As I was halfway through my first flight, I started writing this down because it seemed really logical to me. One of my favorite writers is Henry Rollins and he has endless travel books on his life and journey meeting people and interacting with people and sights all across America and the world. While I am no Henry Rollins, its good to keep a record of where youve been and what youve been up to. That way you can always be found. - Rich Travel to Penn State Day 1 - Taxi to Plane to Plane etc... The journey back has begun. I am making this entry on my iphones notepad while sitting on my first of two plane segments back to Chicago. The day started at 4am as my long time taxi friend Lester has come to pick me up for my 8am-ish flight. The apartment is locked and all things stowed away. The sun has yet to really come up, so Port of Spain is still covered in morning darkness mixed with vapor orange and green street light. The city begins to disappear behind us as Lester drives speedily down the highway. As the sun begins to rise, the reality of life outside the city becomes apparent. The air of the morning is filled with smoke from the trash fires that had been burning through out the night. Some folks use a term like shanty town, favela or ghetto to describe areas like these along the road, I look at it as survival. Sure its the Caribbean, but this is the stuff they dont show in the travel guides. Life just whizzes by and not too many people notice there is some real struggle going on. Youve got to do what is necessary to live. Lester and I continue on and exchange small talk about family, music and travel. He talks about wanting to go to Australia some day, but running a taxi business doesnt give him much free time. Lester is a good guy and works really hard. At 5am, I was Lesters second fare for the day. It takes another half an hour to make it out to Piarco Airport winding around and through the distributor and warehouse district as well as various exits to smaller towns and businesses. Even at 5am, its a buzz with activity. Lester drops me off and I make arrangements with him for when I return. The terminal has red eye flights from afar coming in. Business travelers to places like Tobago, Barbados and other Islands and Central American countries are filing in to fulfill their weekly, sometimes daily routine. Some folks are making their way home or in my case away for the summer to work on long planned projects. Im starting to take mental notes, make lists and focus on what Im about to do. There are going to be more pieces to this puzzle than I think. Yet, somehow all these pieces will fit together in one way or another and with a lot of help were going to come up with a picture. My other analogy was going to somehow tie the movie Jaws to this. You know, Sheriff Brodys line about needing a bigger boat because this shark is whole lot bigger than we thought. Maybe Ill stick with the puzzle. Anyway, its important to make sure I have a clear goal and try not to lose focus or direction in the amount of material coming our way. Dont be afraid to dig a little deeper. Not everyone is going to agree or share the same opinion. Dont get ahead of yourself. Have fun, keep your self open.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 13:09:16 +0000