We left Chicago after a slight weather delay, at around 10:00 p.m. on Sat., Sept. 8, and arrived at JFK at about 1:00 a.m. on Sun. the 9th. We stayed in NY for a little over 12 hours, which we absolutely made the most of. Please stay tuned for my next blog, “Epic Layover,” for the details on that. We left NY for Atlanta at about 4:00 p.m., and arrived at about 6:30 and had to immediately find our gate for our 7:30 p.m. flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. Praise the Lord, our next gate was literally just across the walkway from the one we arrived at. Literally we had to walk a total of 20 feet.
So we had 30 minutes left before we were going to board our flight taking us out of the US for the next 11 months, so what was it that I wanted to do? Go find some Chic-fil-a sweet tea of course! I looked up and down the terminal, walked around and couldn’t find one anywhere. That’s when one of my loving and gracious squadmates reminded me of what day it was. Of course, it was Sunday. So I had to settle for lemonade from some organic food place. The lemonade was delicious, but not quite what I was craving.
We finally boarded our flight, Delta flight 200, Atlanta to Johannesburg. The worlds second longest, scheduled commercial flight, 15 hours and 50 minutes. We must have caught a tail-wind or broke some speed limits, because we made it about 15 hours and 30 minutes. We arrived at about 6 or 7 pm, local time, the following day.
For being the longest time that I had ever spent on an airplane, it wasn’t too bad. I slept through some great movies, ate some “delicious” food, and had some fun too.
After finally arriving in Johannesburg, we stayed for a few days at a youth soccer camp. After the jet-lag wore off, we boarded a bus to Mutare, Zimbabwe. This bus ride was supposed to be 16 hours, which we figured would be no problem after the flight we had just made. But here in Africa, things don’t always work out as planned. The 16 hours became 23 hours, with deafening Jamaican hip-hop music the entire way. (Don’t ask why, it was the drivers choice)
Finally, however, we arrived in Mutare, safe and sound. We met up with our contacts and got settled into our home for the month. More to come, please stay tuned.
