Day 070 > Sunday 10 November

We had arrived in San Francisco the day before, three hours before we had left Hong Kong, on what was our groundhog day. Met by Ed and Richard, our hosts for our stay in San Francisco we were driven to our hotel somewhere in town. We had not had the appetite or energy to explore yesterday and even now it was gone two p.m. before we met together and ventured outside.

Today was officially a day off, aimed at giving us time to recover from our busy Hong Kong programme and to adjust to the sixteen hour time difference from our last location. Although a change can be as good as a rest, my day off was spent on the phone, trying to pull together the remainder of our American leg and also our homecoming reception in the UK.

The American leg is looking complicated as Caroline has to travel back to Ireland for twenty Four hours to receive a top achiever award from the Prime Minister for her work with the Aisling Foundation. She also has to be in Las Vegas to receive a prestigious award from the Junior Chamber International. We have a commitment in Washington prior to our return to Las Vegas, forcing us to criss cross the USA, add Thanksgiving and public holidays to that and we have a weird schedule to organise if we are to achieve our 80 Ways before returning home.

Our last complication is that we have no money, so all our travel and accommodation for three weeks needs somehow to be sponsored. Lots to do but we did venture out to refresh our team uniform American style. We had determined that Jeans and cowboy boots were required. We found the jeans but not the boots before the shops shut on us and we headed off to dinner with Richard.

Richard is a Vietnam veteran and has spent most of his post military life working in film and theatre which enabled a fascinating, broad ranging conversation covering politics, entertainment and the impending war in Iraq.

Day 072 > Tuesday 12 November

At last we hit the streets of San Francisco proper. Golden Gate Bridge looked spectacular as we headed for lunch at the St Francis Yacht Club, one of the poshest in town. We weren't top of the bill today although we did have the opportunity to talk briefly about our adventure. The guest speaker was the British High Commissioner who spent his whole time talking about Sadam Hussein's build up of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in Iraq. America is facing the prospect of going to war and California is probably the least supportive state of all so the speech was received with much interest.

We headed into town to ride in the famous cable cars. These are street trams driven by under-road cables. Although we felt a little like tourists, especially as we were being filmed by Carbonara and two student camera"men" Alison and Nina, we enjoyed an hour of hanging onto the sides of the cars, trundling up and down the hills of San Fran with views of Alcatraz and the bay. Best of all, the ride ended outside the Buena Vista Bar, renowned for its Irish Coffees. Caroline got to work and negotiated a few rounds of free coffees to warm us up. We were cold. Having spent the last couple of months in the sunshine we noticed the chill but the coffees did the job.

One last job for the day was to get our boots and after much trying on of everything in the western store, including hats and holsters, our American uniform was complete. Mike refrained from buying boots but he did consider getting some spurs for his stumps.

Day 073 > Wednesday 13 November

Peter Stoneberg, one of the members of the St Francis Yacht Club offered to treat us to a morning's hot air ballooning in Nappa Valley, North of San Francisco so we set off at 5:00 a.m., all six of us crammed into Nina's van. After an hour and a half we arrived in the vineyards of Nappa in the early morning mist, but it wasn't to be. The mist, although beautiful, was not what was needed. This was only the second time that weather had foiled our plans since we had left home so we set off back to San Francisco singing silly songs in order to overcome our feelings of disappointment. There will always be another opportunity to go ballooning.

The opportunity we had in the evening, however, was unique. Art Cars and improvisation theatre were on the cards. It didn't matter how often Richard explained what was going to happen, we couldn't really grasp the concept. What happened next is best described by two people who attended the show, Richard who produced and led the event and Julie, who was in the audience. We had met with Julie by chance at the Collosseum in Rome, it was strange to meet her again in San Francisco.

Richard:
"November 13, 2002 17:25 PST San Francisco, CA, USA

My excitement began to build as I approached the parking area behind the Ramada Plaza San Francisco. The hotel had generously agreed to allow the ArtCars to assemble there for our mini-parade to the performance venue. After months of thought and planning, there they were, the imposing "FishVan", the delicate "Devolution",the eclectic "Edith, Object De Art", and the whimsical submarine "Ping". I met the Team in the hotel lobby and brought them around to meet their transportation and the artists who created them.

A short twenty minutes later we drove the Team in their ArtCars through the large roll-up door at the SomArts Cultural Centre. As we positioned the vehicles in the gallery, I knew the event was going to go as planned and the satisfaction I felt was indescribable. The actors were arriving. Last minute light and sound preparations were being made and the excitement in the room was palpable.

