Dateline: Above the garage in Portsmouth RI, 29 August 2004
Despite going to bed at around 1am on Saturday night, I was up at 5am, already packing what eventually became 12 checked bags and seven carry-ons. Adding in Vonne Mei's stroller/car seat, we were moving 20 pieces back east along with six bodies.
It took me right up to noon to repack everyone's luggage so that we were carrying all the right stuff and all the breakables were accounted for. To keep track of it all, I cut up the red bandanas that we used on our four checked pieces in China, turning them into 20 separate ribbons. When we loaded all the bags up, they filled my father-in-law's pickup bed completely.
Luckily, we were able to check the twelve curbside, but getting through security was a real hassle. I knew it would be beforehand, so I put all the oddities into my personal backpack. While the other five all slipped through security at a reasonable pace, I was left behind for about 15 minutes as the security people unwrapped and had me explain some of the more exotic stuff we picked up in China.
After a quick bite to eat, we were in our Southwest jet on our way to Baltimore. At this point our luck ran out with Vonne Mei, as the slight temperature discovered the night before started looking suspiciously like an ear infection as we began our descent. An ugly scene ensued, made all the more so by the flight attendants refusal to help us out with warming the bottle, something that's never happened to us before in all our years of flying, but I suppose it had to happen sometime.
Recollecting our frazzled selves after that leg, we were better prepared for the last flight to Providence, but we lucked out anyway, as the bottle we gave Mei on takeoff knocked her out for the entire flight.
Three luggage carts later, we find our Honda van in the parking garage and start loading up, basically packing in all the small bags around the kids in their seats. Then we head to North Kingstown to my colleague Bradd's house to solve the great mystery of the disappearing cat known as Sophie.
Bradd and his wife Cory had taken in Sophie for the entire three weeks, but she had confounded them by never appearing in their sight the entire time, despite being restricted to their basement. Somehow she hid from them the entire time, leading to our collective fear at one point in our journey that she had gotten herself trapped somewhere and had died. But no, Sophie was just being inordinately shy about her time in a strange house, so as long as Bradd saw tuna gone from her dish every night and found poop in her litter box every morning (he smoothed the rocks obsessively every day so he could capture any signs of her activity), we knew she was alive. And yet, despite all their searches, no one at Bradd and Cory's house could figure out where she was hiding all that time.
Well, we cracked the code fairly quickly once we arrive, locating Sophie behind the drywall extension that had been built out along one wall to accommodate an electrical box. What she had done each time was to climb up an antique cupboard and jump up into the rafters, then jumping down behind the dry-wall extension into a thin, six-foot space left between the drywall and the foundation. Apparently, she would hide there silently every time they looked for her.
It took some effort, but Vonne eventually coaxed Sophie out, using a cat toy as bait, to Bradd's complete amazement. Meanwhile, Cory got to spend some quality time with Mei, feeding her a bottle, so our quick sojourn in North Kingstown was quite refreshing.
Back in the van, we arrive home at roughly 9pm, after picking up some drinks at a local grocery and some carry-out pizza at the Hut. Our place was in perfect shape, as our house-sitter had done a magnificent job of taking care of everything.
Sitting around the kitchen table chewing on pizza, we finally relaxed after four days of seemingly nonstop travel—our long quest to bring Vonne Mei home finally complete.
Thirty-seven air fares, 22 days, 13 flights, 12 time zones, 12 checked bags, 7 carry-ons, six travelers, two car seats, and . . . one new family member.
| Permalink |
