the long ride home

We left the XaiXai resort on December 12th  at 8:00 a.m. Africa time, which was midnight Texas time (Thursday).  So, I spent my 10 year anniversary in an un-air conditioned  airport.   We had to drive back to the capital of Maputo to fly to Johannesburg.  We had our 1st layover in Jo'burg and I was able to get some tourist shopping done.  The first leg of the flight was a 10 hour flight to Amsterdam.  Another airbus, but this time jammed back.  John Alonzo and I sat by each other in a two-seater.  He ended up sleeping on the floor and I put a blanket over him and no one noticed (you cannot sleep on the floor of a plane).  This flight was absolutly the worst part of the trip.  They played Simpson's for the in-flight movie to top it off.  

When we landed in Amsterdam we had another layover - 5 hours this time.  We celebrated Shileen's birthday (she hates this pic, sorry - we will see if she is reading my blog or not!)  For lunch I had a meatball sandwich - I think it was more like a meatloaf sandwich this thing was as big as my head.  On to another flight - but only 7 hours this time and more open seats.  Pastor Mel and I shared a 4 seat row and he graciously let me lay down and sleep.  We flew into the sun rise, so it was getting earlier instead of later.  

When we arrived in Chicago we had to go through customs.  Some of the questions - did you come in contact with livestock, were you in rural areas?  Please forgive me, I said no to everything.  I was glad I did b/c I never would have caught our flight had I had to be screened any farther.  I ate at McDonald's and had ice and a Dr. Pepper for the first time in 11 days, the ice was better than the soft drink.   Then, onto Austin.  This was another turbulence filled flight and we had to buckle our seats almost the entire time.  I was watching out the plane and it looked like we were crawling - can he fly any faster is all I was thinking. When we arrived Shileen's husband and Ben we waiting for us, so needless to say we did not wait for anyone to get off the plane.  Ben had roses in hand, my parents stayed home with the girls - it was midnight Saturday when we landed - 48 hours of travel time - the longest two days of my life.