At 8:00 pm, after a brief introduction to the Life Game format, the audience met the actors and the Adventurers. In the Life Game, guests' interviews inspire the actors to spontaneously create improvised scenes. The combination of guest interview and improvisation create a truly unique, and in this case, a very moving evening of theatre.

The Adventurers were presented with a proclamation from Willie Brown, the Mayor of San Francisco, declaring November 13, 2002 "Around the World in 80 Ways Day." The presentation was made by the executive director of the Mayor's Office on Disability, Walter Park.

The interview with the Adventurers was truly inspiring. After the show the actors all said how difficult it was to "get off the bench" to improvise scenes. They were all so fascinated by the stories told by the Adventurers, they did not want to interrupt. The Adventurers were moved and delighted by the recreation of events from their journey and their lives. We were all moved to tears at one point or another, and the laughter was powerful and healing.

Highlights included the recreation of the race car driving in Singapore, Caroline, Miles, and Jon dancing the "Ostrich Dance", fulfilling Mike's desire to thank the man in the Balkans who had harmed him, and the singing of the "Jon Song" in which the entire cast joined in an improvised salute to Jon Cook and his tireless and frequently unsung deeds.

There were a significant number of people with disabilities in the audience. Post-show conversations with audience members included many who had been inspired to try the things they had only dreamed of, and to try and live life to the full.

The event was a benefit for the ATW foundation and the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors (BAADS). Although the funds raised were modest, the experience was elevating for all of us fortunate enough to be involved.
Richard Dupell, Fratelli Bologna, The Business Theatre People

Julie:
"Art Cars and Improv...
The adventurers arrived at the Somarts Theatre in grand style -- a caravan of Art Cars. Caroline in a smallish fish with silvery CD-rom scales, Robin in a larger welded metal fish two storeys high with a giant swishy tail, Miles in the satisfyingly tactile "Evolution" car which was densely covered in 3-dimensional brass knick-knacks including music boxes, chandeliers, et al, and Mike in a "submarine" complete with periscope, fins, propeller-tail, and a fantastic "ping" sound.

The caravan parked inside the lobby of the warehouse-space/theatre for all audience members to tour, either by sight or by touch. The plan for the evening was what Richard called "The Adventurers Meet the Noble Experiment," a live -theatre event with our team on one side of the stage and a group of improvisers
on the other. "Noble Experiment" because normally, when Richard’s company Fratelli Bologna does this show, they only interview one person, not four, and certainly not four inspiring adventurers! The event was also a benefit for the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors (BAADS).

Richard, as emcee, interviewed Miles, Mike, Caroline, and Robin, and at certain points, the actors would take the spotlight and perform scenes from the team’s stories and their lives. Each adventurer was assigned a specific actor to play them, for example, Reed Kirk Rahlman, in a wheelchair with his feet tucked up, played Mike during an "imaginary" future scene where Mike meets the Croat who ran him over and thanks him for changing his life. It was quite an emotional moment, very early on in the 2-hour show.

Lighter moments included Caroline telling her story of training an elephant in India, and two improvisers getting up to play the elephant while a third projected himself out of the elephant’s bum and landed at Caroline’s feet, as a giant ball of dung. And, at Caroline’s behest, we saw a scene of how Mike’s chair and Miles’ cane have been quite the world-wide babe magnets. Of course the irrepressible team performed some of its own stories as well, such as when Miles, Caroline, and a reluctant Jon jumped up to demonstrate the fund-raising Ostrich Dance.

Throughout the night, the team kept mentioning Jon, the team member least in the spotlight throughout the trip and, it became increasingly clear, a humbly indispensable part of the group. Each time John’s name came up, Richard would say, "Let’s hear it for John everyone," and gesture to the audience -- Jon stands, the lights come up, everyone cheers, Jon gets embarrassed. This happened over and over and over, until the improvisers decided to put the whole thing to rest with a lively marching ballad, "The Jon Song," an almost-grand finale, topped only by Jon himself getting up onstage to sing his Italian-inspired composition "The Fish Song.""

San Francisco at its best!

Day 074 > Thursday 14 November

We went Sailing again today, this time with Ed and the BAADS (Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors) boats. It was a very calm day but a perfect time to sit and enjoy San Francisco.

Our boats were "sloops" and not Dinghies, as I was often reminded. After a very slow moving hour and a half we pulled up alongside a 112 year old Hay Barge called the Alma. The boat was operated by the National Park Service and had a full time skipper and voluntary crew. Alma often took disabled parties out onto the Bay and the Skipper had devised an "interesting" but not too comfortable way of wynching disabled guests on board. It looked like legs over 12" long were necessary for the method to be completely successful but Mike, colostomy bags
and catheters all eventually made it on board at the same time.

