Tuesday Evening, 9:45 p.m. CST

I am writing this somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, east by northeast of Nova Scotia according to the map displayed on the plane’s video screens. We are due to arrive in Frankfort, Germany at approximately 2:30 a.m. CST but it will be 9:30 a.m. locally. We have had a pleasant and uneventful trip thus far.

It seems none of slept much last night due to excitement and anticipation for the trip. I had so many last minute tasks to accomplish that I didn’t fall asleep until after 1:00 a.m. I got up early to see Debra and the girls off to school and then ran a couple of errands. Frank Wilson came by the house to pick me up at 11:00. He drove me to the airport where I met Bill, Sally and Brian. Brian’s wife Stacy had gotten time off work to drive him to the airport. Sally’s daughter Mandy, her son-in-law Derek and grandson Braden were also part of our send-off party. I also met Brian’s parents, Pat and Jerry Farnam for the first time.

We were all a little nervous about the weight of our bags due to carrying all the items we would need and a number of gifts for the Dick’s. Checked luggage must be less than 50 pounds. My wheeled duffle bag came in at 47.5 and the others were almost as heavy. Hopefully it will be lighter going home.

We flew to George Bush airport in Houston and made a mad dash from the Continental Airlines terminal to the Lufthansa section on the other end. Just after acquiring our boarding passes from a lady who spoke English with great difficulty, the passengers began to board.

Thankfully, the plane is only about half full and we were able to sit together and still have lots of room to stretch out. I’ve flown these trans-Atlantic flights before with a full load, so this seems very nice. I'll sign off for now and try to rest a bit as we will land in Germany in a few hours.

Soli Deo Gloria!