Out of Africa 12/28/09

Atlanta, GA 12/28/09
-Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport-

Jillian and I got to Johannesburg “yesterday” and turned on the news for the first time in about a week. There was a BBC report about a guy that tried to blow up his underwear on a flight a few days ago as it was landing in the U.S. As we watched the news I turned to her and said, “This is going to make getting home interesting.” Of course by “interesting” I meant complicated and I was right, well for me at least.

I’ve probably been in and out of the Atlanta Hartsfield airport a thousand times but today I’m here in a section I’ve never seen before; the immigration waiting area. It feels a little like the waiting area at the DMV. There are rows of seats that don’t look old but very used, facing a high counter with clerks behind it. I guess they are probably called agents in this instance but either way that’s who I’m waiting to see, or at least I think that’s what I’m waiting for. To tell you the truth I’m just waiting for someone to call my name. The interview rooms that connect to this waiting area give a glimpse that there are more serious issues being cleared up here than something you find at the DMV though and in case there was any doubt the restroom I was just allowed to use was clearly made to detain someone.

You match the surroundings along with the conversations I can hear from the counter; Q & A’s that include, “So where were you before you were in Tehran?”, “What was your business in Pakistan?”, “Are you a student in Venezuela?”, “Why do you travel to Columbia so often?”… and you realize you are getting close to the stuff you hear about on the news each night.

And then there’s me...here I sit waiting for my name to be called so I can explain that I have no intention of blowing up anything most especially my underwear.

Jillian has gone on ahead in an attempt to catch our connection to West Palm. I’m sure I’ll miss that flight now but oh well. Being stuck in Atlanta and trying to hop a flight home will be a familiar feeling to transition me back to normal life.

Jillian was a little taken back and annoyed when I was taken aside and asked to wait here for further questions. “Look around! You don’t belong here!” she said.

I am the only US citizen in a waiting room of about 25 people but I am fine with it. I told her I should be asked more questions. I’m the reason that you can’t profile based on race (not that it matters but I am the only Caucasian sitting here.) My passport is a dirty faded book of random stamps that show a non-traditional pattern of travel; in and out of the US several times in the past few years. Random “holiday” visits to unusual places like Cambodia, China, Nepal, India, etc. If they didn’t ask me more questions I’d be worried.

Of course there’s a good chance that my new wife will now be returning from our Honeymoon in Africa without me. I’m sure that will be commented on by many.

I think I’ll be constructive with my time here though as I wait and jot down some memories of our last few days in South Africa.

After Kruger we said goodbye to all of our new international friends from the lodge. We had shared a few fun nights with them sipping cold beers around a camp fire. As always it is one of the things I love most about traveling and I think Jillian now has a taste for it. I think that will help ease what little anxiety she has left about my travel style the next time we are able to wander somewhere.

We have one new friend that has been with us for several days now. Mark, from England, is on a whirlwind world tour hitting some of my favorite places. For the last week our schedules have synced up and we’ve spent hours together in various transports, safari trucks, or sitting around a campfire.

The 3 of us hit Jo’burg together and managed to meet up at the airport for one last pint. Marks just starting out and I tried real hard to not say, “You should do this or that…” the best part of traveling is the lessons you learn along the way. I did give him some tips and tried real hard to hide my envy. His next few months are going to be memorable.

Our time in Jo’burg was pretty uneventful. The city lived up to its billing of being large, non-descript, and sketchy in most parts. We even tried to pick a fun artsy area of town, an area called Melville, but even it was a ghost town by 6 p.m. with only a couple decent restaurants to choose from. The place we did pick for dinner, a Thai place, was so empty the only other couple in the place invited us to join them.

We politely said no but by the end of dinner the two, noticeably intoxicated, ladies were at our table trying to buy us shots. (Well, I think they would have been happier just buying Jillian shots but I wasn’t going anywhere so they tolerated me.)
We were able to visit the Apartheid museum for several hours before leaving town and I’ll probably take that as my most vivid memory of Jo’burg. That experience made an impact for sure. I remember visiting the Holocaust museum in D.C. years ago, or even standing at the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, and thinking how crazy, naïve, and down right stupid the world was “back then”. Those events were history though; black and white photos from my Grandparents era.

The Apartheid Museum made it blatantly clear to me that governmental, societal, and human stupidity is still taking place. The events of Apartheid are not from the way back when and there are decades of color pictures that document Apartheid rules. The timeline of historical events like Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990 happened in years when I was not only alive but old enough to know that Apartheid was wrong. I was 16 when he was released. If an inexperienced kid in a small town in Central Illinois knows something is just plain evil how can an entire government do it and how can the rest of the world let it go on for decades?

