up something for another post and I find that because I have a couple of hours to work with that I am having a hard time thinking of something. I generally do not have a hard time when time is limited or I am posting from someplace odd like a motel or an airport.
Seamen tend to spend more time in places like airports, train stations and motels than a lot of other people do and I guess it just goes with the job. I do not really like spending time in these places but it is just a part of getting to where you are going. It beats walking or spending the night on a park bench somewhere. Ask me how I know about walking, hitch-hiking and sleeping in odd places.
One night I got stuck in a fairly rough area in Seattle. I really didn't know the town well and decided that it wasn't safe enough to travel so I looked for a place to jungle up for the night and found a likely looking bridge. There was a pile of leaves under it so I took the coveroff of my sleeping bag and decided tosleep in that as it was fairly warm and I didn't want to roast.
I buried myself and all my gear in the pile of leaves and slept pretty well even though I woke up pretty filthy. My face was a fright.
I broke out the Primus stove, the one I still have, made a quick cup of coffee and made a beeline for the nearest gas station to clean up a bit. After that I got my bearings and headed straight to fisherman's terminal where I knew I could get a shower from one of the boats and lucked out. Not only did I get a shower, but I got a pretty good breakfast of bacon and eggs simply because I knew a couple of people the skipper did when I was asked who I had fished with.
If I recall correctly, I was waiting for the Alaska ferry to get to Ketchikan so I could try and bum a ride across the gulf and get back to Kodiak. Instead I wound up getting a fish boat ride the whole way from Seattle because the skipper I had just met made a call and knew someone headed that way.
Hey, what do you know? I found something to write about.
Anyway, the ride to Seattle was fairly long, it took several days but it was not only free but gave me a chance to make a few contacts and I believe it eventually landed me a job. I stood a watch here and there but most of the steering was done by the skipper because he really didn't have anything else to do but run his boat. I fooled around with the halibut gear that needed tending to as I guess they were headed to Kodiak to halibut fish.
As far as the wierdest way I have ever traveled was the time I called a friend in Kodiak and told him I was stuck in Seattle and needed a way back. He ran straight down to the bar and borrowed a few bucks from some of the people I knew, explaining what was going on and made a quick call to the Alaska Airlines people at the airport who in turn called Seattle and I got put on board the plane as a COD with the agreement that if my friend didn't have the cash to get me off I would be flown back to Seattle.
WHen the plane landed I stayed in my seat and someone came running in and told the stewardess I was $10 short and it looked like I was going to have to go back to Seattle until she saw it was me. I knew her and she was a sweetie who kind of liked me because she found me entertaining.
"I'll loan you the ten, Pic," she said and I got off the plane.
Back then there were a number of fishermen that got to Kodiak COD and Alaska Airlines had a big enough sense of humor to fly someone very occasionally as air freight, COD. If you have ever read the history of that airline you would not doubt this story for a second. It is the only airline I have ever been on where the pilot would play the harmonica for the benefit of the passengers.
(Reeves Aleutian is the only airline I have ever been on where the stewardess had a fairly new black eye, a real shiner.)
A couple of weeks later everyone got paid back and I was kidded a lot over the incident.
The girl from the ticket counter was the first person I paid back. I collected a debt a day or two later from someone and paid her back immediately. Some time later she helped me out again when I went off on another one of my improbable adventures. She sneaked about seven or eight green duffel bags full of anchors, chain, rope, tools and assorted hardware on a plane I was taking to Seattle to pick up a sailboat. I estimate there was close to 500 pounds of stuff that went aboard and I didn't pay a dime for spare luggage.
She simply thought it was funny helping me sneak all that stuff aboard.
Several years later after I moved to Pittsburgh a friend of mine was passing through and stopped by. Her name came up and my friend told me that when he was talking to her my name came up and she told him that I was one of the people that she enjoyed watching because I was always up to something interesting. She also told him that I was the last person she had ever wanted to get into a relationship with, if that tells you anything.
More than likely she was afraid of going to jail with me as it looked like maybe I would wind up there at the time.
Anyway, two and a half decades later, when I travel I fly the same way everyone else does and when I need a place to stay I wind up staying in a motel of some sort.
While it isn't quite as interesting, it is likely a lot safer and a lot more comfortable.
my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/
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