Home Again

Those of you carefully following this will note that the promised update from Atlanta didn't happen. That wasn't a technical problem (wireless was available, if for a fee), but an energy (personal, not battery) problem.

We got into Atlanta as expected, customs was no particular problem (although Lowell needed his shoes sprayed as he stated he'd walked thru a field (no lie)). As you might expect, our departure gate was concourse A (we arrived in E), but they have a nice underground train, so that change was uneventful.

Lowell, as commented yesterday, was traveling without assigned seat and the flight was clearly overbooked. However, about 5 minutes before the doors closed, he was assigned a seat, and in fact, we left a little late so 3 more passengers could arrive to be seated.

Our connection in Detroit was tight (only 30 minutes), so leaving late was a concern for Bill and I (Lowell had already arranged to follow backup plan A (Alex pick him up at the airport on his way home from Ann Arbor)), so Bill asked the flight attendants to request foregiveness from the passengers in the plane (we were in the very last 2 rows). The attendant made the announcement, and about 3/4 of the plane did let us trounce up the aisle when the doors opened. We arrived at A27 in Detroit, left out of C15 (with the tunnel between A36 and C1 in between), so our 18 minutes disappeared quickly.

However, when we got to C15, there was still a Q outside and the doors were closed. About 10 minutes later they let us board. As departure time had already passed, they finally told us that they had a crew problem, we had a 1st officer, we had a flight attendant, but no Captain (s/he had exceeded max hours). They finally assigned us a pilot (who joked on the intercom that he had been assigned 3 flights in the last 15 minutes) and left 45 minutes late.

Because of that departure lag, our luggage also made the flight and Marnie picked us up in MBS. I enjoyed the fact that God arranged for a delay on the last flight sufficiently that not only our bodies, but our luggage also made the flight.

Plans are to present this to the team, and God willing, go back February-ish. More later.

Mexico City (overnight)

We are back at the Holiday Inn in Mexico City. Had a very pleasant dinner last night with the Bishop, stayed at the Hotel Mexico in Xalapa (pronounce the "x" like an english "h" and you'll get it right). Bishop came to see us off at 9:30, then we made a round of the way trip to the airport passing by the port of Veracruz. Got two lighthouse photos (saw a 3rd, but it was on the wrong side of the van) and posted them at http://lighthousesrus.org/theAmericas/MexicoE.htm#MX17.

Got in here easily and the only real problem is the wireless is pretty unreliable. I had to walk around the hotel with my drink in hand to find a spot where I could write this and sip that.

We get up at 5:15 tomorrow take the shuttle at 5:30, leave at 7:30. We tried to check in online, but can't do that for a variety of reasons, so we wanted plenty of time at the airport.

Next post might be from Atlanta.