Okinawa Part 2

It's wet here.  Stepping outside the automatic doors a the airport to get to my father-in-law's car felt a bit like stepping into a sauna.  And I'm not overstating this either.  A wave of mist-like moisture hit me.  The temperature was not all that hot, but the moisture was definitely there.

Now, for those of you who are familiar with my trip plans, you may be wondering why a car was involved in my airport routine to begin with.  In short, someone at United Airlines baggage handling in O'Hare thought not to put my bike on my connecting flight to Tokyo.  It took me some time to sort that out in customs at Narita, and even now, I'm not all that certain what's going to happen next.  It very well could be on today's plane from Chicago to Tokyo, but I can't confirm that until the folks at United's customer service desk here in Japan wake up.

So, we'll see, here, in a few minutes whether or not the bike is on its way, and whether or not it will arrive in Okinawa tonight, to be delivered to my parents-in-law's home tomorrow morning.  If so, I will put it back together, and start peddling around a bit.

Many of you may recall that this is my second time back to Okinawa since my LDS mission back in the 90s.  The last time I came here (about 4 years ago) it was winter, and much less humid.  I also got an opportunity to thoroughly revisit most of my mission sites.  Old apartments, church buildings, and notable McDonalds locations.  So, as we cruised from the airport to home last night, I felt a distinction between this visit and last.  This one is more...routine.  If that's the word.

My urge is not to go to all of those places.  This time, I want to cycle to places - grocery store, bike shops, surf shops, soda machines, etc.  Really, it doesn't matter where I go.  I just want to navigate on my bike all over the island.  I want to spend time really embracing the mundane, cruising around in the neighborhoods, catching plenty of good whiffs of the odor wafting from the drainage systems along the sides of the roads.  I want to cycle tour around the island,  as well, hugging the coastline as I go.  That will be next week.  This week, my plan is to spend time with the wife and kids, the in-laws, and peddle around just enough to warm my legs up for next week, make sure I put my bike back together correctly, and perhaps meet my family at various parks and places that they plan on going to this week.

That's assuming, of course, I actually get my bike.