Prince of Cathay: china travel...passport visa nightmare

Being an experienced traveler I am pretty organized, but also relaxed about visas and passports. So after downloading the visa form from the Chinese Consulate I was filling out the form and when it came to the passport info. I went to a drawer where I keep all my travel papers, foreign currency, extra photos, etc. I got out my passport and discovered that it was going to expire on about the same day that I am scheduled to fly to HK. Oh-oh...Big problem.

That same morning {Feb 27} I am off to the local Post Office to deal with getting my passport renewed in time for my flight {march 19}...... A Day in Hell. I am armed with extra pics, old passport, cash. Everything should be OK. I get there, short wait and there I am at the counter. I have my form for expidited service filled out. Then things began to go downhill. They said I should get new pics {$15.}...OK no big deal. They give me two big envelopes for express mail. One is to be a SASE. I decide to go back to my car and quietlly fill out the address forms. I can not find my new pics. I lost them while walking back to my car. I place the form, the passport the, the SASE into the big Express envelope and back to the Post Office. I have to get new pics {another $15}. I drop them into the envelope. I get in line and give the envelope to the clerk. I think to myself why is there no money in the envelope. I go back to the Passport office and they say ...yes you need to put the $67 renewal fee in the envelope also. I have to "crash" the line to have the clerk retrieve the envelope...whew! He finds it. I get back in the line and get a Postal money order for $67 and stick into the envelope. That should do it. I am done and now I can relax....I don't think so. I get home and go over everything with my wife. At that point I realize that I had failed to include the $60 additional money for it to be expedited. The envelope is on its way. So I go to www.state.gov and learn that I must wait for the application to get into the que. First the payment has to clear. It will show up on their site in several days {today is March 7} and I am still waiting. BTW I have also contacted them through their automated phone system. I need not tell you what that is like...duh...Nice woman there tells me that there is no chance that I am going to make my flight. I can not give up of course. I also sent a couple of emails. So every day I check their site to check the status of my application...nothing as of today. They tell me to contact the San Francisco Passport office that deals in emegency passports. The earliest appointment I can get is two work days {March 15} before my flight. Not so good. I need the 15th and 16th for the two days it takes to get the PRC visa. At this time my wife takes over. She is a Saint. She gets on the phone and after over an hour...yes, a whole hour.... she gets an appointment for March 12 in San Francisco. That will work. I may or may not be able to get my PRC visa in time. But I can always get it in HK. You don't need a visa to go to HK. So it looks like things will work out and somehow I will be on my flight. The lesson in this blog entry should be obvious. I can not really describe in this blog how unpleasant this experience is. BTW I found my lost pics. Didn't need them after all. BTW another travel tip that I may have mentioned before. Use you colour copier to duplicate passport photos on glossy stock. Make a lot of them and take some with you incase you need pics for going to some other country.