. airport if named DULLAS - it is the DULLest place with the absolutely DULLest so-called "service" that I had EVER ENCOUNTERED anywhere, national OR international! Since I DO NOT travel too frequently, I wonder whether this is now the norm and NOT the exception?? Or is it just in keeping with my impression of Washington politics and the usual partisan circus-like sideshows in that same area?

Leon was already there waiting for me - a second time! After I did NOT show up the first time, he had to go all the way back home to Raleigh to check his answering machine for any word of my whereabouts.

We were now headed to his shore front apartment in Atlantic Beach, some 3 hours from Raleigh. He suggested that I doze off for the long trip, but I could not-- I was with a real live person (somewhat different from my usual computer contacts), in a new place, and chatted most of the time, between nodding off!, through the fog and rain and cloudy trip to the shore.

We passed through wooded areas, and small towns which reminded me a lot of the road to Cape May at the southern tip of New Jersey. We stopped at a gleaming metal vintage diner along the way to get something to munch on. I had a soda water and a really great hunk of pecan pie. He also stopped at a pork place and got some FRESH air-dried sausage for breakfast the next day.

We then had dinner at a kewl seafood buffet (McCall's, Morehead City) further along the road. I promised myself that I would NOT stuff myself, as I am known to do when the food is bountyfull! BUT there were so many goodies in piles, all just sitting there with "take some more" written all over them in big bold letters! I had salad and pickled miniature corns, beets, olives, coleslaw and potato salad, fried oysters, flounder and another fish, loads of small shrimp, hush puppies, crab balls, and some stuffed crabs in the shell! OMG, I had to go back FOUR times to allow my taste buds to get reacquainted with real food! Poor Leon was finished after 2 helpings, and he just sat there watching me devour yet anothert heaping plate full!

It was dark when we got to his place - a former motel which had been changed to condos, between what I call the bay and the ocean, on a strip of sand-dune island offshore. It was windy and coldish, reminding me of Trenton during the last few weeks.

He has a delightful apartment, ground level. Very tastefully set-up in a beach/coastal decor. I unpacked, gave him his art works. He gave me a key to the apartment on one of those "swimmer's elastic bands" that I put on my wrist, and told me how to work the TV, set up the coffee pot for morning coffee, and left to stay at a friend's place nearby.

I brushed my fangs, crawled into bed and, VERY unusual for me, FELL IMMEDIATELY ASLEEP!

Early the next morning he woke me up, coffee was ready, as was the sausage and eggs and toasted bagel ( and home-made cherry jam from the same place that sells the sausage), waiting for me, along with my host, on the screen-in porch facing an unobstructed view of the bay . I hardly ever have more than coffee and some crackers or something for breakfast, so, needless to say, I savored the fabulous sausage and a bagel, quite unlike the "genre" chewy kind I find in Trenton! It literally melted in my mouth!

While muching away I noticed some people on the dock in front, so I went out and found some fishermen cutting up a lot of LARGE bass, King Mackerel and other delights, while the seagulls hovered overhead or sat on the railing waiting for some tasty morsels to come flying their way.

After breakfast we went to Jim's place, a very nice house on pilings near the beach, not far from Leon's. We all then headed to an art gallery where Leon frames his goodies. And do NOT even suggest alternative framing modes for one of his pieces-- he knows EXACTLY what he wants (just like me!), and they are extremely well done! I had a glass of red wine, and after seeing some of the art Leon has stashed there, Jim, Leon and I headed to the Morehead City - Beaufort area, with Jim giving me the grand tour along the way! This is Carteret County, North Carolina at its finest!

We passed the same style "vacation home" areas and surf shops that are found along the coastal areas of Jersey. Loads of seafood eateries, tourist strips and stuff.

I had no idea that they had phosphate deposits in the area, and we passed a LARGE processing plant. He asked if I knew how the "Inland Waterway" got started -- what I call the "bays" that I know from up and down the length of New Jersey. They apparently go along the entire East Coast, and were the brain child of George Washington, who wanted to have open "shipping - supply lanes" in case of emergency! If he only knew how they developed!

And THIS Beaufort ,the 3rd oldest town in North Carolina, is pronounced differently from the OTHER one in South Carolina!

As we drove around seeing the local home styles and street music festivals, we came upon a rather unexpected sight . Gwen, a nice lady who would have fit right in with the gals on the 2 Beanie newsgroups I subscribe to, had oodles of Beanies and Attics in her yard sale! And at $3/each, I could NOT pass up a great deal! I remember her name because she mentioned that one of the Attics had the same name as hers (Gwendolyn).

We stopped into The Sandbar at Town Creek Marina ("Food with Spirit") in Beaufort, for lunch. They had just gotten in some soft-shelled crabs and I was dying to try them again after the HORRIBLE ones I had when Evelio was still alive, at none other than the VERY famous Old Original Bookbinder's in Philadelphia - I was disappointed then! Jim also had the crab ,and mine was accompanied by a LARGE refillable glass of seltzer and piles of coleslaw. It was the MOST delicious seafood treat that I had eaten in years -- NOT counting the buffet of a day earlier!!

