The flight and drive home ; a problem with the house....
(Posted from home)
(This post covers 20 - 22 September, 2011)
---------------------
Thursday, 22 September -
We arose around 0900 and had breakfast and talked some more, then packed up the car for the trip home and departed shortly before noon.
We lunched in Frederick at a newly-refurbished Greek restaurant we'll use again in the future. We arrived home in late afternoon.
We had been warned there had been flooding from Tropical Storm Lee in the area so were a bit afraid of what we might find in our house. Our neighbor said he had some water intrude from the floor drain in his house but I thought we'd be okay.
Wrong. When I walked into the house and descended to the basement level I heard the squish sound of water in the rug as I stepped onto it at the bottom of the stairs. A short look revealed we have about an inch of water throughout the basement. There's just a bit of a musty smell at this point but I did see a few little patches of mold. But it's NOTHING like the mess we had when we returned to a sewer backup in 2005 or the refrigerator power-outage we returned another time.
Fortunately our guest room is not affected – its floor sits two inches above the level of the rest of the basement-- so the carpet there isn't affected and that room is fine. But we'll now have to clean out and dry out the rest of the basement. Given the weather predictions for lots of rain for the next week, that doesn't look like fun.
We watched two episodes of 'Expedition Africa'. We had started the series before leaving and had finished the first disk. Now it's interesting to see the flora in Tanzania (where the expedition is).
-----------------------
Wednesday, 21 September -
Continuing our flight.... We had boarded at 2200 local time and our flight would last until 1700 the next day according to our watches. As we neared Dakar, Senegal for a crew-change stop, I was wondering if I was going to be able to handle the long flight. My back was hurting a bit and the seat seemed extra hard. After the stop in Dakar the new crew came through and searched each vacant seat-- in case one of the departing passengers had left a bomb there before getting off in Dakar. Then they came through with a spray bomb to kill any insects which may have been inadvertantly brought aboard from Senegal, which has problems with yellow fever. We knew of the process from a friend who thought the chemicals used in the spray to be dangerous (there are mixed reviews about it on the internet) so we had N95-spec masks with us and donned them for about ten minutes after the spraying. We appeared to be the only people with masks though several other people covered their eyes and nose with their hands or a piece of cloth for a few minutes.
After we were airborne we had another, smaller snack and that seemed to wake us up. Over the course of the flight we each watched four movies and that helped pass the time.
We arrived at Dulles shortly after 1030 Eastern time (1630 on our watches because of the six-hour time difference). It seemed to take a long time to get off the plane and take the shuttle to the international terminal. There we got in line for passport control and saw the long line wasn't moving at all. The computer system had decided to freeze up and had to be rebooted. But once the reboot cleared things up the process went fairly quickly and it was only a few minutes till we met Labashi's brother and were in his car speeding toward his home.
We had a bit of excellent lentil-sausage soup our hosts had made, sat up talking a bit, then about 1300 we went to bed to try to catch up a bit. I slept very heavily until 2000, Labashi not quite so long.
We spent the evening talking and went back to bed around 2300.
We both woke around 0230 and were up for the duration-- our bodies thought it was 0830. I finished reading one of the books we had bought about safari-guide experiences in Botswana and read about half of a thin book about the history of the colonialization of Africa-- very interesting reading.
-----------------------
Tuesday, 20 September-
We spent the day in the room at the guesthouse. Our flight isn't until 2245 tonight and the owners of the guesthouse very kindly allowed us to keep our room until supper-time. We spent the day cleaning up our dust-covered gear and packing everything just so for the trip. I also had time to catch up and post the blog online and read a 4x4 magazine called 'Leisure Wheels'. There's lots of good info about touring southern Africa by 4x4 as well as the typical reviews of trucks and gear. I see I can subscribe to the digital version from the US and it's cheap. I'll have to read more about how good the digital version is.
