Departure Challenged as Always!

Departure challenged is the term that defines our efforts to leave good ole Jackson today for Cape Town via Atlanta and Johannesburg. As I write this entry, I am sitting in my cubicle on my Delta flight. Barry and I have both just finished a lovely 5 course meal up here in our individual cubicles. Davis is in economy.....economy comfort to be exact. I am having a feeling that he did not just have a 5 course meal. I bet he didn't have an offer of champagne and a hot towel either. Oh well, he is only 22 and I think he can sleep anywhere anytime! Unlike his parents that are lucky to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep these days!
I have been dreaming of this trip since my first trip to Africa in the fall of 2011. Barry and I couldn't wait to bring our kids to a place that we both fell deeply in love with within a day of being there. And so...our first challenge! Last year all of our children received a trip (with us, of course!) to Africa for Christmas! Yay! No babies on the horizon were being anticipated and everyone was a resounding YES! ExOfficio safari clothing, binoculars, airline tickets, and lodge/camp reservations were the big Santa gifts under our Christmas tree. And then, we got the call in January, a surprise grandson was on the way! We couldn't be more excited!!!! Way much more important than a trip! But, do we go on and just take 3 to Africa? Caroline kiddingly said that Katie did this on purpose so that she could have her own ( meaning with Taylor and us, but no siblings ) trip! Katie has always wanted to be an only child! Ha! We wish that they were with us! But we are over the moon excited about the birth of Richard Knox Nicholas! We just pray that he waits to make his debut when we return!
And that brings me to Challenge #2! I'll just skip the usual challenge of Barry leaving work! (It's always fun for Barry to leave every morning for work at the crack of dawn and come home when the 10 o'clock news is winding down for the 2 weeks preceding a trip! And even more fun to wake up because of the light of the iPad at 4 am because he is doing work email!). At 11:30 pm Friday night as I was looking over our documents, I could hear Davis still moving around upstairs. He had flown home on Thursday night to retrieve his Africa "stuff" and fly with us to Cape Town. I knew he had received his documents from our travel advisor, Erica, because we had discussed it. I got up and walked to the bottom of the steps and asked Davis to bring down his documents in the morning so that I could put all of our stuff together. "Huh? What?" My stomach plummeted.....the documents were in NYC at his apartment. Oh! No! How can we get them to Jackson? Luckily, David, Davis' roommate was in NYC. After googling how could I get them before our departure, I finally began to exhale. FedEx could do it! I called them and set it all up! Big problem, we couldn't get the roommate on the phone! Rescheduled again...and we reached David early Saturday morning and his schedule would work with meeting a courier! I'll have to say until I actually signed for them on Sunday, I was pretty much a wreck!
Challenge 3....As usual we forgot something on the way to the airport, but did have enough time to go back and get BARRY'S sunglasses! Our flight was delayed leaving Jackson because of air traffic. Our flight did lots of circles before landing because of weather! I know that it rains a lot in Portland and Seattle, but rarely is Atlanta not having a weather event when I visit their airport!
Challenge 4... And hopefully this won't be a challenge....but, we were LATE leaving Atlanta because of weather! We spent a god hour on the Tarmac! I just really don't want to miss our connection to Cape Town! I guess my last challenge will be to sleep! Barry has been asleep for a good while....
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