Of course it eventually did stop but I wonder what museum I’ll be standing in 20 years from now wondering the same thing; maybe Darfur or Tibet. Then again, as I’m reminded of my current setting, I sure hope it’s somewhere in the middle east in a time when we wonder how so many were once so misguided enough to blow themselves up for any cause, or use a bomb of any kind to solve a problem.

On a lighter note this will probably be my last entry of 2009, another amazing year if I do say so myself. There was a lot of hard work this year but I think it all paid off, as usual. I don’t kid myself though and I know if I was able to add up all the hours in the year I’m sure I still had more time having fun than not. I wouldn’t change a thing.

The gang for NYE starts arriving in WPB tomorrow, a big group this year too. I’m excited. We are heading down to Key West on the 30th…and I’m still really looking forward to spraying a bottle of champagne as the conch drops and wrapping up 2009.

I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to use my passport again for quite sometime. I know this trip is the final end of a certain chapter. Well that chapter probably ended back at the start of 2008 but this was the final encore. The next few years will bring new priorities to my life; priorities that will force me to use my resources, mostly time and money, for other things besides airfare and wandering. They are all choices that I have made freely so I’m not sad about ending this era, just nostalgic. Plus I also know eventually I’ll find/make a way to resume my travel and even expand my explorations.

In Walden ol’Henry wrote, “As long as possible live free and uncommitted.” I didn’t set out to do that but looking back it seems like I followed this great advice. I lived the life I imagined and I did in fact meet with a success unmatched in common hours. Now the life I imagine for myself looks a little different.

MJF

(The last sunset of 2009. Taken off the coast of Key West)

Safari in Kruger National Park 12/25/09

Kruger National Park, South Africa 12/25/09

For the first time in 36 years I didn’t wake up on Christmas morning in a house with a Christmas tree and sit down to open presents. The streak ended today when I woke up under mosquito netting in a thatch roof cabin in Africa. Instead of presents I found my dirty hiking pants & shirt, jumped back into an open air safari truck and headed into the bush. I may not have found gifts in fancy wrapping paper but the animal sightings have been of greater value than anything I might have asked Santa for.

Obviously I’m happy with the new events this Christmas has bestowed on me. While I do miss this time with family I know there will be more of the “usual” Christmas mornings with them in the years to come. Spending this special day on safari in Africa with my new wife will be a nice memory for all those years.

This is our 3rd day out spotting animals and, so far, today’s big highlight has been a very close up run in with a pack of the almost extinct Wild Dogs. They were just marching down the road. I was told that they are almost always on the move somewhere so it was fantastic luck that we happened to be on the same stretch of road when they decided to use it for a quarter of a mile or so before heading off into the bush.

Today we also officially completed the tourism standard “Big Five” sightings. Yesterday we saw 4 of the 5 with great close up encounters with a whole pride of lions and a once in a lifetime actual interaction with the elusive leopard. The photos of which from even our simple pocket sized point and shoot digital cameras could be good enough for publication I think.

Today we just needed to spot a Rhino to complete the list. We spotted one a few hours into the day but it was very far off and sleeping under the shadow of a big tree. It was fun to stare at it through my binoculars and I’m sure the photos will turn out ok but, not to be greedy, I’m hoping after lunch we’ll get a better look at one. I really want to see one standing up because I know I can’t grasp just how big they are. Much like my new found appreciation for the size of Great White Sharks I know the Rhino is bigger than the mental proportion I have associated with it. The one we saw today from probably 50 yards away looked like a parked Range Rover!





















The Big Five (elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion, & leopard) started out as a hunting list but now it’s also the standard for what many photographers have to shoot to feel complete. I was quite happy with our safari experience even before seeing the rhino and getting our thumb ring.

Our close up viewings of zebras, wildebeests, thousands of impalas, water bucks, storks, and dozens of other animals always gave me an amazing feeling. Even the large gaps of time when we wouldn’t see anything I would just stare at the passing scenery, the miles and miles of authentic African bush country, spreading out as far as I could see. No buildings, cell towers, or radio antennas on the horizon. Not even a power line. Well not when we were in Kruger at least.

I had a familiar feeling that I have had a few times in the past couple years. It was on day two of our truck back safaris, when we came upon a small herd of giraffe. The setting was perfect. We were up on a slight hill looking down. There were some scattered trees and green bushes. You could see miles of scenery slopping away from us before finally hitting the horizon. There were a few giraffe of various heights and shades staring at us or eating the leaves from the trees. It was a scene laid out before my naked eyes that sent a reality slap to my brain. I am in Africa!

