Getting around

As the news stories continue from last weeks widespread failed IT upgrade that caused computers to go down in a number of critical industries and forced airlines to ground their fleets temporarily, we are learning that our family was very fortunate in the midst of the mess. Our daughter and grandson were scheduled to fly home from here to South Carolina on the night that the computers crashed. As a result of the CrowStrike/Microsoft computer outage, the airplane scheduled to transport them was grounded. At first airline employees had no idea how long the delays would last, so notices were sent that the flight would be delayed. When the delay stretched past midnight, our daughter was able to call and re-book her flight to the next night. She was able to re-book because the computer outage was caused by an automatic software update set to take place in the middle of the night. Because the middle of the night comes earlier in time zones to the east, the computers here on the west coast had not yet crashed when she re-booked her flight. The result for us was simple. Our daughter and grandson stayed with us for an extra 24 hours and were able to travel home without delay the next day.

We have since heard of friends who were stranded for many hours in airports, unable to make connections. With all of the flights that were grounded and IT problems making it difficult for passengers to rebook missed flights there was a lot of chaos and a lot of people faced major disruptions.

We don’t fly on the airlines very much these days. I have had a couple of trips related to my involvement in Faith Formation Ministries in the past year and we continue to plan trips to South Carolina to visit our daughter each year. In fact, we will be booking tickets soon. It isn’t however, the way I imagined my life might be when I was younger. I grew up in Montana. Both of my parents were pilots and I assumed that I would be able to fly as much or more than they had. Anticipated flying cars, however, have not materialized. And although I pursued aviation as a hobby and we had partial ownership in an airplane at one stage of our life, it was never practical for us to use general aviation as a primary means of travel. For a while I was flying fairly regularly for church meetings and activities, serving as an educational consultant in our church’s national setting. Those days have passed, however, and we have fewer reasons to travel by air than I once thought.

There are many things about my life that I did not imagine when I was younger. I assumed that I would always live in the Intermountain west. It was where I was born and I love the mountains and the people who live there. I expanded my vision to include the Dakotas early in our career and we enjoyed living and serving congregations there. We raised our children with a sense of adventure and encouraged them to follow their dreams and so far that has meant that they have lived quite far from where they graduated from high school. Our daughter has lived overseas for seven years of her life and she and her husband continue to anticipate moves as his career progresses. Our son, however, seems settled in the Pacific Northwest and so we moved near him when we retired. With four grandchildren just down the road, our travel desires have, for the most part, focused on our daughter and her family who live 3,000 miles away on the opposite coast of the country.

Here on the coast of Washington, I am learning about a form of travel that has not previously been something to which I’ve paid attention. Our county and a neighboring county have islands and islands mean passenger ferries. Sometimes we lead worship at an island congregation near our home. The ferry to Lummi Island runs from the nearby reservation to the island. It is a simple thing for us to drive to the ferry terminal and make our way to the Island. Recently we served the congregation for a couple of weeks while their pastor was on vacation and the auto ferry was in dry dock so passenger only travel was what was available. It was a simple matter for us to ride the ferry and hop onto a bus to get to the church. We had to allow for a bit of extra time for parking and walking to the ferry, but it all worked out.

Having the ferry in dry dock, however, made me aware of how complex the process of traveling among the islands is. Ferries are related to road systems. That means out here that just as we have roads that are built and maintained by different governmental jurisdictions, we have a Washington State ferry system and we also have county ferries. The Lummi Island ferry is operated by our county. Like roads, ferries are expensive to build and operate. In 2021, shortly before we moved to our current home it was announced that the county had secured $35 million in state and federal grants to purchase a 34-car electric ferry to replace the current 20-car Whatcom Chief, a diesel-craft that has been serving since 1962. However, since the grants were announced, the cost of the electric ferry has skyrocketed. It is now estimated that the replacement ferry and the needed upgrades to the ferry terminal will cost and estimated $90 million. The county does not have a funding source to make up the difference. Delaying likely involves even more increases in cost.

Electric ferries, however, are not the only option. Just south of us, in Bellingham, All American Marine is a company that builds commercial boats including passenger ferries. They launched “Sea Change” a 75-passenger ferry in August of 2021. That boat just went into service in San Francisco Bay after almost three years of sea trials and regulatory red tape. It is the first zero emissions hydrogen-powered ferry to be certified by the Coast Guard and that process took time.

It is hard to predict how we may travel in the future. I’m now expecting self-driving cars and other new technologies. Flying cars, however, don’t seem to be making their way to our garage anytime soon.

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