Success...

Ok, so it's probably one of the least attractive pictures I've ever taken of myself, but I just wanted to put a picture of me and the mutt together again :)


Thanks for your prayers. The trip wasn't the best, but it certainly wasn't the worst. At check-in, my bags were all slightly under-weight. That's a first. My flight left Orlando a bit early, so I wasn't worried about making my connection to Frankfurt in Charlotte at all. Ha! I look at my watch after waking from a nap and wonder "Um... why aren't we on the ground?" A few minutes later the pilot comes on and says there is bad weather and everyone is in a holding pattern over South Carolina. He said they estimated the landing time to another 45 minutes. That put us an hour late, but still time to catch my flight. 45 minutes later, we're still in the holding pattern and he gets back on and says "Well, they told us it will be at least another 45 minutes. If it's anything over that, we'll have to divert to Myrtle Beach because that will be the extent of our fuel." You know, you never really want to hear a pilot talk about "the extent of our fuel" even if that extent is longer than you plan on being in the air.

But I digress (as usual)... about 35 minutes into the second 45 minutes, he tells us we have been cleared to land. It was quite turbulent, but I've been in worse. But here's the kicker. We PULL UP to the gate at 4:15. My flight to Frankfurt leaves at 4:30. And of course, we are at the "A" gates, and my flight is at the "D" gates. The flight attendant gets on and says most all of the flights are delayed and to check the monitors when we get to the terminal. Yep... about 95% of the flights were delayed. But no, not mine! So me and this German family start booking it to gate D3. We were still a couple gates away when we heard the last call. But we made it with one person right behind me as the doors closed at 4:35. My first thought when I sat down - "Well, at least I wont' have to worry about my luggage when I get to Zagreb."

The flight is so long, and I didn't sleep as well as I hoped. I did watch the Rocky Balboa movie, and I really liked it. I thought it was very good - a very good ending to the series. Of course after the movie, there was some excitement as a old Indian man started to have chest pains. It looked like they slipped some nitro under his tongue, and apparently that helped.

I still hate Frankfurt airport. It's so confusing and I got lost again, but with plenty of time to catch my flight. That flight was late, but I was just happy to be on the final leg of my journey. I made it though the border with flying colors and a smile from the immigration guy. And then here is another kicker - I don't how in the world this happened, but ALL my luggage arrived with me. I have no idea how they got my stuff from the plane from Charlotte to the Frankfurt plane in 20 minutes. But I must say I was quite impressed.

Skoobi was very happy to see me, as I was her. Magdalena had lunch ready for me which was nice. I broke one of my rules, and after Magdalena left, I laid down and took about an hour nap. I was so insanely tired, I just didn't care. And since Skoobi snuggled up with me, I didn't want to get up and wake her in the process... :)

So, I'm slowly unpacking, trying to figure out why I no longer have CNN on the TV, and writing this blog. I'm going to take Skoobi out for a nice walk in a bit, and then hit the sack early. I'm still tired, and am looking forward to sleeping in my bed tonight.

Thanks for your prayers... I'll be in touch again soon!