Much like I felt when I found myself alone on the Great Wall of China, the world seemed to get smaller again for me. This scene before me was real but it’s the same scene I had read about, or looked at, in the school encyclopedias at my small town grade school in Philo, IL. It was the same scene that I have imagined for decades. It was no longer a far off place. It was right in front of me and now that I’m here it didn’t seem that hard to get here. It really is a small world and the only thing stopping you from going to any part of it is yourself. However, for such a small place, boy is it packed with a lot of amazing experiences!

It’s time now to call home and wake up my parents with a Merry Christmas phone call. After that, I’ll get back in the truck for a few more hot dusty hours looking for animals. Oh, and time to apply more sunblock! It was overcast this morning so that has helped keep the temp from rising as high as yesterday but the sun is up and kicking now. In the future when I hear, “It’s like Africa hot!” as a description for a hot day, now I will have an actual point of reference to either confirm or contradict the statement.

Yesterday was possibly the hottest day I have ever experienced. The only time and place that I can remember rivaling it was Memphis, TN last August.

South Africa or Memphis, Tennessee?! Like I said…it’s a small world.

MJF

Gansbaai, South Africa 12/21/09

Gansbaai,

South Africa

12/21/09

It’s a sunny morning in this little seaside town but it feels later. It’s around 11 a.m. but I’ve been up since 4 a.m. and in between the time I got up and this moment I’ve had some pretty thrilling experiences. Well actually just one experience repeated about a dozen times. At 7:30 this morning I boarded a small boat, donned a wetsuit, and climbed into a cage in the chilly, recently chummed waters of Gans Bay in the South Atlantic; home to a dense population of the world renowned Great White Shark.

There were about 15 other divers on the Shark Diving Unlimited excursion with me and I was in the second group to enter the cage. This gave me a front row seat on the deck of the boat with my trusty little Cannon to catch photos of the first sharks of the morning as they came to investigate the enticing smell of the water around the boat and also take a pass and a possible bite of the tethered fish head lure that was constantly being thrown out in front of the dive cage.

It was a calm morning and the winds and chop would not pick up for a few hours. The Captain told me visibility in the summer waters is never as good as the winter but first thing this morning you could see well to about 2 -3 meters deep and then shadows and shapes to about 4 to 5 meters.

The first shark that I saw swim by the boat didn’t surface but it came up high enough that I could clearly see its familiar gray top and white underside. It was probably 3 meters long and I was instantly excited. “Yep, that’s a shark! This is going to be amazing!”

Moments later another shape came along the same path. My jaw instantly dropped and my eyes grew wide. It was clearly a shark but much like seeing the Grand Canyon or New York City for the first time, my mind was not ready to process the size of the image my eyes were seeing. The first one that passed was a big shark in my mind. The second shark I got to compare it with was HUGE!

I’m sure I’m suffering from the standard fish sighting affliction that causes any fisherman to exaggerate but in a conservative estimate I would say the second shark was about 5 meters long. However what really shocked me was the width. It looked like a long Volkswagen swimming under the boat!

Once I was in the cage the visibility in the water had started to decrease. The water was cold but I didn’t mind. My fast beating heart was pumping plenty of blood around my body to make chilly water not a factor.

There is about 6 of you in the long narrow cage at a time. It was not the square, jail cell type cage that I had pictured in my mind before arriving at the boat. It also stays on the surface of the water, again not what I imagined but when the first Great White swam by, inches from the cage, inches from my face, my preconceived ideas of what the experience would be like went right out of my mind and all I thought about was “Are my toes inside the cage?!”

I had several great sightings in the cage. (Sorry, I don’t have an underwater camera so there are not any pictures.) The decreasing visibility only made it more intense. You closely examine any motion, any shadow, and then by the time you are for sure it’s a shark it’s a foot from your face.

I got several very close up looks at the serrated, mangled rows of jagged teeth and even once the deadly jaws had passed I never once thought about sneaking a quick touch on the back of the shark. None of the sharks that came by that close were as big as the car that I saw topside and that makes sense. They don’t feed the sharks. They just get it smelling really good and then dangle a fish head to give the sharks a direction to look. Not enough reason to bring a huge shark top side and I’m probably glad.

The sharks that grazed the cage are still large, don’t get me wrong. They were all 2 – 4 meters and capable of eating me in two bites I’m sure. So in summary, I am very satisfied with the experience but, as always, I want more.

