Here we are. 37,000 ft in the air, flying over Great Britain right now, on our way to Brussels, Belgium. We are just about an hour behind schedule so hope we aren’t too rushed to get to our connecting flight on to Cameroon in West Africa. Our journey started Tuesday afternoon as we left Amarillo to travel to Oklahoma City. We were able to spend the night with daughter, Sara and her family before getting up early Wednesday to meet our co-traveler on this journey, Johnnie Oyler. at the OKC airport. Johnnie is also a nurse from Amarillo. This is her first Jesus Film trip.
This mission trip is a Jesus Film Mission trip. We are traveling to Cameroon to deliver a Jesus Film backpack and two large duffel bags full of ministry tools, such as Bible Story cloths, Evangeballs, Evangecubes, etc. There are only the three of us on this team.
Well, we are now on another plane. We landed in Brussels about 8:30 a.m., Brussels time. That would be about 2:30 a.m. Amarillo time. It’s been a long day so far. We started in OKC on Wednesday morning, leaving OKC at 10:40 a.m., traveling to Houston, TX. From Houston we flew to Washington, D.C. Dulles Airport, where it was cloudy and raining. We couldn’t see any part of the city because of the low clouds but we did see some beautiful fall colors on trees as we got closer to landing. WE just had a short layover in DC before boarding the plane for our overnight flight to Brussels. After taxi-ing for what seemed longer than usual the pilot came on the intercom to assure us he wasn’t just giving us a short tour of the airport. It seems like there was a major storm crossing our flight path nearby and we would need to wait it out! So back closer to the terminal where we could park until we got clearance to take off. We had only been parked a few minutes when we got word that we had a new flight path south of the storm. Yea! But, still an hour delay. We were soon in the air, served a meal, and settled down for a very short night’s sleep.
Once in Brussels we had to go back through security, then walk and walk through terminal B past multitudes of travelers from all over the world, hearing different languages being spoken, went down a ramp to the ground floor, caught a bus to a terminal T, went up some stairs (Sam rode the glass walled elevator) and find gate T65, which was just a few steps away. This terminal was all glass walls and ceiling. We waited about an hour before boarding our final flight for today. It’s now 12:15 p.m. Brussels time (6:15 CST) and we have just flown over the snow-covered French Alps, somewhere around Grenoble. Hopefully, on the way home we won’t have any delays and I’ll be able to eat a Belguim waffle in Brussels!
Yawn! Sleepy. It’s been a long day-night-day of traveling. According to the flight map on the airplane screen we are almost at our destination. Only about 400 miles left. A nice benefit has been able to fly on an international airline the last part of our flight instead of a US based airline. I really do prefer international airlines. Service is so much better. Everybody smiles and acts like they really like their jobs. We flew on a US based airline until we reached Brussels. Three different planes, same airline. Few smiles, griping at people about getting their overhead luggage stowed away, not helping, cramped seating. Didn’t have a flight cancelled or delayed, which is uncommon with US based flights anymore, thankfully. First flight was 2 hrs long. Served drinks one time. Second flight was three hours long. Served drinks one time and one could purchase food, if they wanted. No movies unless one purchased them. Nothing except water and soft drinks was complimentary. Third flight was 7 hours. Served a minimal meal with drinks. Was back picking up almost before one had adequate time to finish. If you wanted anything else to eat during the flight snacks were offered for purchase. Then lights out. We did have free movies though! Had pillows and blankets at each seat but blankets were as thin as linen table clothes. The plane was so cold that many people put on jackets with hoodies or caps. Then about 45 minutes before landing they rushed through again with a prepackaged cold croissant and jam and drink. Only service given the entire flight was twice. We are now flying on Brussels Airlines. Happy smiling faces on people who were very eager to help with luggage, etc as one was getting on the plane. Legroom in economy is like business class. Movies, TV programs, etc free. A slot to charge your computer or phone on the TV screen. Almost immediately we were served a small snack of mixed crackers and drinks. Not long after that a huge meal that neither of us could finish…chicken breast in cherry sauce, mashed potatoes, vegetables, a big pasta salad, bread, butter, soft cheese, a dessert, drink! Since lunch they have served drinks twice again and just finished an ice cream bar! Ok…it’s not about the food but about the service all around. International airlines just seem to do better in taking care of their customers.
Well, just got the announcement that we will be landing in about 30 minutes so need to shut this down and get everything put away. Will add more later hopefully.
Oh my…what have we gotten ourselves into. Johnny may never want to come on a trip again and this may be the last one for me! We landed in Douala, Cameroon about 5:30ish. It took a very long time to go through immigration as the line was long and there was only one agent for foreign passports.
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