I heart Natalia

Before I get to that just a few things.

Steak and ice cream for lunch today. In a mall food court no less.

Steak and ice cream for dinner today as well.

Yesterday I did something I’ve never done before. Snapped the shaft of a golf club on purpose. Figured it was cheaper to re-shaft my wedge when I get home than it would be to buy an new one. Not as easy to do as I would have thought. Took a few smacks across the knee to make it happen.

I’m all packed and ready to go. So why do I heart Natalia? I have 2 companies in Ushuaia still working on shipping quotes (I’ll let them know on Monday that I’m home) going on 4 weeks. Another one working in Chile going on 5 weeks. Or is it 6? Natalia first emailed me on Monday in response to my email Sunday night. I loaded my truck in the container Friday afternoon. Less than 5 days. She, along with her co-workers, Matias and Marcelo combined to make miracles happen. Of course they are nowhere near as cute as she is. Yeah ‘miracle’ might be a bit of an exaggeration but after the frustration of the last few weeks it is how I feel. How about I just say they kick ass. I am just still astounded at how simple the process was here and so difficult everywhere else. I think I stumbled upon a gem of a company and have to thank Kevin and Erin for putting me in touch with them. Sea freight is not even their normal mode of business, they are an airfreight company. That confuses me even more about why this process is so hard for other companies to figure out. Not only did they get me in a container with a ship date for early next week (which means no dock storage charges) but they also made it possible for me to pay the freight upon receipt of my truck in Long Beach. The companies in Ushuaia were estimating almost $6k due upfront. (Spend some time thinking about the prospect of getting $6k in cash, cc is not an option, 14k miles from home with no local bank account. Yeah there are no easy answers to that dilemma.) Friday morning I paid All Cargo $891. Just a bit easier to swallow than $6k. By the time the truck shows up in Long Beach I’ll have earned enough money (assuming the job thing pans out) to pay cash for shipping and avoid the CC. That is a HUGE benefit since I wanted to do this trip debt free. I got close but not quite. Half the cost, ¼ the time, and it allowed me to spend some time in this wonderful city. Yeah I made the right choice to leave Ushuaia. Should have done it 2 weeks sooner.

Friday morning I was sitting in the office of All Cargo after paying the fees and listening to Matias talk to the port on the phone. I’d been there about an hour waiting for the official’s name and appointment to stuff the truck. ‘Stuff’ is the highly technical term they use for loading the container. Matias was speaking in his rapid business Spanish and somewhere in there I caught ‘at 2pm.’ An overwhelming sense of sadness and triumph set it. I fought hard not to tear up in front of 6 strangers on the 10^th floor of 893 Rivadavia. I managed to maintain my stoic, hardass appearance. But inside the emotions were chaotic. The finality had finally set it. Oh beautiful sentence there. The breadth of my vocabulary is truly astounding isn’t it? The closure was now real. My trip was over. 10 years of planning over. Proud of the fact that I did it 7 years before my original goal of age 40. It was a nice quiet time to reflect upon my accomplishment. 20mins passed and it was back to the anything but quiet task at hand.

The task at hand? Drive through this nightmare, from a traffic and pedestrian standpoint, of a city to the port and get it loaded successfully. Considered paying a taxi to let me follow him through the confusion but I nutted up and did it solo. I made it. Ruby Claire is parked ever so politely inside her sealed container waiting to be loaded on Tuesday for her journey to Long Beach, California. Two minor fender benders, some small nagging mechanical issues but she made the 30k miles of abuse and stress pretty much unscathed. Just a hair shy of 196k miles on the odometer. Yep there is a reason I drive Land Cruisers.

This morning I woke up with nothing on the agenda. First time in many weeks. Instead of hitting snooze I turned off the alarm and went back to sleep. I rolled out of bed about 11 and spent the day wandering the city, taking pictures, laughing at some lady who asked me what my sign is, shopping for last minute souvenirs and ended up finishing my trip with 7 pairs of shoes instead of 6. Yes I am that big of a loser. I sat in the middle of the 22 lane street and watched people, for about 90mins just soaking it all in.

Tomorrow night I’m headed to the airport and will say goodbye to the Latin World. For the time being. if I’m lucky I’ll make both flights (flying standby here and atlanta) and be home by Monday before most of you read this post. In the morning however I’m hitting up the antiques market to find my ACA medal, track down another ice cream cone or two, and see if I can avoid getting lost within blocks of my hotel like happened Friday between paying and shipping. Ideally I’ll get a post in tomorrow before I fly out. For now I’ll throw in a few more pics and then I need sleep since it is 3 am.

Until then, Cheers or Take Care or Much Luck or Sincerely or Con Amor or Saludos or Chao or a word that signifies closure to this post. Oh and there is a ‘behind the scenes’ for Beverly Hills Cop 2 on tv right now. Damn I’m going to miss this place