Bad Day

I picked Cameron up at school at 11:45.  We were going to ride the train to Beijing for the weekend and were camping on the Great Wall Saturday night.  We were on our way to Subway to get sandwiches for our train ride and I decided to check my e-mail in the van.  I had a message from Back Country Beijing.  They were sorry to do this at the last minute but they cancelled our trip due to weather.  They sent me a text Thursday to check the weather.  I did and replied with we have no reason to cancel our trip.  The other group cancelled.  So now I'm reading they decided to cancel it anyway.  I called Todd.  He had me call them back and explain we were already on our way and we still wanted to go.  Even though I was mad I was still pretty nice to the people.  They said safety first.  I agree but it still made me mad.

We still got Subway and still rode the train to Beijing.  Mr. Xue dropped us off and walked us in to make sure we knew what we were doing.  It's pretty easy but that was nice of him.  On the train, eating Subway with a man behind me bouncing my seat.  Irritating.  He finally stopped. 

In Beijing train station looking for the taxi line.  One whole section was closed so we had to find another.  It was no problem and we jumped right in line.  I had to use my American size to throw a couple blocks so people couldn't get around us.  Finally in a taxi and on our way.  We made it to the highway when all of a sudden a taxi pulls up next to us, honks, and points to our tire.  I said "Cameron, something is wrong".  Our taxi driver continued on and people continued to look at our tire as they drove by.  The taxi driver started testing by letting go of the steering wheel and the car veered right.  Again he tested.  And again.  FINALLY he pulled over onto a side street.  He got out and looked.  He opened my door and I said "flat?"  He motioned us out of the car.

We looked and sure enough it was flatter than a pancake.  Seriously?  What more could go wrong?  He told us 15 minutes and we would be on our way again.  It was only about 10.  He was fast.  When he put everything back in the trunk he grabbed a big jug of water and handed it to me.  He then motioned for me to pour while he washed his hands.  No problem.  Then he had me fill up his hands so he could wash his face.  GROSS!  They still weren't clean.  Oh well.  He was happy.  Back in the taxi and we continued on our way to the hotel.  Cameron decided to work ahead in his math book.  We talked about his handwriting and how he needs to work on it.  He looked up at me and said "Hey, Look at Grandpa Casey.  He has terrible handwriting and look how good he turned out."  I agreed but told him to work on his handwriting.  45 minutes later we had arrived.  Todd was standing outside on a call waiting for us.  He flew in from Harbin and beat us there.

Cameron assessing the tire situation.

Yep, it's flat.

Cabbie did a fine job of changing the tire.

Waiting for Cabbie to finish up.

Always working.

Checked in and up to our room.  Cameron and I got comfy and watched Johnny English Reborn.  Super dumb movie but it is funny.  Todd was finally done with his call.  We went to the lounge for a few drinks and snacks.  We then went to dinner.  We walked over to Home Plate BBQ.  It is a guy from Texas and it is delicious.  We had pulled pork quesadillas for an appetizer.  Cameron had ribs which were huge.  Todd and I had a salad and a basket of brisket and pulled pork.  Yummy. 

The ribs are awesome.

Funny sign Cameron saw in the bathroom.

Back to the hotel and the lounge again. We played I Spy out of the windows. This is much harder for me because my eyes aren't near as good as Todd and Cameron's. We then started drawing Chinese characters on a napkin for the others to find. This was funny. Blind and not good at drawing characters made it hard for Todd and Cameron to find what I was drawing. What I thought the character looked like didn't look like it at all since I left parts out. I tried.

The people from Back Country Beijing came to our hotel at 8:30 to drop off our deposit.  She had a guy with her.  I think she thought she was going to get yelled at.  I again showed them the weather and told them we didn't understand why they cancelled.  She said she understood our frustration but they didn't want to take any chances.  It probably was a good thing I went down and not Todd.

Up to our room to watch Men In Black 2 then off to bed.