8/17/11
Finding Tools
I
woke up in Monterey at 8am NY time, so I had an early start to call
about my luggage. Besides a sleepless night over losing a Ferrari
toolkit,
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I was going to track my
bags through the system. I contacted the Jet Blue Baggage Claim in NY
and their search turned up nothing. I tried to track down the woman
named Marylin that promised to take care of my baggage, but they
wouldn't give up her contact information. As the hours passed, I began
to lose hope.
After
a couple of hours on the phone, I went to see another GTE in the area.
The owner had decided it's time to sell, and asked me to help. It's a
decent car that needs some mechanical work, but it's definitely a good
car. If you're looking for a GTE, let me know and I can send you the
details. I apologize for the vague picture, but the competition to get
these cars is pretty fierce, so I have to protect my interests! Despite
being called foolish, my intentions are to find good homes for these
cars with owners that intend to keep them as GTEs! I have a list of
people who have asked me to inform them about Vintage Ferraris I have
found, and if you want to be included, e-mail me.
After my visit
with the owner of the GTE, I parked my car at a shopping center and
began calling the airlines again. Because my original flight
was
transferred to American Airlines, I was told by Jet Blue I had to
place a lost baggage claim with American. As my phone call was routed
through the American Customer service center, I started to gain some
hope. There were some clues that the baggage computers sent my bags
through the American
baggage claim system despite the Jet Blue tags. Marylin also didn't do
what she
promised. The next step was to find which flight my bags went to SFO
on, and hope that someone didn't walk out of the airport with them.
As
I was talking to American Airlines Customer Service, I got a call from
SFO baggage claim. They had my bags and wanted to arrange delivery! I
told them to hold them right there, and I would drive there
immediately. There was no way we were going to risk losing these bags
again! The owner of the tools and I met and made a dash for the
airport. After four drives around airport ring road looking for the
correct baggage claim area, we finally found the bags, and the tool kit
was still inside. What a relief! We celebrated that night with a couple
well deserved glasses of wine. I could finally begin my week in
Monterey with a clear conscience!
The funny coincidence to this story was before I
left my home, I was looking for the right book to bring with me on this
trip. I picked John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath as a fitting book about
a
family's struggle with their journey west from Oklahoma to reach
California during the Great Depression. Steinbeck's California was a
very
different place than what we see today, although some of the struggles
with farming still exist. Before my ordeal, I was interested in
absorbing the descriptions of a California during a simpler time,
but little did I know how trying my journey out west would find
parallelisms with the Joads. It was also quite clear to me that no
matter how hard it was for me to reach Carmel, or what I could have
potentially lost, it was nothing compared
to a Steinbeck Novel!
Reminder: If you have a Ferrari
related project, car, or idea
you'd like to explore, I'd love to talk to you. I can also help if
you're thinking of buying or selling. This website represents what I
love to do, share, and how I make a living, so if you'd like to do
something together, let me know. It all begins with an e-mail!
Previous
Restoration Day
Next
Restoration Day
Home
page