#259 Good people are everywhere

I’m writing from the Hilton near the Los Angeles airport. I should be just about touching down in Sydney now, wrestling my suitcase through customs, hopping a bus to the domestic terminal, and waiting for the plane to Melbourne.

Bird of Paradise growing by Hilton LAX Hotel

Instead, I’m still in Los Angeles. I’ve had a relaxing night in the kind of bed Robin always raves about when he comes from a tour. I’ve gone for a long walk in the sunshine and eaten a breakfast almost too late to call it that. Soon I’ll hop the shuttle and head back out to the airport. If there are no more mechanical failures, at 10:15 p.m. I’ll be on a direct flight to Melbourne that just touches down in Sydney.

And it’s all because of good people.

Missed ride and missed flight

My trip got off to a bumpy start when the person who was to pick me up forgot. She’s normally so reliable that I knew something had happened. I couldn’t reach her to find out if she was OK (she was, but her mother wasn’t), but I still needed to get to the Kelowna airport. I raced upstairs, grabbed Robin’s cell phone, copied out the numbers of every friend who lived in the immediate neighbourhood, and started calling.

I only made one call. The Hartleys didn’t hesitate, and I know everyone else on the list would have done the same. They not only delivered me to the airport in plenty of time for my flight. They calmed me down so that I flew out of Kelowna feeling lucky and loved.

The flight was fun. I sat next to Dave from Kelowna. Back in 1994 he and a friend set sail on the Home Free, a 42-foot ketch. They had spent twelve years building it. He told me a lot about their adventures during the short flight, and he had the storyteller’s knack of starting in just the right spot: in a 3-day hurricane with 140 mph winds, main mast snapped, water shipping in through a hole.

Vancouver was a breeze. Plenty of time between flights. The Los Angeles connection proved just as easy, but the plane never left the ground. We were to depart at 10:15, then 11:00, then midnight. Then we were asked to report to customer service for hotel vouchers and a full day’s layover.

More good people

The trunk of this fig tree outside the Hilton looks like open hands

The United staff were kind and helpful, and most of the disappointed passengers took it all in stride. About 30 of us were sent to the Hilton, with room and meal vouchers. My seat mate was a woman who left Wellington, New Zealand, to nurse in Iran and then left for Denver, Colorado, when chaos erupted and ended the reign of the Shah.

Though it was after 1:30 a.m. when we reached the Hilton, the place was hopping. Some 400 people were still partying. Women in impossibly high heels and ball gowns. Men in tuxes. One of the staff members (same guy who brought me a toothbrush at 2 a.m.) said they were there for a Persian wedding.

The Hilton staff was gracious and helpful. Thanks to my trusty laptop and an Internet connection, I could Skype Australia and let Robin and the family know I would be a day late. By then I was exhausted and needed the reassurance of a verbal hug. They gave it to me, and I crawled into bed and off to dreamland.

Kudos to United

So here it is Sunday afternoon. I snapped a few pictures on my walk, in weather that’s more like what I’m heading for than what I left in Canada. And then I sat down to try once again to connect with United. Third time was a charm. On the first two attempts, the kind people who spoke to me were staring at the blanks screens of a computer system taking a nap.

Family out for a stroll in the neighbourhood where I took my walk

On the third try, not only was the computer system working again, but I talked to Brad, who deserves a raise and a promotion. Once he made sure I was on the flight to Sydney, he talked with Aeroplan (I’m flying on Robin’s air miles) and Air Canada and managed to get me on a much better routing – straight from Los Angeles to Melbourne, with only a brief stopover in Sydney.

So I’m going to shut down my computer, gather the few things I have with me (just the pack with all my computing and photography gear – plus a little toothbrush and toothpaste the hotel gave me), and catch the shuttle.

And I know between here and Melbourne I will meet more good people. They’re everywhere.

This sign tickled me. I could picture a parking lot full of cell phones, all of them waiting

These bright yellow and orange flowers were growing in the verge bordering a busy street, volunteering their sunshine for passersby like me

The fence the bougainvillea were climbing on was chain link and razor wire - softened by flowers

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Tags: generosity, good people, kindness, Los Angeles