December 17, 2010

December 17, 2010

(There are no pictures in this post. Sorry! Day 1 was all traveling. Also, things in parenthesis and in red are my currently added 'two cents' on what I wrote in the journal)

I woke up today at 6:45am to take a shower and get the house ready for the company that is staying here while we're gone. Gordon and Debbie came to pick us up at 8:15am and dropped us off at the Birmingham airport. We went to the Delta desk to check our bags and when we dropped the bags on the floor to have our hands free, it made a really loud sound and got the attention of one of the Delta workers who said "that must mean y'all are going somewhere fun". Justin told him our plans and he told us to take lots of pictures and that if we came back in the morning to come by and show him some. Unfortunately for him, we get back at night. Our flight leaves BHAM to go to Detroit at 11:10am. Right now, it's 9:30am. We have some time to kill. Yesterday we both went to Barnes and Noble to buy books to read during the flights and on the mountain when we have nothing else to do. I bought "The Rescue" by Nicholas Sparks. I heard it was his best book yet. (I'm not finished with the book yet, only a couple of chapters left, but I agree it's one of his best, however, it is a typical and predictable Nicholas Sparks book.) Justin bought a book about a guy who ran 50 marathons in 50 days, yes he's that crazy, as well as a book my sister, Jennifer and her husband sent us from when they were in New York. It's about the team that recovered the body of Sir George Mallory on Everest (first guy that attempted an Everest climb back in 1924) in 1999, 75 years after he attempted his climb. Great thing to read about when you're about to climb a 20,000 foot mountain.

We just landed in Detroit with awful news. Our flight to Amsterdam from Detroit has been canceled. There are three flights that leave Detroit that go to Amsterdam every day (this is why Justin chose Detroit for us to leave from. We could have left from ATL, but Detroit had more flights, so if we were in the position where one was canceled, we wouldn't have to wait until the next day, there was more flights in that day to take. Good call on his part) and we were scheduled on the second one. The first and second flights were both canceled. The third and final flight of the day is at 9:50pm Eastern time. It's now 2:45pm. Justin talked to Delta and got us confirmed on the third flight, but only in coach. We were suppose to be in first class on the second flight, but at least we'll still get there on the day we're suppose to get there. The bad thing is that the chances of us sitting next to each other are slim. Another downside is that they could cancel the third flight as well and then we'd have to spend the night in Detroit and try again tomorrow. I'm praying that doesn't happen. (In case you didn't see it on CNN, there was a winter advisory report in Europe when this was going on. Most flights getting into Europe were canceled or severely delayed. We tried to see if we could go through Paris or London just to at least get into Europe, but both airports were closed because of the weather. We were VERY lucky to be on this third flight at all).

Praise Jesus! We got on the 9:50pm flight and I convinced the guy sitting next to me on the plane to switch seats with Justin so we could sit together! We have to de-ice the plane, but then we'll be on our way!! Movies on the plane are free on international flights so I plan to watch one, but then I really should try to sleep after that. We'll see how that goes. (I watched Inception again, saw it in the theaters and it's probably one of my all time favorite movies now, and Grown-Ups and got about 2 hours of very interrupted sleep).

***The following excerpt what was on CNN and Delta's website about the winter advisory:***

Advisory: Winter Weather in Europe Winter weather in Europe has impacted travel to, from, and through Amsterdam, Netherlands, London, England, Brussels, Belgium, and Paris, France. Check flight status frequently for up-to-the-minute info about your flight plans, or get updates sent directly to your wireless device or email with Delta Messenger.