Job Done, Camera Gone

Job done. It all seems like a blur now that the six weeks have passed. I have to hand it to the fabulous crew of fellows that I worked, travelled, lived, slept and ate with. Some of the guys I have known for more than a decade and others I just met for the first time. We worked like a well oiled machine. And we played well together too!

The final was a bit of a mad rush and crush. Our flight was delayed from Port Elizabeth and being behind schedule was the last thing we needed on the last day. We had all of our belongings at this point and needed to go from the airport to the Towers to swap out some clothes and gear and drop bags at our rooms. We actually crammed all of our bags into the nearest room and jumped back into the van and headed out to sit in traffic again on our way to Soccer City. It was going to be an unprecedented event because when our two teams come together we will have 17 photographers covering the final. It was great to see everyone as we rushed in with hours to spare. The adrenaline was pumping. It was a chilly night but the way we were crammed into our positions shoulder to shoulder there was a bit of heat conservation and the chill was kept off. Speaking of friends new and old I had the pleasure of sitting next to an old friend, David Leah. Not necessarily referring to his age, but I have known since the 1994 World Cup. The expatriated Brit took up residence in Mexico City and founded Allsport Mexico about 20 years ago and has now morphed his agency into Mexsport. After a flourish of yellow cards and a goal in the late minutes of extra time our crew got to toss back a couple of beers in the media center and catch up as we start to say farewell in the hours after the cup was hoisted by Spain.

After finally going to bed at 5:30AM all that was left was the LONG journey home. A little lie in and brunch at the mall found us on a 3:30PM bus to the airport. Stuck in traffic for an hour people were already found dozing off on the coach. Then to the queue for a group check in at the airport escorted by our travel agent to help avoid excess baggage fees. That gladly ate up most of the spare time before boarding the 8:00PM, 11 hour, redeye to London. I got to sit next to Clive Rose whom I hadn’t seen since Vancouver. We got to catch up a bit and fidget together trying to catch a little sleep and very little sleep is what I got. With a 6:00AM arrival I had a 7 hour layover before my flight to Denver. A few more welcomed distractions would help devour those 420 minutes. In addition to the lost time, the bigger loss was my snappy camera I left in the seat back pocket on the South Africa Airlines plane which had the last couple snaps from the trip on it. My first move was to have to go through customs as I was not able to check my bags through. Carlos and I were the only non EU residents so we headed for the long line on our own after we bid adieu to members of the crew again as they hit the express lane. As we reclaimed our luggage more time was spent filing the paperwork for Carl’s missing case of laptops. I now said so long to Carl who needed to catch a train to terminal four and a Continental flight to Newark. Under the recommendation of my daughter Devan who made the same layover a couple weeks earlier I headed to the Giraffe Café for a salmon and egg breakfast, where coincidentally I met Sandra and Lars my German peers. We had some coffee and chatting before they caught their flights to Germany. I then sat down to organize my expenses and before I could really get into them my flight was called for boarding! As I settled into my seat facing a 10 hours flight some dude in a CU Buffs hoodie showed up with the same seat number. The flight attendant (with angel wings) checked our tickets and matching seat numbers. She returned with a new boarding pass for ME! Off to Business Class! Sweet!

That took the sting out of the shin kicker that was going to wrap up my 32 hour journey. However with a kick in the crotch, 32 hours became 34 hours, as I was detained my US Customs for not having a Carnet for my camera gear. Everyone is looking for finances to bolster their budgets and the US Government is not too low to stoop to the tactics of thinking I would pay twice the US value for camera gear in South Africa and try and import it and thus collect taxes from me. After a great deal of probing and dismantling of my luggage and interrogation they let me go even after they couldn’t raise anyone at our Los Angeles and Seattle offices that could vouch for me. I finally rolled the trolley ladened with my nearly 200lbs of luggage through the doors to be greeted by my family and end my odyssey.