JB is in England

Got this message from JB. What an adventure, but he is successfully residing in England at the time. Please pray that the volcanic ash doesn't keep him from getting back to us this weekend!

So I left Ramstein right when I wanted to give me an hour to drive there and arrive 2 hrs before departure. The GPS was easy and, without any delay, brought me directly to the wrong airport! I kept thinking to myself, "hmmm, I thought Frankfurt Airport was more in the city... when's the city going to start?" Well, it never did. I pulled right up to Frankfurt-Hahn Airport and not Frankfurt International Airport.

I pulled over and re-entered in the airport information. I carefully selected the International airport. Only 114 km. One hour and fifteen minutes. I could do that.

Oh, and I was almost out of fuel. I was trying to not fill up since the fuel was prepaid upon rental. I had less than 20 km left in the tank. I saw a gas station that looked like it was sitting in the middle of a wheat field and I actually spun out my tires as I hit the gas to get there. I put in a few liters and then hit the road. I sped. I admit it. Not crazy, but I went really fast. Note that there were still Germans flying pass me going well over 200 km per hour (yeah -that's 125 mph).

So I arrived at the terminal, returned the car, found the check-in gate, got a boarding pass, turned in my bag, went through customs, and found my gate at one minute before boarding... before boarding was supposed to start. The flight left an hour late! Then we were stuck in a holding pattern over London for about 30 more minutes due to weather. We had the worst landing I have ever experienced. The plane bounced a few times and drifted bad to the right before we had solid contact.

The flight attendant kept insisting in speaking to me in German. I found out at the end of my flight that it was due to the book I was reading: Sepp Holzer's Permaculture. He's got a great Austrian name and in his photo on the front cover he is sporting classic Alpine clothing.

I got off the plane, made it through customs, got my bag, grabbed the shuttle to the rental car lot, and got my car. An hour and a half drive through London rush hour traffic driving a manual (stick-shift) transmission on the wrong side of the car that I have to drive on the wrong side of the road got me to my destination.

I passed a little British pub on the way in. After I dropped my bags off, I went back and had a nice hot dinner with a great local beer.

Now, within one week, I have resettled my family of 3 (and baby on the way and Veronica!) to another country for almost 3 months with one day's notice after spending the night in a hospital, taken 3 flights, rented 3 cars, checked in to 3 hotels, and am really tired!

Did I mention that a volcano in Iceland has just errupted and the ash cloud may hit London in a few days... right when I am supposed to leave???? (they actually think the wind is supposed to keep it away from London for now... they think)

I'll worry about that tomorrow. I am going to bed.

Love you. Give my boys hugs for me.

JB