The Journey Begins

Last night, we had our weekly Friendship Group meeting with our church (our brand of small groups). This week we met at the Pleasanton Public Library, community room. Occasionally we are able to secure the room for our group meetings. It was a good turnout. Perhaps the awareness that it would be our last meeting before our departure to Spain caused them to be present! Ethan Brumfield, our former youth pastor, was with us during his spring break from the University of Central Florida so we returned home rather than staying overnight in Pleasanton. It made for a late night, but we were so thrilled to have Ethan with us that we wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. We finished our packing and preparations for the trip and finally got to bed about 1:30 AM.

An unwelcome alarm sounded at 5:00 AM. The earlier the setting, the more obnoxious the sound of any alarm! We drug ourselves out of bed and prepared for our 6:00 AM departure for the Bay Area. Though the early morning traffic was heavy as anticipated, we made it to Marcy’s place in Livermore by 7:00 AM. She went with us to the BART station in Pleasanton and will keep our car at her place during our trip. We purchased our tickets to the San Francisco Airport and made our way up the escalators to the boarding platform dragging our suitcases and carryons with us. Thank God for wheels on suitcases. Since the Pleasanton/ Dublin station is the end of the line we were able to get good seats with room for our bags. We dozed a little along the hour and 20 minute trip to SFO.

From the BART station we took the Air Train to the International terminal before realizing that we needed the domestic terminal (the first leg of the journey is to Washington D.C. - Dulles Airport). We took the hike to the domestic terminal and found the United ticket counters. Standing in the check-in line we saw the Bertrams and the O’Keefes coming along behind us. We attempted to use the electronic check-in but for some reason it only showed our itinerary to Munich, Germany, rather than Madrid, Spain. I sure didn’t want to arrive in Madrid to find that our bags had gotten pitched out in Germany! An attendant shifted us to another line where we again were told to use the electronic check-in. I explained the situation and the attendant walked us through the process. She finally had to do the check-in herself and got our seat assignments, our bags checked (all the way to Madrid), and our frequent flyer miles credited. We’ll definitely rack up some miles on this flight!

At the gate we were formally introduced to Paul and Lorraine Bertram from San Diego and Ron and Deena Krantz from Oroville (Gayla works with Deena Krantz on the Ladies Ministries board). Also on the trip are Bro. & Sis. Morgan Underwood from Yuba City, Clayton and Jan Brown from Napa, Wayne and Stacy Miraflor from Antioch, and Donald and Abigail O’Keefe (Western District Foreign Missions Director) from Pittsburg. Arthur Law from Bakersfield was also on the trip but was not present at the gate. We begin to look for him and worry just a little that he might not make it in time. However, just prior to the boarding process he arrived and our group of 15 was completed.

Due to a large number of reservations for this segment of the journey to the nation’s capital, United Airlines substituted a Boeing 747 aircraft. Normally, the 747 is not used for domestic flights so the switch caused a little back log as they had to reassign many of the seats, especially business passengers and those in First Class, as well as those who had their seat assignments early. We made it on board, a beautiful sunny day in the Bay Area with a near on time departure, just a little after 11:00 AM, and headed east for a cold and snowy reception in D.C. United’s domestic flights no longer have complimentary food service so we purchased a cold sandwich in the airport to bring with us. We ended up buying another turkey wrap and snack box during the flight … fine dining at 36,000 feet in the air!

We had an on time arrival in Washington D.C., actually a little early. Unfortunately, because of the cold winter storm, the Boston and New York airports were either closed or severely restricted thus creating a back up of traffic at other airports in the region. There was also an ice storm just prior to the beginning of the snow at Dulles causing all departing flights to be grounded until the ice could be cleared. As a result the gate we were supposed to arrive at was blocked by another airplane waiting to depart. The captain advised us that we would have to wait about 30 minutes on the tarmac. Later he came on and updated the announcement that we would have to wait for the departing plane to be “deiced” – another 20 minute delay. After over an hour we inched up to the gate. The flight attendant came on the intercom to advise us that, unfortunately, the tire on the jet way had blown out while it was about 8 feet from the door! I’ve never heard of that happening. The alternative back up plan to get us off the plane was to bring “people movers” to deliver us to the terminal. These people movers are like huge buses on hydraulics! They crammed about 50 people in each vehicle. Fortunately our group was not split up and we were all in the first transit to the terminal. We quickly located our needed terminal and gate and sprinted off for an “on time” departure. According to the monitors we were to leave from gate B36. However, when we got there no one was around. We continued down the concourse and found that the correct gate was B45 … wow, they do things different in our nation’s capital. Half of our group made the sprint and we boarded the aircraft first. The other half (the older half! Sorry) waited for another “people mover” to bring them across the tarmac to the B terminal. They made it on time. We were all onboard, together again! One minor concern (at this point) is the fear that our bags may not have made the close connection in Dulles. We may arrive in Madrid with the clothes on our back and whatever we carried on! We have been assured that if our bags are not with us they will be delivered to the hotel we are staying at in Madrid.

We were delayed at least 45 minutes in our departure from D.C. because we had to wait for the crew to deice our plane before take off. This plane is smaller than the 747, I think it is an A340, a wide body. It still has two aisles but only 8 seats across the plane instead of 10. It is also all one layer rather than the two story behemoth. This airplane and flight crew is Lufthansa, the German company that is also a partner with United Airlines. We immediately saw the difference as the announcements were all bilingual (German and English)! Other differences included complimentary service of alcohol (I didn’t), German speaking flight attendants (fortunately bilingual), and the meals served (with a European flair). The service was good and the meal was tasty (or I was really hungry). After sleeping for awhile I decided to update my travel blog before our snack time and the arrival in Munich. Hopefully, they made up some time in the air (it was a 7.5 hour flight) so that we will be able to catch our Madrid flight in Munich. We only have about an hour scheduled between these two flights. We have the promise of a nice long night in a Madrid hotel before we start the week with services and sightseeing. I think I’ll be ready to lie down!

Thanks for your prayers! Remember to pray for me Sunday! God bless.