16 July 2014

We landed in Dubai around 4am, through hazy brown air. I was worried that no one had slept but we all soldiered on to our next task to find our flight to LA. 

I would have liked to have some short pants and Phoebe and I walked around the shops looking for a cheap clothing store, the only store for shorts was Hugo boss and it just happened that they were having a sale; even so the shorts were still over R2000. The only item we did purchase was some sleeping pills from a chemist.

All announcements are made in Arabic and then English and it was remarkable to listen to all the destinations being called and consider the world.

We soon boarded our A380 and took our seats near the back. This would be our home for the next 17 hours and I could not have been happier, except I had to fight an old lady for my seat, "but I want to sit near my family", she proclaimed. Melissa got involved and in no time at all we were all happily seated.

Once again everyone was straight into shows, on the first flight over I was overwhelmed by the options and spent a lot of time with it off, just thinking about things but now I could give myself completely over to being entertained.

We flew over Iran, Eastern Europe, the arctic, Greenland, Canada, and down over USA to LA. Being that far north was special for me seeing all the packed ice, amazing that people live out there. Melissa and I would look over the seats at Sophie's choice of viewing which consisted of shirtless muscular dudes, some sort of herculean production. Food was glorious and I could stretch in the space at the back of the plane . We flew over Salt Lake City; just let us out here I would have liked to ask.

We left Dubai just before 10 in the morning and landed in LA at 2 pm.

We had two hours to board our delta flight to slc and took some time getting through immigration. Delta was a few terminals over and we walked across, pulling our luggage on a hot summer afternoon.

We were in America. 

I watched everyone thinking of their lives here and that this would be just an ordinary day for them. I loved every moment of it.

We landed in Salt Lake City two hours after leaving LA, the kids now were all sleeping. We had a hard landing and the kids woke up, all except Noah. He only came around after the rest of the passengers disembarked and we were the last two off the plane. Hey, where's everyone he asked when I finally managed to wake him.

Two things that let me know that we were in a very different world... there were missionaries everywhere, some returning and others leaving and our luggage was on the turnstile not behind a secure area but close to the exit where the general public are.

Our chauffeur soon found us and led us to his fleet of vehicles, we managed to all fit with our luggage in one car and I promptly jumped in into the driver’s seat. Of course I thought and quickly moved to the right front seat.

We arrived at the Scholes home 7.24pm or 2.24am SA time. I had a cold shower but only because I did not understand how the American showers work. The sun only set after 9pm and we stayed up and enjoyed a feast of fresh cherries and delicious home made tacos.

Salt Lake City is awesome; it boggles the senses, such a good experience for all of us. Amber was the perfect hostess, welcoming and understanding of our condition having just traveled a great distance with little sleep. Surprisingly the kids were wide awake at the excitement of being together with friends again.

15 July 2014

The adventure began sometime before our eventual drive to the airport with Hiram. Our journal's hold our  'wouldn't it be nice' lists that include our desire to travel together and imagining that moment when we are in the airport waiting to board, each in a calm quiet moment of anticipation. Reality was quite close to how we imagined and it was a wonderful moment. I however spent some time on a telkom payphone trying to divert all office calls to Brian Hawksworth and associates as I had failed to do this  from home. As it turns out this was not possible and I  had to  spend my three weeks in America thinking of my phone ringing back home. It certainly wasn't ringing when I returned and there weren't many messages left for me.

I walked to the duty free shop to secure some chocolate and walked around the terminal before being called to board.

As we shuffled closer to the plane Noah developed a condition in only being able to breath by sucking air into his lungs only through the small gap between his teeth and he became more and more panicked by this that he was not getting enough oxygen. Adding to his distress was the fact that we had to walk down a long passage and as he pointed out, bad things happen at the end of long passages.

The plane was full and we were seated quickly a few rows behind Zac and Shona and kids.

We all focused our full attention on the entertainment available, ICE it is called, and the kids were soon efficient in its options and workings, except for me as I had chosen to first disinfect everything we were to touch with antiseptic wipes. While the kids and Melissa had shows on before the plane taxed out I was focused on the cameras showing the view of the tarmac. Throughout our travels there and back I was amazed at our kids lack of care for the window seat.
Dinner was served and was glorious , I had the lamb. After things settled down I walked further back in the plane and found rows of empty seats, brilliant that I could now sleep. I helped a passenger  behind clip her tray in and the passenger in front pull his seat back and felt welcomed  and accepted in the row in between. I tried to persuade my family to join me on the rows, Sophie took my 3 seats and I moved to 4 seats alongside. Although Noah and Jonah did come back, they just ended up watching more shows from different seats. 

When you cant tell the difference between milk and pancake batter and end up having an All Bran pancake.