That evening we joined Arthur and Ina and a few guests in the lapa for drinks and then supper. After supper Henry drove us over to the airport around 2000. We had a few minor problems finding things there at O.R. Tambo International Airport because of bad signage. In trying to find where to check in, we had conflicting information posted. The check-in counter was listed as B22 but the terminal as Terminal A. There's no 'B' counter in Terminal A. Fortunately there are a few helper-guys there to assist tourists. He couldn't explain why the sign said what it did but did know to take us to Terminal B. And when the B22 desk was not manned, took us to another where we checked in without problems.
Then we just wanted to get to the gate. As we passed an elevator we saw a sign hanging from the ceiling in front of the door with the words 'Terminal A gates' and an arrow pointing up. We took the elevator up but it dead-ended on a floor with nothing on it. It turns out the sign merely meant we should continue down the corridor we were in when we saw the sign. If it hadn't been posted right at the elevator doors we would have known that.
And when we got to the gate the sign said 'London – Virgin Atlantic – Boarding'. But there was a South African Airways plane at the gate, not a Virgin Atlantic plane and it wasn't in the process of boarding. That sign never changed the whole time we were there and boarded our plane. Of course we checked we were at the right place and we were-- they just didn't bother to change the sign.
The other odd thing that happened was that after we reached the gate we were all told to line up, men on one side, women on the other. Though we had passed through the security checkpoint and passport control, it was only now at the gate where we and our hand-luggage were searched. It wasn't a problem-- just odd, particularly when the staff now had to keep track of who had been searched and who hadn't and, predictably, people would still have to go down the hall to the bathroom before their flight. That meant, of course, that they had to be searched (and take off shoes and belts, etc) after returning from the bathroom. Odd.
When it came time to board they merely announced that we could board--- no boarding by row or section, etc. Fortunately we had been sitting at the back of the waiting area and that put us at the front of the waiting area after being processed through the security search. So we were among the first dozen people walking aboard and so were able to walk right to the back of the plane where our seats were (row 72!).
After we went airborne a round of drinks and then a light supper was served (and it was good!) Then the lights were turned off and most people took the hint to try to get some sleep. We couldn't sleep but were comfortable and entertained by the seat-back monitor's offerings of movies and TV shows.
***** END OF POST *******
(Posted from home)
(This post covers 20 - 22 September, 2011)
---------------------
Thursday, 22 September -
We arose around 0900 and had breakfast and talked some more, then packed up the car for the trip home and departed shortly before noon.
We lunched in Frederick at a newly-refurbished Greek restaurant we'll use again in the future. We arrived home in late afternoon.
We had been warned there had been flooding from Tropical Storm Lee in the area so were a bit afraid of what we might find in our house. Our neighbor said he had some water intrude from the floor drain in his house but I thought we'd be okay.
Wrong. When I walked into the house and descended to the basement level I heard the squish sound of water in the rug as I stepped onto it at the bottom of the stairs. A short look revealed we have about an inch of water throughout the basement. There's just a bit of a musty smell at this point but I did see a few little patches of mold. But it's NOTHING like the mess we had when we returned to a sewer backup in 2005 or the refrigerator power-outage we returned another time.
Fortunately our guest room is not affected – its floor sits two inches above the level of the rest of the basement-- so the carpet there isn't affected and that room is fine. But we'll now have to clean out and dry out the rest of the basement. Given the weather predictions for lots of rain for the next week, that doesn't look like fun.
We watched two episodes of 'Expedition Africa'. We had started the series before leaving and had finished the first disk. Now it's interesting to see the flora in Tanzania (where the expedition is).
-----------------------
Wednesday, 21 September -
Continuing our flight.... We had boarded at 2200 local time and our flight would last until 1700 the next day according to our watches. As we neared Dakar, Senegal for a crew-change stop, I was wondering if I was going to be able to handle the long flight. My back was hurting a bit and the seat seemed extra hard. After the stop in Dakar the new crew came through and searched each vacant seat-- in case one of the departing passengers had left a bomb there before getting off in Dakar. Then they came through with a spray bomb to kill any insects which may have been inadvertantly brought aboard from Senegal, which has problems with yellow fever. We knew of the process from a friend who thought the chemicals used in the spray to be dangerous (there are mixed reviews about it on the internet) so we had N95-spec masks with us and donned them for about ten minutes after the spraying. We appeared to be the only people with masks though several other people covered their eyes and nose with their hands or a piece of cloth for a few minutes.
