The Journey home
The Journey home
As I said earlier in the post, Oahu was the first part of the vacation. We were traveling to Kona on the big island for the second half. So I had arranged to get the fish back through security at Honolulu international when we flew back through from Kona on Sunday night. I had it all arranged with Rob to get this guy packaged up and ready to go for me at 7pm on Sunday.
As we left Kona, I was a little worried due to the fact that Rob's cell was completely down and his only method of contact was email. Well he has an iPhone and if his phone is down, so is his email:eek2: So finally I got a call from him late Saturday night from another line and we made sure our logistics were in synch for the hand-off at the airport. He also let me know that he was going crosshatching Sunday morning and would more than likely have some fun fish to show me when we met.
So as we landed in Oahu from Kona I was very anxious to get this over. We landed at 6:40pm, I was to meet Rob at 7pm, and my flight to Denver left at 8:05pm. There was a little margin for error in there, but not much. I got off the plane and left the kids with my wife and ran to the security checkpoint where Andy (the TSA manager) told me to meet him. SUPRISE! Andy was not in. He had completely forgot the conversation we had on Wednesday night. I freaked. I went over to the TSA desk and asked for the manager. Her name was Luana. She couldnt have been nicer. She had a great hawaiian accent and listened to my story about the fish that was coming through her checkpoint whether she liked it or not. She called Andy and talked to him for 2 seconds before she started to laugh. I guess that Andy had set his team up to make sure that I would be ok going through. They actually had a meeting about this earlier in the week to discuss when I came through what they needed to do to inspect the fish. I was FAMOUS!!!!:rollface:
Luana told me "go outside and get the kine (fish) and bring it through dat gate ova dea. I take care of you bruddah" (very poor spelling of a beautiful pigeon accent. So I ran outside noticing there was no line to get through security (thank god). I remember pasing back and forth as the minutes ticked by. I looked at my watch every minute and finally 7pm came and then went. Now I started to worry.
7:05pm, no white Ford, no Rob, no fish.
7:10pm, no white Ford, no Rob, no fish.
7:15pm, no white Ford, no Rob, no fish.
7:20pm, no white Ford, no Rob, no fish.
Meanwhile I was running from the second level (security checkin) to the first level (passenger pickup) to see if he was downstairs. Still nothing. I was telling myself that if he wasnt here by 7:35pm that I would have to get to the plane and he would have to ship him.
So I ran back upstairs looked at my watch, 7:32pm. :eek1: :eek1: As I looked out one last time, there it was! Rob pulling up in the white Ford truck with Rob tossing out a shocka sign at me!!!! I was jumping and yelling! It was such a releif.
As I walked up to the car, I saw the familiar grey buckets in the back of the truck and looked in to see three 7"+ Male crosshatches and one 7" female crosshatch. I told him to keep the reef stocked for a couple more months and then to get me a pair just like the one in the bucket. AMAZING!!!
Rob walks to the back and opens up the styrofoam bucket and there was my beauty. Just like the minute we took it from the ocean staring back at me. I gave Rob a big bear hug, threw him a shocka, grabbed my precious cargo and headed for the security gate.
Getting through was a breeze. Everyone (all the TSA folks, and people in line) were curious about what was in the box. When I said it was a fish that I had caught on the trip they all wanted to see it. I didnt mind showing everyone.
We got through the security and I was off to the united terminal. When I got to the gate with the fish it was like winning a race. I felt like 10000 lbs of pressure was let off my back. We packed up and got on the plane. This guy went from getting manhandled by a shipping agency to sitting in first class all the way home. He even had a United blanket wrapped around him to keep the water temp at around 74-76.
I got him back home and drip acclimated him for 3 hours. Below is the greatest picture of all time. My new bandit home with his new buddies already eating Mysis and Spectrum pellets and grazing on the live rock.
I hope you enjoyed my story! I can't wait for the next time.
He was in the same tank with a yellow anthia. I have never seen one of these guys before either. It was pretty cool too, but it didnt look too happy.
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