Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Wednesday, August 29th - On our way!

Hello all. Alison and I are sitting in the Delta Crown Club lounge at Hartsfield Airport, Atlanta, waiting for our flight to Johannesburg (via Dakar, Senegal) at 4.10 this afternoon. We had originally purchased our internal flights so that we could leave Myrtle Beach on an 11.30 AM flight to Atlanta instead of having to catch the 7.25 flight which would have been "free"using frequent flyer miles (no FF seats available on the 11.30). This reservation was made back in January. Delta then changed the 11.30 AM departure time to 12.30 PM which we subsequently ascertained has a record of being late so frequently, that we had a 45% chance of missing our International flight. Not acceptable, so we ended up catching the 7.25 AM after all. When I told this (true) story to the concierge at the Delta CC lounge, he waived the $25 each fee for the use of the lounge! Anyway, as we knew we were going to be here for a good seven hours, we decided I would take this opportunity to post!

As you can imagine, since we returned from Falls Church (see previous post), we have been busy with final preparations for the trip, including trial packing (weight calculations). However, Alison had decided that we must have a small "going away" gathering and that was scheduled for a braai at 4 PM on Sunday. Alison has also had a major goal to achieve prior to leaving for SA, which was to reach the 3000 mile mark on her bike's odometer. As you can see, she reached her goal.

We had 14 people attend the braai and a good time was had by all. Unbeknown even to me, Clare and Josh had ordered an inscribed "trophy" in anticipation of Alison reaching the 3,000 mile mark and it was a great surprise when we were all sitting around the dining room table (drinking port!) and Clare presented the trophy to her mom!

Unfortunately, there were no photographs of the festive evening, during which we toasted our good friends Roger & Penny Pocock in Maidstone, England, who celebrated their Ruby Wedding anniversary that day, and we also toasted my cousin Bernard and wife Arline (who were present), congratulating them on their 43rd wedding anniversary, which is today. Of course, Alison's acheivement was also toasted - that's a lot of toasts!

In my second post, I said I would add more about what we were going to do after we left the Kruger Park, so here is a bit of information about that. By an incredible coincidence, Alison's Godson, Shaun Murphy (see picture right on his Christening day in 1981 with his mom, Anne!), is getting married on Saturday, Sept. 8th, the day after we leave the Park. Consequently, Alison & I will fly to East London (see SA map) on Friday night and attend the wedding on Saturday, while Chris, Linda, Vic & Carol will start the two day drive from the Park to Port Elizabeth.



Below is Shaun fishing in 1983. Notice that he is already being distracted by the female species! That is "Uncle Bob" in the background, teaching the daughter (Cathy) of another old SA friend, Wout Offerman, how to windsurf.

To the right is the present day Shaun. This picture was taken at Mazeppa Bay, one of Shaun's favorite fishing spots. We will be joining Shaun and his new wife, Nikki, his mom & dad, sister & hubby(Anne, Barry, Miranda, Riaan) at Mazeppa Bay for 6 days later in October (which will include my 66th birthday). We will be renting cottages. For those reading this who are keen fishermen, here are a couple more pictures of Mazeppa Bay (just to make you envious!).
Arial of Mazeppa - see cottages top right. Note bridge access to peninsula.




Right - Wave coming!




Wave arriving! - not for the faint hearted.




All for this post, the next one will be in SA!

1 comment:

Melanie & David said...

Boy - you must have dug hard to find some of those old photos! Who knew that the blog would become a research and history project. Mom - you look so awesome in your bike photo! What a fantastic photo - what a great accomplishment and how super of Clare and Josh to make your award trophy for you. That was so cool. We love you both and can't wait to follow your adventures. Mom/Grandma Lee arrived safely on the red eye this morning and is already beyond enthralled by her granddaughter. They have played really hard together today and Indigo has been laughing so much it's delightful. Grandma has brought her a whole suitcase of presents - literally, a whole suitcase but we have not opened it yet. Let us know you're there safely as soon as possible. Love, Melanie, David, Indigo and Grandma Lee