Big Travel Days

Justin picked us up at 8:30 AM to take us to Phil & Lynn’s so we could join up with the 10 people who are traveling with us from the Holland Area.  He was so helpful in loading our bags, and grabbed a Dr. Pepper as he went through the garage.  As we were about to drive off, he says “Hey, where did my Dr. Pepper go?”  It was a good thing he had dropped it, because as Jim was looking around the
car, he realized he was still wearing his slippers! Dr. Pepper was found, slippers were exchanged for shoes, and off we went!

We got to O’Hare in plenty of time and joined up with several others from other cities and states.
We boarded a KLM 747.  The jet was huge with a big upper deck, but the seats were so small and the

rows of seats were so close together.  It made us miss our favorite Southwest Airlines!  But the
excitement among  us was big, and we thought we would all get a good rest as we traveled through
the night.  Didn’t happen.  We landed in Amsterdam after 7 hours.  We had just a little 2 hour layover which I pretty much spent trying to figure out why the airline didn’t supply me with the gluten free food I ordered.  (Thankfully Jim and our seatmate shared their cheese snacks with me, and the flight attendants scarfed up some raw veggies for me to chew on). Of course I had my snacks with me, so I didn’t starve.

We boarded another KLM flight on a 777 and the seats were so much nicer and lots more space between rows.  And although they had tried to come up with a meal change for me, it was too late.
When the flight was nearly over a sweet flight attendant came up to me with a hot flaky gluten free

pig in the blanket.  I’m not sure how she came to have this, but it was delicious!  I pulled off the label
 they had stuck on it which indicated it was gluten free so I could see what the ingredients were.  Poor
Kinney S.  He was apparently the designated recipient of this delicious small hot sandwich - on 02-
18-2018! Oh well. I was grateful for the hot food!

We landed in Kilimanjaro around 7:00 PM. The most crazy thing was the sight of the big 777 jet sitting in  front of this very small airport.  The jet was nearly as large as the building!

We had another 45 minute drive in the jeeps we will be using for our safari to arrive at our first destination.  It was frustrating that it was dark out!  We wanted to see everything!  But we arrived to find nice accomadations.  A first for us was sleeping under mosquito netting!  Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Ready, Set, Go!

We had spent many months trying to decide what kind of adventure we wanted to have to celebrate the anniversary of our 50 years of marriage.  It wasn't until our dear niece and friend, Lynn, and our friend Beth stopped by nearly a year ago and suggested we travel with them on a safari in Tanzania that almost immediately our dreams of the other places we had considered flew out of our minds.  Never had we considered a trip to Africa, but we knew that this experience would be something that we would be able to relive over and over in our minds and hearts, and we would see things unlike any other place in the world.  

Coming on the heels of two trips to both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, and being in the middle of Christmas decorating and shopping has made the last couple of months very busy.  But everything on our "to-do" lists is crossed off, and our little duffle bags and back packs are filled to the brim and ready to fly away to Africa.  If we have forgotten something, it won't matter any more.  We are going!!

We pray that God will bless us with good health, good times and a safe journey.  We can't wait to see what He has created for us to feast our eyes on!