I’d love to be here in the winter when the visibility is better and also when the seals are breeding. That is when you get to see the world famous jumping, or breaching, sharks. Oh well, next time….

This little excursion was also a nice way to see more of South Africa. It’s about a 3 hour drive from Cape Town to Gansbaai and this morning I stared out the window most of the time. It’s a beautiful day so I imagine it will be a nice drive home too. I’m looking forward to putting on some tunes and watching the scenery.

Jillian is hitting a spa today and I think we are planning on hitting the wine country tomorrow. (If Jillian was able to line up a tour) It’s a perfect Honeymoon; a little her, a little me, a lot of us.

We still have not lined up our safari or our next destination but we’ll figure it out soon. As always it’s the wandering I enjoy; the freedom. We’ve only been gone 5 days but I’m already in the groove. I wish the two of us could just keep wandering…

MJF

Cape Town, South Africa 12/19/09

Cape Town, South Africa 12/19/09
Cliffton Beach (#2)

It’s a beautiful day here at/on the beach. It’s a sunny 28 c but with the ever present breeze, sometimes gusty, you don’t seem to break a sweat. In the shade it even feels cool.

I just got back from a chilly, always refreshing, dive into the surf. The water is cold here, as promised. It’s much colder than my pool at home which I have recently boasted is the perfect temp. My pool is currently about 23. The South Atlantic that I just got out of is estimated at 18. Funny, it seemed perfect at that temp too; proving once again that you can’t put a numerical value on feelings. The moment is all powerful and right now diving into the ocean, off a beach in Africa, is a moment that has me fired up on life. It would feel great probably no matter the actual temperature.

The surf is powerful here also. The kind of rolling, crashing, waves that make me regret my geographic upbringing in the Illinois. Sure I’ve lived on the coast for over 13 years now, more than enough time to take up surfing. However I still wish that surfing was second nature to me. Like riding a bike or climbing a tree; my childhood pastimes in Illinois. I’d love to be able to make the time for surfing these days but unfortunately it’s still to far down my own priority list to fit into the limited hours in a day, week, etc. Hell, I can’t even recall the last time I rode a bike let alone climbed a tree so maybe I wouldn’t be surfing much now no matter where I grew up. Either way, I’m confident that I’ll be able to dedicate some hours to surfing one day though. Maybe I’ll have some kids to “teach” eventually.

I’ll leave the rest of my surfing daydreams to myself when I’m staring at the waves without this pen and book in hand. Right now I should probably explain how I now find myself sitting on the far south west cape of the great “dark continent”.

The Honeymoon! A trip with a name, I love it! Sitting beside me, appearing for her first time in this journal as my wife, is Jillian. We were officially married back on October 4 but both of our lives were crazy busy, even by my warped standards, so we delayed our honeymoon until now. The delay didn’t bother me much, not to say I haven’t been counting the days down until this trip. No, the delayed honeymoon didn’t seem that bad because I think of the actual wedding as just a formality or rather an added bonus. I get to spend the rest of my life with this great person AND we get to have a big party too! Score! My life has been intertwined with Jillian’s for a few years now. The Wedding was far from the start of something. So putting off the ceremonial Honeymoon a few months was fine.

Don’t get me wrong. The wedding weekend was a blast and one of the highlights of my life. A 4 day celebration of both of our worlds and more rare moments packed into a few hours than you get in most of the years of your lifetime. Unfortunately there are few occasions when you are able to gather 99% of your family and friends into the same spot. This is the first time I’ve sat down to write since the wedding but I will save the re-cap for another entry….“yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back.” I suppose I can also just rely on the 1000+ pictures and countless stories from everyone that attended. Well see, now, back to Africa!

We left town, WPB, on the 16th and after 3 flights totaling almost 20 dedicated hours of fly time, we arrived in Cape Town. The flights were relatively uneventful. Well other than almost not being allowed to leave the country. That was definitely an event.

We arrived in Atlanta from West Palm with only a 50 minute layover before boarding the trans-Atlantic flight to Johannesburg. So after grabbing a slice of pizza on the way to our new concourse, they were already boarding our zone when we walked up to the gate.

We zipped right up to the ticket counter to get our boarding passes stamped and our passports checked. One of several staff they had behind the counter to check in the large, fully sold flight grabbed my passport and started to flip through it. She gave me the standard “Your passports pretty full.” that I have heard before. I replied with a smile, “Ya, there are a few pages open in the back though.”

