It’s been a pretty crazy twenty-four hours. Below you will find many words recapping my ups and downs during this stretch, but no photos. So feel free to skip today and wait for the picture show tomorrow.

 The Ugly

I previously mentioned that my excitement for this trip was dampened by a couple of unresolved problems that I left in North Carolina. Well, one of the issues came storming to the forefront last night and required my immediate attention.

 The back story is that I had a couple of friends over for dinner two weeks ago, and one of them commented that my condo smelled “musty”. It was not a strong odor, nor could everyone agreed on the exact nature of the odor – some remarked that it smelled like paint, others likened it to international cooking.

 The building is only two years old and though I’ve had no water damage or visible mold in my unit, a couple of units have experienced water coming in through the walls. I arranged for a mold assessment last week - they also failed to find visible mold or water damage, but did take air samples to send off to the lab. I left town before the lab results came back, and very much wanted the results before heading to Morocco where internet and phone communication might be spotty.

 Well, the results arrived last night and they were pretty ugly – levels of toxic mold high enough that I was advised that people should not enter my unit. I’ve arranged for defogging and retesting, but that will do nothing to eliminate the source of the mold. And the source may likley be somewhere in the building – necessitating working with the HOA and builder to eliminate the source and resolve the issue. I notified them last night, but have not heard one word in response. And I am across the ocean, presumably for three months, while relying on my concussed sister and her husband to carry my heavy load. They are true angels.

 For now, I will play a waiting game while the unit is decontaminated and retested. Harder decisions will come after I get back to Paris on 12th – hopefully I will have some feedback from the various parties as to what might be the next best steps. I’m just hoping that I don’t have to interrupt my tours with a quick trip back to NC.

The Bad – not really bad, just some small hiccups

 Today was a travel day – I’m going to Africa! Vivien George is staying in Paris and, freed from having to take a taxi, I opted for a multi-modal journey that employed most every form of transportation, except a bicycle. I left home about 11:30, setting out on foot for Metro, which took me the RER-B station where I caught the train to CDG for my 2:43 flight to Marrakech. I ran into a little trouble exiting the train station as my Paris Metro/RER-B tickets only work to get on the RER in Paris, not exit the station at the airport. Go figure! After several failed attempts, I was once again rescued by the kindness of a stranger, who scanned her Navigo pass to let me through.

 The next hiccup was that my carry-on backpack was nearly arrested for harboring “tools.” The culprit was the rather large hex wrench needed to put on/take off my pedals. I was quite worried that it would be confiscated, an issue I’d previously encountered when transporting a large spanner in my carry-on. Now, I just watched in hopeful silence as the security agent carefully went through an outer section of the pack that contained mostly charging cords and a spare phone. Then he seemed grow bored, stopping the search, swiping the bag for explosives, and sending me on my merry way.

 It was a full plane to Marrakech, but the flight was uneventful. I cleared passport control and went straight to the telecom booth for a sim card. I normally use two phones when I’m in Europe – an old iPhone 5SE that has my French sim card, and a newish iPhone with my US carrier. I’d planned to put a Moroccan sim card in my “US phone” and after reading of Racpat’s trouble in unlocking their phone, I went to my local Verizon store before leaving the US to check on its lock status. The clerk never looked at my phone, just breezily replied “We never lock our phones” – HA!  Yes, the phone was locked and wouldn’t accept the SIM card. Luckily I had my French phone, so the problem was easily fixed.

The good

 I’ve done a fair bit of travel, but never to somewhere that seems as exotic as Morocco – at least in my imagination. This realization germinated while waiting to board the plane and it grew as we taxied to the gate, surrounded by sand-hued buildings, tropical palms and distant mountains. I exited the airport and faced scores of men arranged in a semi-circle, each silently holding a square of paper printed (or handwritten) with the name of a tour company, a hotel or a riad. After a bit, I found my driver and we made our way toward town, traveling on two side lanes restricted to taxis, motos, bicycles and the occasional horse. As we neared the ramparts and the medina, the air filled with soft music and the sweet smell of incense.

 When we reached a point in our journey where we could go no further in the van, the driver handed me off to a tall gaunt gentleman bedecked in a light maroon caftan-like garment. He silently led me through narrow alleys redolent with exotic spices and dried herbs and, on reaching our Riad, ushered me through a large metal gate that opened into onto a central courtyard. I was seated in one of the small alcoves that ringed the courtyard and he brought mint tea and cookies – all without a word. I wasn’t quite sure what to do next, but this is a world I can’t wait to explore.