Thursday, December 7 – Underway at last

My original plan was to leave on Friday December 8. I even had a confirmed ticket. So scheduling a breakfast on the 7^th was not a problem. But once the airline admitted that they had not locked in my reservation (a problem involving the ticket code the Ugandan agent used last year in booking my trip home), I had to reschedule on the 7^th.

So instead of a leisurely breakfast with my advisory committee and a relaxed drive to Atlanta the following day, we packed until 2:00 a. m., then I was late for a very frenzied breakfast. I had even left work to do, like submitting grade for my marketing class.

I received a much appreciated gift on Wednesday evening that I intended to hold in traveler’s checks in case of an emergency. So with only 45 minutes until we were scheduled to meet the team, I found myself in line at my bank. When I finally got to the front, I learned that the supervisor had gone to training and no one there new how to issue travelers’ checks.

A mad dash home to change, gather my luggage (my bag plus 150 pounds of school supplies), and get Lisa. As it turned out, I changed and Lisa did the rest. We were only 15 minutes late.

Everyone else was waiting, including Austin who had gone to Uganda last year. He wanted to go again, but he’d have no part of traveling to Africa with a wedding scheduled within 10 days of his scheduled return. Larra was also there to see Jon off. Finally, we all climbed into Jim’s car for the quick drive to Atlanta.

We stopped for a final burger in Buckehead, then hurried to the airport. Karen and Lisa left us at the curb and we went in to find that even three hours early, KLM had a huge line. After a 40 minute wait, we found a young woman who tried to be very helpful. She said she would get us all together in an exit row and she could also issue the boarding pass for our connecting flight. After a while, she had all the boarding passes, but she stopped and tore up three of them, then printed again and sent us on our way.

Security, other than being a huge but necessary hassle, went slowly but smoothly. We ended up at the gate with less than two hours to wait.

Our seating arrangement was interesting. Jon was in a window in front of an exit row. Jim had an exit row seat, but the window seat on the exit row is a mixed blessing: tons of legroom if you are close personal friends with the guy next to you. I was in the row behind Jim also in a window seat, but no one claimed the aisle, so I actually got a bit of rest. The flight was uneventful, and we arrived on time in Amsterdam.