I thought we were just making small talk but next she said, “No, those pages are for amendments only. You have to have a completely clean visa page in order to board the plane. You don’t have one. I’m sorry but I can not let you on the flight.”

I’m sure the look of confusion on my face was priceless. As Jillian later said “It seemed so outrageous I thought we were being punked!”

Well we weren’t. After a few rounds of my saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you saying?!” and two Delta gate agents giving me options like book flights to New Orleans, visit the passport office, get more pages, and then re-book your flight to Africa; seriously THAT was there solution.

When she explained it wasn’t her rule, it was the South African’s I remembered I had heard of this issue before. I recalled reading or being told about this before entering Cambodia; that they want a completely empty page so they can put their giant visa stamp in without covering up other stamps. I had heard though that for an extra fee you could get around this.

I told her I understood, “Let me on the flight and I’ll work it out when I get to South Africa.”
She said, “They’ll throw you in jail.” I found this real hard to believe and told her I was fully prepared to take the chance. She still said no. Somehow I don’t think my possible incarceration for an overused passport was her big worry. Probably more like a chance to free up two seats on an oversold flight.

They tried to direct me to leave the desk several times. “I’m sorry sir. There is nothing we can do for you here!” I wouldn’t walk away. I just couldn’t believe as we quickly approach 2010, a little piece of paper stapled into a little paper book with little stamps on it, was the only thing standing between a flight to Africa OR spending thousands of Dollars and at least 2 more days trying to get more little pieces of paper.

I said, “Seriously?! Just change the title of the “Amendment” page to “Visas”! It’s just a blank piece of paper!” Of course she wouldn't allow it. Any change to a little, 12 point font word would surely spread anarchy around the world! What makes me even more mad now is that after further examination two of my precious amendment pages have been used by other countries so obviously these pages are only sacred to Delta gate agents.

I took my passport back and said, “There’s got to be a page that’s barely used. They aren’t ALL full!”

The agent was holding her line. Jillian was crying. The agent’s supervisor was asking me to please leave the desk so they could help the next person. I frantically flipped through my legal hall pass to the World…and there it was. PAGE 19!

“Hey, what’s wrong with page 19?!” I asked as I handed her the weathered but unstamped page.
Two other agents were looking over her shoulder and before “my” agent could say a word one of them said, “Ya, that page is fine. What’s wrong with that one?”

“I must have missed it.” was the only explanation the agent gave for the undeserved emotional kick in the nuts. She quickly stamped our boarding passes and handed us back our precious paperwork so we could board the plane. It was 5 minutes of agony but we were soon on the plane and Jillian’s tears had turned to tears of joy.

In hindsight I should have taken down all of the agent’s names and contact info so I could give this report back to them: When we cleared immigration in Johannesburg the agent didn’t say a word to me. He found the first page with an open corner and placed his stamp among the others. It was the quickest and easiest country I have ever entered. Not a single question, not even a hello. Page 19 of my passport is still untouched and ready for the next adventure!

It’s been pretty relaxing since we arrived and we have not done much to write about yet. Cape Town is beautiful and the iconic Table Mountain that sits in the middle of it looks very enticing to me. I can’t wait to hike up, down and around on it.

We overslept a little the first day, and Jillian is sleeping next to me right now, so I hope "we" won’t be fighting some jet lag issue for a week. We checked out the marina and some shops but mostly it’s been nice to just have long meals and slow drinks. I feel like Jillian and I have not sat around together in months….and that’s probably true.

I remember when we finally reached our hotel room in Cape Town at 11 p.m., the day after we started our journey from South Florida, I had the biggest feeling of relief come over me. It wasn’t just from the long travel days or the scare from Delta. It was a sense of accomplishment from six months of literally planning our lives down to the minute; of clearing one life opportunity (buying a house, planning a wedding, starting new jobs) after another; of counting pennies and planning deposits before writing checks; of meetings, schedules, and spreadsheets…lots and lots of spreadsheets; of signing our names on more and more contracts each week; of confirmations and “triple checks”; and even 7,000+ runners cooperating.

Even the planning, if you could even call it that, of this honey moon I suppose deserves a mention. One night at about midnight a few months ago, when I was just wrapping up work in the home office, Jillian brought up the honey moon that we had talked about in passing. We had talked about destinations in between the more pressing issues and Africa seemed to be the place that held the most allure for both of us. Finally that night I said, "Let's just do it." So I got on-line, cashed in miles, and booked us two tickets to Johannesburg. (A few weeks later I booked us a local flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town and Jillian found us a hotel for the first few nights....and now as we actually sit here that is still all we have planned. I love it! We'll figure it out....)