After we were airborne we had another, smaller snack and that seemed to wake us up. Over the course of the flight we each watched four movies and that helped pass the time.
We arrived at Dulles shortly after 1030 Eastern time (1630 on our watches because of the six-hour time difference). It seemed to take a long time to get off the plane and take the shuttle to the international terminal. There we got in line for passport control and saw the long line wasn't moving at all. The computer system had decided to freeze up and had to be rebooted. But once the reboot cleared things up the process went fairly quickly and it was only a few minutes till we met Labashi's brother and were in his car speeding toward his home.
We had a bit of excellent lentil-sausage soup our hosts had made, sat up talking a bit, then about 1300 we went to bed to try to catch up a bit. I slept very heavily until 2000, Labashi not quite so long.
We spent the evening talking and went back to bed around 2300.
We both woke around 0230 and were up for the duration-- our bodies thought it was 0830. I finished reading one of the books we had bought about safari-guide experiences in Botswana and read about half of a thin book about the history of the colonialization of Africa-- very interesting reading.
-----------------------
Tuesday, 20 September-
We spent the day in the room at the guesthouse. Our flight isn't until 2245 tonight and the owners of the guesthouse very kindly allowed us to keep our room until supper-time. We spent the day cleaning up our dust-covered gear and packing everything just so for the trip. I also had time to catch up and post the blog online and read a 4x4 magazine called 'Leisure Wheels'. There's lots of good info about touring southern Africa by 4x4 as well as the typical reviews of trucks and gear. I see I can subscribe to the digital version from the US and it's cheap. I'll have to read more about how good the digital version is.
That evening we joined Arthur and Ina and a few guests in the lapa for drinks and then supper. After supper Henry drove us over to the airport around 2000. We had a few minor problems finding things there at O.R. Tambo International Airport because of bad signage. In trying to find where to check in, we had conflicting information posted. The check-in counter was listed as B22 but the terminal as Terminal A. There's no 'B' counter in Terminal A. Fortunately there are a few helper-guys there to assist tourists. He couldn't explain why the sign said what it did but did know to take us to Terminal B. And when the B22 desk was not manned, took us to another where we checked in without problems.
Then we just wanted to get to the gate. As we passed an elevator we saw a sign hanging from the ceiling in front of the door with the words 'Terminal A gates' and an arrow pointing up. We took the elevator up but it dead-ended on a floor with nothing on it. It turns out the sign merely meant we should continue down the corridor we were in when we saw the sign. If it hadn't been posted right at the elevator doors we would have known that.
And when we got to the gate the sign said 'London – Virgin Atlantic – Boarding'. But there was a South African Airways plane at the gate, not a Virgin Atlantic plane and it wasn't in the process of boarding. That sign never changed the whole time we were there and boarded our plane. Of course we checked we were at the right place and we were-- they just didn't bother to change the sign.
The other odd thing that happened was that after we reached the gate we were all told to line up, men on one side, women on the other. Though we had passed through the security checkpoint and passport control, it was only now at the gate where we and our hand-luggage were searched. It wasn't a problem-- just odd, particularly when the staff now had to keep track of who had been searched and who hadn't and, predictably, people would still have to go down the hall to the bathroom before their flight. That meant, of course, that they had to be searched (and take off shoes and belts, etc) after returning from the bathroom. Odd.
When it came time to board they merely announced that we could board--- no boarding by row or section, etc. Fortunately we had been sitting at the back of the waiting area and that put us at the front of the waiting area after being processed through the security search. So we were among the first dozen people walking aboard and so were able to walk right to the back of the plane where our seats were (row 72!).
After we went airborne a round of drinks and then a light supper was served (and it was good!) Then the lights were turned off and most people took the hint to try to get some sleep. We couldn't sleep but were comfortable and entertained by the seat-back monitor's offerings of movies and TV shows.
***** END OF POST *******
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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