Renewal

June 26, 2023

The appointment

The day begins early - much too early - but because we’re just. Few days past summer solstice it’s already getting light out when I look out the window to the north at 4:45 when Rachael’s alarm goes off.

Rachael brews up a cup of coffee for each of us, and we groggily settle in at the chore that’s driven us to get up at such a ridiculous hour. This is the day we’re calling in to the State Department to make an appointment to renew our passports under the Urgent Travel restrictions:

The Urgent Travel passport renewal constraints.

Because we’re concerned about the timeline, we’ve decided to plan on leaving the apartment a day early and head straight to Canada, planning on crossing the border on July 10th, 14 days after today. We’ve booked a hotel in Vancouver for the 10th, as documentation of our planned travel date. And because we know from recent experience that it could take a very long time before we make it through the phone tree without getting canceled and get to speak with a real live agent, we plan to dial in, both of us in robocall mode, starting at 5 AM (8 AM eastern time), as soon as the assport office opens.

(And yes, I know there’s a typo in the last sentence. Accidental, but I think I’ll let it stay.)

Matters go as expected, and we each end up getting cancelled about a dozen times before concluding that it’s pointless for us to both be calling at the same time. We decide to divide shifts and Rachael goes back to bed while I keep calling until Caffe Umbria opens, and then I’ll go out for breakfast while Rachael takes a shift.

I’m just about to put my shoes on to step out when I get through - meaning I’m put on hold until an agent frees up, rather than canceled outright. I’m given a wait time of 25 minutes, which ends up being pretty accurate.

Rachael’s awake and listening to the countdown, and we’re both excited and hopeful when a woman finally takes my call. I explain our situation, and then she asks our travel date. 7/10, I answer. Oh, too bad - She confirms that Seattle has slots available, but I’m a day too early. We missed the implied fine print: “scheduled within 14 day of your travel date” apparently includes both the date of the appointment and the travel date, illogically enough.

I try to repair the damage and say that we’ll just travel on July 9th instead, but it’s too late. The date first stated has already been recorded into the call log and can’t be changed. Click.

So there’s 2-1/2 hours of my life I’d like back. Rachael takes over while I go out for coffee, and almost two hours later an email comes through (because I forgot to take my phone):

By which she really means July 6th, but still. Wonderful news!

Canada

So we’re going to Canada after all. Nothing else seems as urgent as figuring out what this means, so as soon as I get back from second coffee and we exchange a celebratory hug the planning team shifts into gear. Our previous plans, which assumed we’d take about a week getting to Canada and swing by Boise to visit Racpat on the way, is now inoperative because we’ll actually enter on the 10th and at Vancouver rather than further east like the Palouse or Waterton.

I spend the next hour reimagining the itinerary while Rachael makes or changes bookings, but we end up with what we think is the final plan. Since some of you know we’re coming into your territory, we might as well publish the whole thing so you can arrange to be out of town or busy at the right time:

7/10-11: Vancouver (at a cheapo motel in Langley, actually). We needed a place we could prepay and show as proof of travel plans at our interview.
7/12-14: Penticton
7/15-17: Nelson
7/18-20: Cranbrook
7/21-22: Radium Hot Springs
7/23-24: Revelstoke
7/25-26: Mount Robson Lodge
7/27-28: Sunwapta Falls Lodge
7/29-8/01: Jasper
8/02-03: Canmore
8/4-08: TBD: driving home, possibly via Waterton and Boise.
8/09-9/08: Portland
9/09-12: Minneapolis
9/13: Bilbao.

That takes us into early afternoon, by which time we’re ready to get outside before we’ve completely frittered away another beautiful day. Rachael takes another hike up into the West Hills, and I head south out Terwilliger on a ride that I don’t really want to talk about for the usual reasons. I did come back with a few photos though, and somehow ended up at the Lucky Lab when I was done.

Sellwood Bridge, from Terwilliger Boulevard.

The immense totem pole at Elk Point, the crowning viewpoint on Terwilliger Boulevard. Carved in 1959 from a red cedar harvested from the base of Mount Adams, at 50’ in height it is one of the largest totem poles in existence. At its base is a beaver, surmounted by a grizzly, a raven, and four watchmen.

Today's ride: 15 miles (24 km)
Total: 311 miles (501 km)

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ann and steve maher-wearyWe will need new passports too, I hope it isn’t as onerous a task as yours is. Thanks for a the chuckles from your tale!
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10 months ago

Scott AndersonTo ann and steve maher-wearyIt’s really pretty straight forward as long as you’re not in a time crunch. Knowing what we do now, we’d probably have applied for renewals early last winter, long in advance of when the new ones were needed.
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10 months ago

Kelly IniguezMy passport sympathies to you. Whenever I bicycle past Speedway on the bike path in Tucson, I think of how easy it would be to ride over there and get a passport - if only you could walk in to the office. How much of the winter are you thinking to spend in Tucson? For the next ten days the temperature there is around 110!
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10 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Kelly IniguezWe’ll figure out Tucson once we get a surgery schedule, and start looking for AirBnB then. We expect at least a month though, and maybe six weeks. We like to save some time on either end for the drive down and back to Portland, and it depends too on how soon we decide to get back into Europe again next spring.
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10 months ago

Rachel and Patrick HugensFantastic that this worked out with the Passports....and a visit to Boise!!!!
We've got those tentative date of 08-04 to TBD marked on our calendar!
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10 months ago

Betsy EvansI've finally caught up on your news. I should be in Revelstoke July 23/24, and look forward to catching up with you. You are welcome to stay at my house if you like. The downside is that it's not within walking distance of downtown - I'm north of the highway. The upside is no train noises!
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10 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Betsy EvansGreat! We’ve got a place booked already that we might as well stay with, but we’d love to meet up. We’ll get in touch when it gets closer. Why don’t you drop us a note to scoracand at gmail.
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10 months ago