My disappointment over not receiving my Vespa when I thought I would has been somewhat blunted by the education I am getting from trying to find out where the scooter happens to be.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the shipping company tells me they have no way of tracking the crate because it came over on a boat. Why they couldn't track something on a boat as opposed to a plane didn't make much sense (still doesn't really). However, I think it comes down to price.

I was able to go to a container tracking site on the Internet. The plan to was to try to find the location of the container through the boat. I thought the container number went with the crate containing my Vespa. However, the container number goes with the BIG container stored on board the boat. That container could hold any number of items.

The container was taken off the boat and unloaded by October 12. At that point I lose it. The crate would have been loaded on a train or truck for the overland trip to Greenville. My guess is it was put on a train to be delivered to Atlanta and then trucked to Greer. So somewhere out there on a train or a truck - or in a warehouse, is my lonely Vespa.

I think I might already have a name for it "Heebee." Say what? Well, my kids like to watch the old Herbie movies. Child Three is just learning to talk and when he sees me about to put on the DVD, he jumps up and down and exlaims, "Heebee! Heebee!" It's one of those memories I don't want to forget and tying it to this little number will help me do that. We'll see... something else might come along more appropriate.