As most of our followers here know, Lynndee and I recently lost a dear member of our family, Lynndee’s mother. And that entailed us to make hectic plans to make our way to the Philippines, a 10,000 mile odyssey, and to do so in a very short time. Unfortunately, due to my lack of interest in taking care of business, I was remiss in having renewed my passport after our month-long vacation to the Philippines which we took last year. But that was truly understandable on my part; I had no idea that I would be doing international travel again so soon.

Thing is, I had to have a new passport pronto, seeing that we had to leave the U.S. within five days after her death to make it to the Philippines in time for all the services. And after visiting the passport office at the local post office, I found out the quickest I could get a passport there was 30 days. The only way I could overcome that problem was to either go the United States Embassy in DC or visit one of the twenty-four passport agencies in the U.S. Most of them are located in big cities many hundreds of miles away from my location.

CHOP ON, BRAVES!

Fortunately for me, however, there was one located in one of my most favorite cities just a three-hour drive away from me: Atlanta, Georgia. As most of you know, Atlanta is the home of my favorite baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, and I just recently shared here our latest trip there to see the Braves play, which, ironically, was just ten days before Lynndee’s mother passed away. Therefore, I found myself making the 200-mile journey again just two weeks after our previous trip there.

The team logo, full of bats and balls and gloves

But all was really rather simple. After doing my online research, I called the office and made an appointment. I had to get up and hit the road early but I made it in plenty of time. And I had even went online, found a convenient parking garage just a block away and reserved a spot, a necessity in a big city. On arriving at the agency, I was signed in and was called to see an officer in just ten minutes. Then it just took about five minutes to process my request for an immediate passport. As for being immediate, though, I was informed that I would need to come back in four hours to pick it up. So that left me time to kill, which was a good thing because I was totally hungry; I’d got up early and left without breakfast so I was ready to chow down big time!

Favorite food for a famished fan.

I left the building and began a search for an acceptable restaurant. There were several nearby but just two blocks up the street I found the most perfect one for me, the Atlanta Braves All Star Grill. It was perfect timing on my part, right before the lunch rush. So I ordered my food and then spent some time checking out all the interesting displays throughout the restaurant. I then returned to my table when I saw my food come and pigged out. I’d ordered my most favorite fast food, a hamburger with mustard, chili and onion. And I wasn’t disappointed. A surprising treat was to see the restaurant’s name embossed on top of the hamburger bun, a cute addition to a fantastic meal.

Afterwards, I still had time so I spent it strolling up and down Peachtree Street, drinking in the atmosphere. In a way, it was almost like being in New York City for the sights put me in mind of the Big Apple. But finally, the time was up and I made my way back to the agency, picked up my passport, made my way back to my vehicle and headed home. It was a truly interesting day, having fun while accomplishing a successful mission.