Once the sails were up the crew settled about their business of whittling, reading, drinking coffee, talking to the dog and sharing peace San Francisco style while wearing strange hats. We had a lot of fun on the Alma and seemed to fit in well during our sedate cruise to Oakland Docks. We kept Mike in the chair for the wynching off and were met by an official from the Port Authority with a proclamation of welcome and support of the Eighty Ways project. Better still he treated us to a Long Island Ice Tea as we sat on the harbour front watching the sun go down on yet another magic day.

Day 075 > Friday 15 November

The day started most bizarrely. Caroline was going home to Dublin for a night and would be coming back again to join us on Monday. It is a long way to go for dinner from San Francisco but she was going for a very special occasion, to receive her Irish Person of the Year Award from the Irish Deputy Prime Minister. We were going to miss her and it was going to be very quiet for two days while she was gone. Robin was leaving us too, to return to the UK in order to finalise the arrangements for our coming home. Carbonara was going to spend most of the weekend out and about getting "shots" of San Francisco which just left Miles, Mike and myself. We kicked about, spending most of the day trying to decide what we were going to do.

In the end Mike raised the excitement levels by deciding to go and buy a pair of trousers and get a tailor to shorten them for him. Mike and Miles eventually went out on their own which is testimony to San Francisco's accessibility facilities in shops and in the street. Not feeling in the slightest bit guilty I rested and, at the same time, continued to try to pull together the details of the rest of our stay in America.

In the evening, after a long walk and roll to a restaurant in the Hispanic Quarter of town, I even bundled Mike and Miles into a taxi to go to a Salsa night club with Mike McNamara where they were to meet a group of blind dance enthusiasts. I went to bed for a long, long sleep.

Day 076 > Saturday 16 November

With Caroline still away and Robin back in the UK it was another day were we were not really able to do anything else other than relax, re-charge, catch up with stuff and make the most of the situation we found ourselves in. After a lie-in and a day of pottering Mike, Carbonara, Alison the student cameraman, John her husband and I decided to go to watch the Golden State Warriors against the Olando Magic NBA basketball teams. Miles stayed home.

Getting there, we decided to travel on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) train, most of which ran underground, under San Francisco Bay and all the way to the massive stadium complex. All BART stations are equipped with elevators to enable wheelchair access, although it is apparently best to phone to check that they are working at both ends before getting on a train. Having bought our $5 tickets return we found that by following the disabled access route we never had our tickets scanned, worth remembering next time we are in S.F.

The game was amazing. Apparently the Warriors are not regarded as a winning team but they absolutely stuffed the Orlando Magic lot on this occasion. But it was the party atmosphere of the crowd and the entertainment which hit the floor every time there was a time-out which made the evening fun. And, of course, the Candy Floss and Hot Dogs, a must on any great occasion. To round off the day Carbonara and I had a night cap in a local bar, talking about his "shots", "rushes" and "story boards" until just a bit too late.

Day 077 > Sunday 17 November

We went Sailing with our blind friend Ed Gallagher again today. Caroline was flying in from Dublin in the evening and we are due to fly to Washington D.C. tomorrow so it was our last chance to enjoy San Francisco before moving on. It was another glorious day and there was more wind than when we last sailed around the Bay in the BAADS boats but the strong tides meant that we had to be careful not to drift too far out towards the ocean. Mike was sat in a bucket seat mounted onto the side of the sloop and because the boat had been modified for disabled sailors, everything was in reach for him to take the helm for the majority of the time.

In Singapore I'd asked Mike if he had sailed much before his accident. "not much" he said "just Cowes Week every year and the Fastnet Race a few times", typically understated!

In the clubhouse we were treated to helpings of fresh crab and shrimps which seemed to be going spare along with a few beers to pass the time waiting for Caroline to come in.

Caroline was dizzy with excitement from her weekend in Dublin. She had met with family and friends at the Irish Person of the Year award ceremony, which had been covered by national TV in Ireland, and it seemed like half the passengers on the plane from Dublin to Los Angeles had seen her and recognised her. The experience of popping home for 26 hours was also slightly disturbing after all that Caroline had gone through over the last two and a half months so, to help the process of getting back into the 80 Ways swing, we hit a blues bar downtown and all stayed up until Caroline's jet lag kicked in.