So it’s been a busy 6 months to say the least and after all this…we are finally in Africa!
When we reached our room that night I felt like there should be a finish line and people cheering for us and not just a quiet hotel room in a dark city. But then I remembered this isn’t the finish line. It’s just the last .2 miles of our marathon. The .2 when you are tired but overjoyed. The finish line is inevitable which puts a smile on your face even though your body and mind are hurting.

Our finish line is December 31, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. in front of a falling conch shell in Key West, Florida…and I can hear the people cheering already!

MJF

Groundhog Day 2008

Punxsutawney, PA
2/2/08

Happy Groundhog Day! More specifically Happy Groundhog Day from the birthplace and home of the world's foremost weather forecasting rodent, “seer of seers, prognosticator of prognosticators”, THE most famous groundhog in the world, Punxsutawney Phil!

I’m not sure when I first had the idea, or desire, to come here for this unique festival but it’s been several years. I can remember checking the calendar a few times in the past to see what day of the week February 2nd would fall that year. It never seemed to be on a weekend and though that usually doesn’t stop me it always seemed to push the idea back just far enough for another idea to take center stage.

Back in November 2007 though the idea once again popped in my head and as soon as I saw that February 2, 2008 was a Saturday I started smiling. This was going to be the year!

I sent a note out to a select group of friends that I thought might also be interested in attending the Groundhog festivities in Punxsutawney but was surprised when nobody jumped at it. The people I talked to about it in person just laughed. I got responses like, “Why?” or “That sounds fun to you?!” Even the rare people that agreed with me were non-committal on actually going.

I guess that’s how life is for many people. Things are quickly put into the “one day, maybe” file instead of the “Yes! Let’s plan it out right now!” file. I’m not sure if I used to be this way but I know I’m definitely not like that now. I feel a real sense of urgency, desire, and passion to find new experiences every moment of every day.

In the end Jillian just laughed at me and said, “If you want to do it…lets do it.” So I booked the flights, rental car, fought for a hotel room in Punxsutawney, and packed lots of warm clothes.

My new job is somewhat flexible but I don’t want to start asking for vacation days. I’ve only been working there for less than 5 months. So we took a late flight out of West Palm on Friday and landed in Pittsburgh just before 9 p.m. After that it was a quick 2 hour drive on the small highways of Pennsylvania to the town of Punxsutawney.

Punxsutawney has a population of just over 6,000 but on Groundhog Day, or Groundhog Weekend as this year is, the number of people in town probably doubles at least. Obviously there aren’t enough hotel beds in town to accommodate everyone but through some persistent phone calls, e-mails, and then some lucky cancellations I was able to get us a room right in Downtown Punxsutawney.

We rolled into town last night around 11:30 pm, easily found our hotel, The Pantall Hotel, on the main street, and luckily got the last spot open in the icy parking lot. As soon as we got out of the car you could feel the energy in the air. Jillian and I were both excited but my condition easily reached to another level, probably best described as giddy.

We checked in, threw our stuff in the room and went directly to the busy hotel bar. Jillian and I got a couple Red Bull & vodkas to start the night but truthfully I probably didn’t need the Red Bull. My giddiness would have kept me awake for hours.

Jillian and I sipped our drinks and soaked up the atmosphere. It was a small bar that I would describe as “towny” but unless you are from the small town Midwest you may not understand that description. It was crowded, smoky, hot, humid…and fun! There was a two man band playing against the wall and the guitarist would move out of your way to let you pass right in the middle of whatever classic rock riff he was duplicating. The bar was a mix of college students and middle aged locals with some from both groups sporting homemade groundhog hats and costumes.

Soon after we got our first drinks a guy in a tuxedo and top hat, a Groundhog Inner Circle member, came through the bar with some friends. Everyone started cheering as he passed and a woman with him gave Jillian and me some beads with Phil’s little groundhog face smiling at the bottom. It was a simple trinket but I instantly felt like I now belonged. We were now officially part of the Groundhog festivities in Punxsutawney!

In an attempt to get the lay of the land I struck up a conversation with some college students from down the road; Geoff, Matt, Katie, & Sarah. Katie new the closing time for the current bar and had already researched the name and location of the next one that would be open. Like I said, it was crowded, so we helped each other order and grab drinks from the bar, which kept the conversation going too. Well that and early on when they asked what I do for a living, I told them some tall tale about working in the industry of artificial animal insemination….that always leads to some fun follow up questions and a lively conversation.

