We Made It!

We landed in Tunis, Tunisia this afternoon... after a long LONG plane ride. Well, the whole trip was hard.

First, we stayed at the house in Tulsa cleaning up and making sure all the walls were touched up. Then we packed up the truck and Mustang and headed down the turnpike for OKC. We arrived at my daughter's house after a little drama... the Mustang overheated and we had to stare at it and wait for it to cool down before we could continue on. We were unpacking all the stuff at 8:30 pm. We were starving. So after getting all the storage wedged into their attic, we went to a local bar and had a couple drinks and some 'bar food'. We slept on the blow up mattress in their guest room and were awoken by the smell of sausage and blueberry pancakes. Nice breakfast with DD and SIL before we bolted north to Minnesota.

The drive was a little longer from OKC, and we stopped often to stave off hunger, tiredness and boredom. We got to the hotel at about 10:00 pm and checked in. We got up early on Friday and had breakfast with #2 Son and two darling grandkids. Momma was at the doctor, so we took them for pancakes. We met up with DIL after her appointment and took the drive out to see the rental home they are hoping to contract.

Nice house, good space and perfect layout for the kids. We're praying that this one goes through with no hitches so they have the keys by Monday.

After looking at the rent house, we went to a restaurant to get lunch with the whole clan. We had a nice relaxed visit. Then we changed into our traveling clothes and got dropped off at the airport.

The Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport is very nice. We got through security and waited at the gate. The flight loaded timely although we did sit on the runway for a while. It was a ten and a half hour flight to Paris. We landed there this morning 7:00 am local time (which was like midnight or 1:00 am Tulsa time). We had a three hour layover in the Paris airport, which is like a work of art. So pretty, big stainless steel tubes lined with glass or bent wood, airy atrium ceilings with exposed metal rafters that are as decorative as they are structural. Even the jetways to the planes were glass and pretty.

The transfer to the flight bound for Tunis included a bus trip around the airport. Saw a lot of the exterior of Charles De Gaulle International as we circled from one terminal to another. We got on a very new plane to fly to Tunis. It took off and landed on time.

One comment about the flight attendants on Air France... they are happy people. So nice. Friendly and capable. I'm not sure I've ever had a better customer service experience on any airline. They were wonderful. Both flight crews had the same number of passengers, but the Air France flight seemed nicer, friendlier and more laid back. It was so great. Made us feel like rock stars.

We landed in Tunis at 3:30 pm local time. We were picked up by a driver who zipped us to our hotel in under 15 minutes. One thing about Tunisian drivers, they consider lane striping to be advisory, not mandatory. A little scary. I closed my eyes for part of the drive. Maybe I was just tired? Not completely wimpy?

The hotel is lovely. I'll take some pictures tomorrow and blog them. For now, I'm doing well to keep my eyes focusing. I've been up for something like 28 hours. It's no time to try my photog skills.

So, we're here. We made it safe and sound. I predicted that it would be limiting not knowing the two primary languages, and I was right. All through customs--when people talked to me--I turned to DH and said, "what was that?" As soon as I spoke English, almost everyone responded to me in English... but I do think it would be better to try and learn some Arabic and French. That's on my list of things to do. After I get some sleep.

--Sandee Wagner