Cincinnati Hotels
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Home at last!
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Tuesday was our departure day. In the morning we drove into Auckland to by souvenir sheep skins, then we carefully packed all our things one last time. The Caudles graciously gave us the extra suitcase we needed, and about 15:00 we headed off to the airport. We had a brief meeting with some old friends in the departure lounge. Tony and Malika Gallagher had moved back to New Zealand from France five years earlier. Tony and I had roomed together when we were volunteers in the Ambassador College Project in Thailand years before. We taught Laotian refugees English to help prepare them for their resettlement in the US, Canada, or Australia. In later years the Gallaghers served the Church in France at the same time Marjolaine and I did, so we have a lot of common experiences. I hadn't seen either of them in many years, and it was great to spend half an hour with them catching up on family news.
Finally we tore ourselves away from our friends and boarded the flight to Los Angeles. We slept as well as we could during the 11 hour flight. Because of crossing the International Date Line, we arrived about six hours before we left, leaving at 18:30 on August 22nd and arriving at noon on August 22nd! That made for a very long day.
Since the flight left Auckland late, we missed the flight we were supposed to take from LA to Dallas for our connection to Cincinnati. Instead we were to be routed through Salt Lake City, but not before being selected for extra screening. I'm not sure if we were chosen because of all the countries we had visited on the trip or whether TSA is suspicious of Midwestern American families of four spending 11 weeks traveling around the world as cover for a cunning terrorist attack. Perhaps Tatiana looked especially dangerous? Anyway our carryon bags were minutely examined, and tested for explosives, then we were all wanded before ultimately being patted down by agents during a twenty minute procedure. Then we were allowed to go to Salt Lake City, where we had just enough time to walk from one gate to the other. By this time we didn't feel like moving very quickly but we had to in order to catch the flight. Pleasantly enough the 737 only had about a dozen passengers on it, so we had all the space we wanted.
We were happy to see that all our bags arrived in Cincinnati and happy to see Ralph Innis there to drive us home.
It felt a bit strange to enter our apartment. In some ways it seemed we never left, and yet so much had happened that it felt we had been gone years. All in all it was a very successful trip as far as the Church is concerned, and a very educational one for our family. We feel like we drew closer as a family since we were together all day everyday for almost three months. We'll never do another trip like that one, but we're very thankful for the opportunity.
Thanks to all of you who followed our blog, we hope you've enjoyed traveling with us. Thanks also to those who remembered us in your prayers. Your kind thoughts and support are very much appreciated! If you enjoyed the blog or have any suggestions, please send us an e-mail.
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