They were great “kids” and of course I could see a lot of similarities to my gang. It easily could have been us in the mid '90’s on one of our classic road trips. Hell maybe they even saw their possible futures, more near than they know, in Jillian and me. The atmosphere probably helped a lot but we all clicked together very quickly. Kindred spirits so to speak. I’m probably making this deeper than need be; must be the lack of sleep that I’m still feeling.

The six of us became a group. Geoff and I exchanged numbers at bar one and while we missed each other at bar two we all met up at the last bar open in town located in the old YMCA. Not only was it the last open bar in town but it also featured live entertainment from a full band. Score!

We wrapped up the bar portion of the night with the hair metal glory of “Twist of Faite” at about 3:30 a.m. We poured out into the cold with a few hundred other people and made our way along the ice covered sidewalks back to the hotel. It was time to really bundle up and head to Gobblers Knob! Phil would make his prediction at dawn.

There was a little debate among the group on how to actually get to Gobblers Knob. We were told you could walk there but the actual distance to “The Knob”, as locals call it, varied from 1 mile, to over 3 miles depending on who you talked to. Always the anxious person to experience every aspect of an event, and for some reason the more challenging the better, I casually lobbied for walking up. I didn’t find much support though and with the Punxsutawney School Bus/Gobblers Knob Shuttle sitting right across from our hotel even I knew the decision was obvious. Plus none of us had any idea where we were going and it’s not like there is a nice sidewalk that leads from town out into the woods. I knew our famous last words could have easily been, “How hard could it be to find a weather forecasting groundhog, in the woods, in the dark, in the snow…”

Taking the shuttle turned out to be a good idea because the hike looks to be closer to 3 miles than 1 mile. (Probably just over 2 if I was betting.) The downside to the shuttle was that Geoff and Matt lost a few bottles of alcohol at the small, informal, National Guard security check before getting on the bus. Note I said “few” not “all”.

When we arrived at Gobblers Knob there were probably a couple thousand people there but you could see more folks steadily arriving. The Knob is basically a large slopping, open area, cleared of most trees. About 50 yards downhill from the top, just before the tree line, is a small 3 tiered stage carved out of the dirt by railroad ties. The crowd in front of the stage was pretty thick when we arrived but it was still possible to weasel, or should I say groundhog, your way up front.

On the stage were the Phil Dancers, which looked to be the local high school cheerleading team wearing colorful "Phil" T-Shirts. A couple members of the Groundhog Inner Circle were up there too and basically they were all just helping pass the time. They played music over the PA system and danced around. They told jokes, announced raffle winners, brought up people celebrating birthdays, or people visiting from other countries, etc.; Over 3 hours of “fill” time. As an emcee to many special events in my day it was painful to watch for very long. I’m not mocking them of course. What else are you going to do?



We all watched the stage entertainment for a few minutes but then went to find the bonfire to warm up. I’m not sure how cold it was and I don’t think I even want to look it up when I get home. It was cold and what the actual degree was doesn’t matter. I had enough layers on that if I kept moving I was good…if I kept moving. The minute I stood in one spot for a few minutes I could feel the chill start to work its way around my bones pretty quickly. Jillian’s a South Florida native so it’s hard to tell when she is really cold or just shocked that the temperature is below 65. I think she had enough clothes on but she didn’t keep moving enough and eventually it caught up to her. From 5:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. I don’t think she had a very good time.

The bonfire was huge but the problem was all the people gathering around it. The front row of people surrounding the fire formed a wall. If you were on the outside of them you couldn’t feel the heat at all, but if you were lucky enough to get into the front row the heat was so intense you could only last a minute.

The 6 of us would gather in a tight group, as close as possible and pass around the drinks that made it up to the Knob. It reminded me of the movie, March of the Penguins. No, the penguins weren’t passing around a bottle of Jager but they would rotate which penguins were on the outside of the group and which ones were in the warmer middle. Instinctively we took up this penguin custom.

It wasn’t all standing around and shivering. For most of the time we all talked, laughed, and told stories. I talked about traveling with Geoff and politics with Matt. Katie had imparted some wisdom to me earlier in the night; that if you have your arms up in a picture it always looks like you are having a great time whether you actually are or not. I cracked up each time a camera went off and I saw her arms up. We all grazed on mini-bagels that Geoff was smart enough to bring and finished off the liquids. It’s hard to think of having a better time just standing around in the cold at 4:30 in the morning.

