APR-C-3
MY PARTING EMAIL NOTE AS I LEAVE FROM DC
THOUGH FRA TO DEL ENROUTE TO DHARAMSALA
From: Glenn Geelhoed
To: Don Griffioen; Donald Geelhoed; Michael Geelhoed; Milly L. Holtvluwer
Date: 4/20/01 9:03AM
Subject: Fwd: hello again
I am now packed up, with about five kilos of personal stuff and another five boxes of medical supplies, destined to be traveling to Dharamsala as my personal baggage‑‑with what I hope is not too heavy a surcharge, if I can get to the check‑in clerk and explain the purpose of the boxes one‑way trip.
I am leaving many unfinished items of business, as always, but when would that not be the case?
I had sent you with the report of the Boston marathon a dozen plans and proposed trips from here through the rest of the year, beginning with a trip within the week of my return from India. In that one, I will be flying home to Michigan to show the pictures of the last trips‑‑beginning in the snow drifts of Christmas time in Grand Rapids, and adding Florida, Antarctica, Philippines, Boston, and‑‑still to be added‑‑Dharamsala, this time adding another run‑‑‑the USATF National Championship 25 K "Grand River Bank Run."
So, I am dressed in traveling costume, in which to take a taxi, if I can get one in to the parking garage of the Medical School's Ross Hall to off load my boxes from the Bronco which I plan to leave here in the undercover lot I am paying for already anyway.
So, between now, and my next time in any kind of bed will be three missed nights, since I fly Lufthansa now to Frankfurt overnight, then again to Delhi overnight, and in train and bus to Dharamsala. After the clinics in the summer palace of His holiness the 14th Dalai Lama for two weeks, the frosting on the cake for the team will be to climb a hill outside Dharamsala to look over spring coming in to the Indian Gangetic Plain, and then take the train to Agra to stand and wonder, once again, at the symmetry of the Taj Mahal.
The spectacular spring daffodils of Derwood have now faded with all the trees in budding leaves, which should be out in full canopy when I return. The cold mornings will be replaced by summer as I clamber back aboard the same lengthy transit in reverse, which I will fly again three more times within the next four months.
Some woman whom I do not remember very well who had been on the antarctic ship Orlova who just happened along during a serendipity tour but had no idea of running, especially not a marathon and particularly not down there! sent a message to those who had been on the ship, and I thought it might be interesting to compare her observations with mine‑‑so I have forwarded her note, through which you can see additional pictures of the same places I had been‑‑‑and perhaps the very same seals and penguins! (If you have a good eye, as they do, for recognizing distinctive individual penguins in a crowded rookery!)
Happy Spring!
GWG