Fun Flight

This blogging business is work, like writing an essay in school, but it's fun. It's like my little stat-keeping at the girls’ basketball games. It helps me to understand and process what's going on. Now that I figured out I can write in Word and upload to Traveltwigue whenever I have Internet access it is much more convenient and less net time. “Too soon old and too late smart” applies more and more each day. But, as long as there is some sort of learning curve I guess it’s O.K. Students always looked at me as if I were from Mars when I tried to convince them that learning is one of the greatest pleasures in life.

I’ve learned quite a bit in just three days in another country. Rule #1 - when you enter a big building on a main intersection be sure to notice where you went in so it doesn’t take you two blocks after you’ve left to realize the train station isn’t just ahead because you came out a different door and are walking down a different street in a totally different direction. Heidi wasn’t impressed with Rule # 1. She just said, “No-o-o, duh!” She’s younger - that’s where the “too soon old” comes in. That was is Düsseldorf on Monday.

Rewind to Sunday. Heidi arrived at the Atlanta airport at 3:30 just like she said she would. I accompanied her to the Business Elite Lounge (you have to pick your traveling companions) and we had champagne! The lounge was gorgeous, like something out of a movie. You could have anything you wanted to drink and the food looked fabulous. I had had lunch, plus I was too excited to even taste anything which Andy's never going to believe.

Our plane was on time and they were boarding when we got to the gate. At least we didn’t have to do the O. J. Simpson dash through the airport as Heidi and Steve are sometimes known to do. She got right on and I waited in line with the rest of the common people. Actually, the seats were nice and roomy and my partner, a romance language professor and dean at the University of Missouri in St. Louis Dr. Debbie Baldini and I got lucky and didn’t have anyone sitting in the middle seat. I had the window and she had the aisle; it was perfect.

We chatted non-stop until after dinner when we both tried to sleep. She did; I didn’t. We talked books, religion (very interesting), and family among other things. Her husband was an engineer at Boeing for 25 years and now works for a smaller company with less travel. She was going to France to scout the accommodations for an upcoming student trip to Europe. She was a little nervous flying so I stopped with the “going down” jokes. She told me about their hearing impaired daughter and how, after she, her husband, son, and mother had all learned signing and had communicated with the little one that way until she started school, they had to make a decision on whether she would continue with signing or go with lip reading and attend a regular school. She’s a teen-ager now and doing very well in a regular high school. I guess we never can truly appreciate our own blessings until we hear of the challenges of others.

Soon it was morning and they brought coffee and breakfast snacks. It took us longer to taxi to the gate after we landed than it did to have our snacks! Once we reached the gate, though, it didn't take long to unload and say our good-byes. Our bags came in and we were off to the next gate for the flight to Düsseldorf.