Where In The World is My Bike?????

Elisabeth left Fort Lauderdale on April 29 and, according to the tracking record on the DHL website, traveled a direct route to Mobile ~ Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Wilmington, Ohio to Orlando, Florida, to Atlanta, Georgia. Let's map that on MapQuest, shall we? She arrived at the Atlanta Hub one day and 8 hours after I dropped her off at DHL office and promptly disappearing into "shipping hell".

Don't you just love customer service? - although, I must say, each and every person I spoke with at DHL was helpful and pleasant, and I fully realized that while speaking with them I was to keep in mind the old saying "don't shoot the messenger". What I dislike is the final answer they give to you (do they learn this at customer service school?). "Somebody will get back to you by 4:30 tomorrow afternoon" 4:30! Tomorrow! Are they kidding? Between the initial discussion with DHL last night, and my final discussion (the fourth) early this afternoon, I was passed further up the line of searchers - those unreachable people who are supposed to find your missing items and "get back to you" - but never do. My last contact, Stephen Stafford, found her because he took a little more time than the rest and, after listening to me go through the "what ifs" about buying a new bicycle when I arrived in Mobile, he knew I was frantic. He found her - back in Ohio, where her shipping box had been opened and she had been photographed and put on the DHL "lost items" internal website (I made that up for lack of a real title). While speaking with me, Stephen was looking at a photo of a red, white and blue bicycle with a water bottle in its cage - and load of other stuff in the box. Apparently, the shipping label had come off somewhere along the line. The mystery is over. Elisabeth has been found and should be delivered to The Cadence 120 Bicycle Works no later than Thursday.

Meanwhile, I am getting closer to being nearly packed and practically ready to go. So much to do and the clock is running out of time ~ and I feel frantic. Felice is taking me to the airport Thursday morning for my 10:30 flight. Holly and I will meet in Atlanta and fly together to Pensacola (What's more direct than Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta to Pensacola?) where we will pick up a rental car ($15 for the day) and drive the 45-minutes to Mobile. Since we are both doing only carry-ons, we'll stop at CVS or Rite-Aid or Walgreens for a few items that would not make it through security, stop at Cadence 120 to make arrangements for our cases to be shipped to the bike shop in Williamsville, NY that will be shipping our bikes home at the end of the ride, drop the car at the airport, and take the shuttle to our hotel. I'm tired just writing about the day. Back to packing.

Talk to you from Mobile. :-]