We Departed...We Arrived!

WE DEPARTED AND WE ARRIVED! (sorry no pictures at the moment... camera cord is in a bag that is still packed away).

So the actual journey to Dundee was quite adventurous! On July 13 (the day of departure), We were called about 2:30 pm from the airline saying that our original flight (leaving Charleston at 6:00) was delayed and we needed to get to the airport ASAP to catch the 4:30 pm flight to catch the connecting flight out of Newark to Dundee. As one could imagine, the last two hours before moving out of the country is filled with last minute things. So this news caused an immediate burst of perspiration. I was with Donna at the time, so we stopped what we were doing and rushed to the house where all 24 bags were weighed the night before, and loaded up her car with 13 of those bags and headed to the airport to start the check-in process. We were greeted by a very nice lady from the airline and she proceeded to help me check in the bags. The Stadalasky's, as well as David and Angie (who traveled with us to help with the move) soon arrived and checked inwe relatively painlessly. We headed through security. Donna came up to me quickly (somewhere in the check-in process) with tears in her eyes telling me that she had to leave right away because they were going to tow her car. That was sad and made the leaving real in my mind. The weight of all the stress heading into the actual day of leaving was alleviated when we all made it through security. Anything I wanted to/could do states-side was done. That was relieving! I praise God for his provision during that afternoon and in getting us and all of our bags on the airplane.

To make a long story short... we ended up staying the night in Newark, New Jersey because of weather delays. Although we really wanted to be leaving the country that evening, the layover ended up being a blessing. I took a much needed nap the next day before we flew out.

The exciting day we had been waiting for for over 2 years finally came! We arrived at 8 am on Friday, July 15 in Edinburgh, Scotland! We were all in one piece! Only one bag was missing! The kids (and adults) were in good spirits! At the rental car place, they said there would be no way to fit all of our luggage and 7 people into the two cars we rented (also the largest cars we could get). But we fit them all in! In addition, I had another moment of perspiration...I became the driver of the second (luggage) vehicle. At first, I was told it was going to be a MANUAL car. I don't know how to drive a manual car. But fortunately, (in God's providence), they had the same type of vehicle in an automatic. I stopped sweating for a little bit...but anticipated driving on the other side of the road! This wasn't too bad, except for navigating the round-abouts !!!!! Those can be tricky, particularly when you don't know where you are going exactly. That was the case when I lead the caravan out of the airport (just by nature of where my rental car was parked). I had an excellent navigator, David, who often reminded me to "Stay to the left!" I kept getting that pop song with the lyrics "to the left, to the left" in my head. It's still in my head. We arrived in Dundee (about 70 miles away) all in one piece! And I think I only violated a few traffic laws. There are different signs here than in the states! I praise God that all the bags and people fit into these two cars and we didn't have to make two trips...and we made it safely!