One "daze" travel

After checking into the airport in Milwaukee [where we ran into Stephanie and Gregg Wieczorek], we actually thought we would be getting on a plane there. This year it was going to work...Our plane came in, people got off and then an anouncement..."There's some sort of a mechanical problem with the plane [ya, the one that just landed] and we'll be taking you to Chicago on a bus." Two years in a row. So they ordered a bus...we had to go get our luggage from where we jsut checked in, take it to the bus and...wait there was only one bus and not enough room for the last 9 people. Jude and I were 8 and 9. So we got to go in a stretch limo to Chicago. That was not so bad, but with 9 people and all their luggage, it was quite crammed. We were the only ones who made their flights out of the 9.

At the LOT counter, the attendant told us there would be a two hour departure delay from Chicago. I did some quick math in my head...let's see a two hour delay and a one hour 45 minutes layover in Warsaw...Yah, we were not going to make our connections from Warsaw to Vilnius. However, the attendant [in Chicago] told me that there would no problems in Warsaw making the connection...easy for her to say. Additionally, our plane seats were changed from row 11 to 32...8 seats from the rear.

One good thing though, we sat in the middle section of the plane and the middle seat was vacant...so we did stretch out to sleep...nice...................

We arrived in Warsaw at 11:35. Out plane to Vilnius left at 11:45. Wwwwwwwwwith 10 minutes and alot of prayers, we dashed off to our gate. We had to go through customs first, where the officer in the booth ran out of ink on his stamp pad as Jude went through, rushed to the security area where Jude had water in her water bottle...she proceded to chug it down in front of the security guard who was telling her in Polish not to bring water through the security check, and then off to our gate where...they were making the final calls...yes, we made our flight. As we got onto the bus to take us to our plane, we had no hopes of seeing our luggage for a few days. Sitting on the plane, the captain announced that there would be a slight delay in departure because some luggage was being brought to the plane from a late arriving plane. Jude and I looked at each other...but didn't really shout for joy because everyone else in the plane wanted to leave. Then, we saw it...our luggage being loaded onto the plane. All of us made it that day.

Thank you all who were praying. It didn't go on deaf ears.

It was warm and sunny in Vilnius...most of the teachers had already arrived. Some weren't coming because their flights had either been canceled or missed. So, we departed. We got on the bus for the four hour trip...We got to the Karklu dorms arounf 8:30 pm, unloaded our stuff and went for ice cream...it had been a long "daze" travel...