We Have Arrived!

We arrived this morning right on time after a long 24 hours in transit. On the itinerary it looked like we had plenty of time between flights however we arrived at each airport to find a challenge. The flight from Evansville to Chicago was fine. In Chicago we had to walk from concourse D to J which was quite a walk. We did have time to get a bit to eat. When we arrived at the gate the flight was ready to board. We did sit at the gate for a few minutes, leaving maybe 9 minutes late. It was a little claustrophobic on that flight. The lady sitting next to me only spoke Spanish.

When we arrived in Miami we had find the international terminal which was again a long walk. We did not have time to spare getting on that flight. Cal and I were on one side in the plane with four in the middle and two more on the other side. When the two people in front of us pushed their seats back we could not get out of our seats, easily. We had to climb over our arm rest. We did not sleep well but did nap a little.

In Sao Paulo we had to claim our luggage and go through customs. That sentence is easy to say but... Once we finally got through the duty claim place we found that one of our suitcases had not made it to Sao Paulo. Of course it was Cal's with his fishing pole, thermorest mattress and sleeping bag. He and Larry and several other Indians are leaving for a couple of days of fishing tomorrow morning at 4 a.m. So he is borrowing things of Larry's. Fortunately they go past the airport in Campo Grande in the morning so they will call to see if the bag has arrived yet.

By the time we had finally gotten all paper work done, rechecked our bags and gotten to the gate we discovered they said we were at a different gate, (by this time everything was in Portuguese), when everyone was leaving the gate area we asked again and found we were to go to another gate, down stairs and out to a bus! We were not sure it was right but as you can tell from the picture we arrived in Campo Grande ON TIME.

After telling Buckman's about the lost luggage they said the Lord was really helping us because the young man filling out the report on the bag, guided us through another area of going through customs. The main area had hundreds of people in line. Our area had maybe three in front of us. The sent our luggage through the exray machine, opened nothing, asked no questions, we did not have to take off our shoes, etc. Actually very easy part.

It is a 2 1/2 hour drive from Campo Grande to where Buckman's live. We delivered the two lap tops in Campo Grande, changed money and checked on a phone of Larry's. Then we stopped in a nearby town to have a bit of lunch and for Fay to get groceries. I think it was about four when we arrived home. Cal and I were dead in our tracks by that time so we laid down and slept several hours.

Fay was working on covering a piece of foam for the back seat of the truck. I woke up in time to help her finish up on it.

Now that I have figured out how to do this blog on her laptop it is time for me to go to bed too.
Thank you all for praying and for your many gifts. It was really special to have so many come see us off. That was a real encouragement.