Then on to Beaufort to have some coffee. I had a double expresso, which I had not had in many Moons! We walked around several touristy shops, a wooden boat museum where they give classes on building such vessels, and saw several musicians performing, including some Peruvians, one playing those typical Pam pipes and one of my favorite "folk songs" - El Condor Pasa!

Now back to Jim's place, where I met his 2 Dachshunds. and had more coffee, lay on a lounge in the warm Sun and played with his most friendly and outgoing woof-woof , LIZZIE - she had a black rubber elongated ball-like thing that she insistently brought up to me, then jumped down waiting for me to throw it on the large deck-porch. She often caught it in her mouth, but I tried to throw it farther away to give her more exercise-fun! She could really go at it for hours! I actually fell asleep for a while! More coffee when I woke up, then off to the nearby beach to look for shells. There were some dark-colored rounded things on the beach that sort of reminded me of "tar balls", but they did NOT smell of tar and were composed of blackish sand-- and some of them had small shells embedded on their surface. I collected a couple to bring home to see that treasures they might contain. I later found that they WERE tar balls, after leaving a trail of footprints on Jim's nice carpets! GAWD, I felt dumber than usual!

We then went out looking for a Beanie magazine, the one that everybody has but I never bothered getting - it has the collector prices of most beanbag toys in it, and I need it for my site updates. We went to several places, but NO magazine to be found!

OK, it was now past 18h and we were off to the inauguration of a show at the Carteret Contemporary Art gallery, where Leon has his art framed so well. It was a show of contemporary paintings , and I noticed that the artist's name was the same/similar to a lady who I got some Beanies from months ago, Sue Sneddon. It was NOT her, but her works of shore imagery were exceptionally evocative of the SILENT SOUND of the sea . We chatted a while about her creations, as the level of the red wine in my glass seemed to diminish little by little.

Back to Morehead City for dinner at a cafeteria-style eatery, Ed Bell's Cafeteria. I had an enormous platter of shrimp, a white and yellow corn mix (which was entirely new to me!), cooked cabbage and a sweet corn muffin. Once again I overdid my promised light eating!

Coffee was had at the Coffee Affair, a kewl "coffeehouse" style place with 2 computer terminals, one of which I noticed and had to check on my eBay bids for items ending before my return to Trenton .

It was the usual PC, but I managed to get to where I wanted to go somehow! I never found a mouse as workably convenient as a track ball. You can see that swimmer's coiled key thing still around my wrist!

OK, another day nears an end. Back to Jim's to change to Leon's convertible, and back to the condo. I wanted to watch Saturday Night Live to see if they do take offs on the Elian fiasco, BUT it was a rerun. So I managed to find a HBO movie with Bruce Willis, about some fanatical terrorist cells blowing things up and all-- and, of course, I had to watch it until it ended! I am glad I don't have a TV at the apartment or I would never get anything done.

OMG, Leon was over bright and early for the long trek back to the airport! The roads were EMPTY and we made it back to the Raleigh area in record time, so we stopped at the flea market at the State Fair Grounds. It was early yet, and people were just starting to set up. What was out was really refreshing! Things that I would not usually find in the Trenton area, including many examples of the items from the dozens of North Carolina potteries-- which I was really unaware of . One seller from West Virginia had several art pottery gems from Belgium that I really would have liked to get, BUT he would NOT accept a check-- it seems that MOST do not accept checks there-- cash and carry only!

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, and I bid an unhappy farewell to my most gracious host. The flight, on the same toy plane-type, left at 10:30h. One little detail though - when we landed again at DULLest, the stewardess said that those having connecting flights should disembark first-- which I did. When my flight was called, on going back out, I was somewhat amazed to find that I was on the exact same aircraft with the same stewardess! So much for logical coordination of services and just plain common sense!

Bernie was waiting for me at Newark, and we sped back home on a warm sunny day, stopping at a new Farmer's Market on Route 1 to get a couple goodies. The cats were happy to see me again.

Should I sum up? Well, I would NEVER recommend that airline to even my worst enemy! (well, maybe I would!) I greatly enjoyed my visit to the southernmost part of the U.S. which I ever visited. As usual, my "visits" anywhere always seem way too short. Leon is a really great friend, as is his pal of many years, Jim-- and HIS hotdogs! Jim is a retired widower, and Leon is dating a gal he met online. They both have a somewhat envious lifestyle - to the extent that I never seem to be able to just relax and simply enjoy things for some reason. I always find so many things that have to be done (in terms of work on the property and all), and attempt to do them little by little. I was really thrilled during my short beach walk - just like the old days, and even playing with the hyperplayful dog. I attended the first art inauguration since I was in Spain, when I was always out and around. Actually, as I come to think about it, when I lived in Europe, my life was totally different than it ever was here, and I constantly experienced the joie de vivre that I found again on this, my most recent journey! I am somewhat tired -- BUT it is a happy-tired for the first time in a really long while!