Around 6:45 a.m. I was surprised by the first fireworks that exploded over the tree line. I remembered seeing it on the groundhog schedule of activities but I had forgotten about it through the night. I don’t know if it was the lack of sleep, or the thought that it was almost time for Phil to come out but as soon as the first starburst exploded I started laughing again. Giddy.

As the explosions lit up the sky and gave a quick break from the darkness I could see how big the crowd was that had gathered on the Knob. I had gotten so used to just huddling in my own little group I had not realized how big the crowd had grown around us. It was a pretty impressive fireworks show too; I would guess a professional company and not just some volunteers randomly lighting some wicks.

I’m not quite sure what they were going for with the musical soundtrack though. It was an odd mix of instrumental music and obscure adult AC. I’m not complaining though, it just made Jillian and me laugh more. Plus I’m sure picking the music for a Groundhog Day fireworks show is not the easiest thing; not a whole lot of groundhog songs out there as opposed to 4th of July tunes. Anyway, the fireworks were a fun addition to the night and it even helped give Jillian her second wind.

After the fireworks show the sky seemed to get lighter almost instantly; from black to gray in one blink. It was sunrise and time for the official ceremony. The crowd soon parted down the middle and in marched the dozen or so members of the Groundhog Inner Circle.

The Inner Circle took the stage, made a few announcements, some introductions, and then it was time. The reason we came by plane, car, and foot to see; the reason why we had not been to bed yet; the reason why we waited out in the cold for hours, it was time for Punxsutawney Phil to check and see if he saw his shadow.

The whole crowd, probably 10,000+, started chanting PHIL, PHIL, PHIL, PHIL… the handler opens the little door and brings Phil out of his stump to a loud cheer. The president of the Groundhog Club speaks to him in whispered “Groundhogese” and then translates Phil’s prediction to the crowd. The crowd was silent…he saw his shadow…6 more weeks of winter! The crowd immediately and in unison started booing. I laughed out loud again.

The President reminded the crowd to not blame the messenger but most of them were already heading back down the hill to town. I took a few more pictures and then followed my fellow penguins as we marched back to town. The plan was to get some breakfast but the limited number of restaurants in Punxsutawney were quickly overrun by Groundhoggers anxious to eat and even more anxious to get warm. It’s probably just as well I don’t think Jillian would have made it through a meal. She crashed as soon as we got back to the hotel, a little after 9 a.m.

Geoff asked us “When was the last time you pulled an all nighter?” I thought about it and was happy to say it was only about a year ago…of course the “kids” all said last week. On this trip they didn’t have a place to stay and never planned on getting one. They just sucked it up, got in Geoff’s car, and drove the 4 hours back to school. Boy I remember those days. Like I said…kindred spirits.

Jillian and I slept until about 2 p.m. today and then got up to find some food, and do some touring of the Groundhog festivities around Punxsutawney like a visit to the local town museum, cultural center, and genealogy office. We strolled through the town square with the craft tents and chainsaw sculpting. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the official Punxsutawney Store but we have time to hit that in the morning.

It is about 7:30 p.m. now and Jillian is taking a little nap before we head out again in search of dinner. In the morning it’s a leisurely drive back to Pittsburgh and a 1:45 p.m. flight back to West Palm…where 6 more weeks of winter is fine with me.

I’m so glad we did this little trip; little only in time spent I guess. Most people don’t understand it but I truly love these kind of things; basically carefree celebrations of life.

There is a movie out right now called The Bucket List that has spawned a few articles and e-mails about creating lists of things to do before you die, or “kick the bucket”, to quote the movie trailer. This comes to mind because someone said it to me last night when they asked me what made us come all the way from Florida just for Groundhog Day. “Is this on your Bucket List?” They asked.

I don’t have any lists like this and I don’t see myself ever starting one. Sure I have things I want to do or see but the idea of writing them down seems odd to me. I think about them all the time. Why would I need a list to remind me? Also they are not things I want to do before I die. They are things I want to do right now!


Plus a list to me conveys the idea that one day I would complete it. I already know that’s not possible because what I want to do its not cross things off a list but rather love everyday; truly live every moment; whether that’s running in the morning before work, sitting in my office learning a new career, hiking a mountain in a far off country, spending time with friends and family.... or celebrating the 122 year tradition of a groundhog predicting the weather.

MJF

http://www.groundhog.org/prediction/

“When Chekhov saw the long winter,

he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope.

Yet we know that winter

is just another step in the cycle of life.

But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney

and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts,

I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.”

Phil Connors
WPBH-TV Action News