Furlough Blog May 7 - May 10

Thursday, 7th May, 2009
I am sitting in the London Heathrow airport with my wife Nita, and two of our children, Joshua and Sarah. We have been very impressed with Terminal 5 in London! It is a new terminal and is very easy to get around to and through.
The last thing I remember doing last night was setting my alarm clock last night for 3:35am and then turning over and going to sleep.
The next morning at 4:50am, we heard John calling us. We had overslept! Ugh! I remember this happening to someone on a movie once (Home Alone, I believe), and we frantically bolted and got ready! We left the house at about 5:35, and got to the airport at 5:45am.
Bro Dan and Kathy were already there waiting for us at the Cork airport! Amen!
We had a brief time of fellowship at the airport, and the Bro Dan prayed for us, and off we headed through security!
When we were leaving Cork, can you believe that I accidently got into the wrong crowd in line for the Malaga flight (which was right next to the gate for London, and we got through the gate and actually got on the plane before one of the ladies noticed that we were getting onto the wrong flight! Oh boy!
We went back into the terminal and kind of embarrassingly sat down (no one could tell what had happened, and we were just relieved to not be heading for Malaga)!
When we did get on our flight, it was delayed for about 30 minutes before take-off, and then it was delayed in the air over London for about another 15 minutes.
But, we landed, safe and sound!
We are all sitting on the hard floor next to a power-point so that I can keep my laptop plugged in for maximum usage on this flight.
It looks like the flight is going to be packed. Drat. Oh well. 11 hours in a packed airplane is not so bad (what am I saying?)!
I will need to work on my preaching messages during this flight for Sunday morning, and Sunday evening.
The flight WAS indeed packed, but we all were able to sit together!
Eleven hours is a very long time to be cooped up in a plane, but we made it.
We were so tired, but excited! It took quite a whole to get all our luggage, but we did, thankfully!
After that, we went through immigration, and the man wrong a wrong number on out card, and we were turned back and made to go through another line. It was very frustrating, and slow, and we were getting worried about how long this was all going to take.
Finally, a man took the card, looked everything up on the computer and said te original guy must have been sleeping. Everything was now okay.
We went outside and waited for our Thrifty Car Rental Bus to take us to the cars.
The car we got was beautiful. It was some kind of a Jeep, and it was great to drive.
I can’t wait to find out what the Ford Expedition drives like.
It took an absolute eternity to get halfway out of Los Angeles because of all the stop and slowly go traffic! I had to stop and sleep for about an hour because I was getting dangerously tired while driving.
When I woke up, we then drove about 45 more minutes to Oceanside, and found the Hotel. It was a nice hotel, and we were all in bed and asleep by 9:45pm, California time! We have been up and travelling now for 25 hours!

Friday, 8th May, 2009
Woke up at 2.30am, and then at 5.30am. Finally got out of bed at 6.30 and started working on emails and planning for the day.
Had a great continental breakfast with the kids.
Talked to John via Skype.
Talked to Sharon and found out Mom was for sure coming to the wedding.
We went to a local shopping Mall and Joshua and I left the girls to do their shopping while we went to find a Phone Store. We ended up at and AT&T shop, and I bought a Go phone ($49) and $100 credit.
Nita, Sarah and Joshua all got shoes.
We then went and tried to find the place where the car dealer worked to look at the Ford Expedition. It took quite a bit of to’ing and fro’ing, but we found the place. We loved the car. We had to go to Rob’s home (what a house!) to get the paper work. From there, we dropped Nita and the kids at a local shopping mall while I drove the Rental Car down to San Diego. It was not too bad getting down there with the traffic, and I made it by 5pm. The cost for the Rental was $200 because of the Drop-off charge ($60) which I thought was included all along!
Anyway, I am sitting in the taxi being driven back up to San Marcus!
What a day – loads of stress just trying to figure out how to do everything without being milked dry by all the costs.
We still have to get some clothes for the kids.
After I pick up Nita and the kids, we will head up to Lancaster.
Our accommodation is in Palmdale, but after that, Sharon said this morning that we should be able to stay at a friend's home! Praise God!
I have to phone Bro Buddy to see if we can still stay at his place when we are in Hot Springs!
The weather has been beautiful! The mornings are cloudy but the afternoon is absolutely perfect temperature with a light wind – incredible!

Saturday, 9th May
We finally decided to pick up the girls and head to Disneyland in Los Angeles. I was len the use of a GPS unit, and it took us a round-about way through the mountains. Good check out of the car – up and down hills – not great on petrol for sure, but a strong engine.
Finally arrived with a few delays, and it was massive. Far too massive! There is absolutely no way anyone could enjoy the theme park in less than three days! We started walking around and found out Nico and another guy from West Coast named Brett had come to Disneyland and decided not to come in. We talked them into coming, and had a blast.
So many of the rides had 1 hour wait lines, but we found out about Fast Pass, and were able to bypass one ride’s long lines – the Indiana Jones ride.
It was hot, but nice weather.
Very tiring day. Tomorrow, I teach in an adult Sunday School class. I am nervous.