Observations of a seasoned traveler

I've been blessed with some unique experiences while traveling whether it's flying over Victoria Falls in a small plane, taking a motorized boat though the Amazon, or a canoe down the Zambezi. Even with all these experiences, there is always something that happens from time to time--like being charged by a herd of elephants for example--that stands out as out-of-the-ordinary.

The past couple weeks have been pretty exhausting, especially for Scott. When he returned to the States for Allen's funeral, he ended up having to drive to South Africa because there weren't any flights out of here when he needed them. (The airport here is only open about four days out of the week.) This meant that he'd also have to make the long trip home alone. When he came down with a bad cold and sinus problems I suggested I fly to SA in order to help him drive the long trip home.

I arrived at the airport on Friday, never having flown out of Mozambique before, and found it to be one of those out-of-the-ordinary experiences. For starters, there was no security checks and no computers at the check in. The employees used carbon copies to enter information and wrote out the tickets by hand. No seat assignment, no X-rays of bags that were carted off by hand to the plane.

Despite of feeling as if I'd stepped back a couple decades, I have to say that I was impressed with how smoothly things went. The plane, which was very clean, departed on time. The biggest issue ended up being that they apparently changed the departure on my e-ticket but not the arrival time on my ticket which put me in an hour later than I had planned.

On Saturday, after a quick trip to the doctor for Scott who was diagnosed with a bad sinus infection, some grocery shopping for the group coming in later this week and breakfast with friends, we enjoyed a quiet, normal trip home--Normal that is if you count the long stretches of bumpy dirt roads with so much dirt we could hardly see, boarder crossings, and avoiding herds of cattle crossing the road.

AND THE WINNER IS...

On another note, I apologize for not posting the winner of my Crazy Jell-O contest. I loved reading through all the recipes and plan on trying many of them. My internet has been acting up making it very hard to get on line. I turned in my manuscript last week and with it the recipes for two submitted that my children voted on as the winners. Thanks to Abi, for her Cherry Coke Salad and to Jackie for the simple idea of Jell-O with miniature marshmallows on top. (Three votes for this one from my kids) You will both receive a copy of An Ocean Away once the book is released in February!

Be blessed today!