Moo-oosings by the Verhoog family: I made it!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

I made it!

It took an extra day, but I made it back to Manitoba in time to finish getting ready for the bridal shower for our son Josh and (mostly) his bride-to-be Krissy. I have almost adjusted to the time change, after two days of waking up a 2 am, like sleeping until noon in Ukraine; the last two mornings I have been up closer to 5 am!

After a very bumpy overnight bus ride from Dnepropetroesk to Borispol ,where the Kiev airport really is located; Tuesday morning I was on my way to Manitoba. The bus was way too hot, with the heat on full-blast for the first couple hours, I was sweating in my sleeveless shirt, and drinking my water, like crazy; at one point I woke up and thought that the bus must be lost in some small unpaved village when the two older ladies wearing coats got off after a couple hours, but no it was the road to Kiev! Most of the bumps seemed to be patches rather than holes, but the bus seemed to crawl there, until they switched drivers, the second one drove faster over the bumps.

Garry always said he'd take me for tulip time in Holland!

The plane to Amsterdam loaded on time, so I thought everything was great until I fastened my seatbelt and heard the captain announce we would take off in about an hour due to thunderstorms in the Netherlands! I had an hour and half between flights, so I knew it didn't look good for making my flight so I called Garry to let Jessy know, since she was supposed to pick me up at the airport Tuesday evening. The plane landed about 25 minutes before my next scheduled takeoff, but taxied up to unload for another ten, by the time I got out of the plane, the KLM lady said go to the transfer desk. I got there and found an incredibly long load to stand in, by the time I got to the front, four and a half hours later; there were no flights still leaving for to North America, so I got a hotel voucher, and a flight to Toronto on May 2nd.

the shuttle ride to and from the hotel in Amsterdam

The plane ready to leave for Toronto

The next morning I got to the airport early, did a little stroopwaffle/gift shopping, and everything proceeded as planned, and I arrived in Winnipeg at 3 pm.

My fellow travelers ready for security screening and boarding

Jessica was teaching, so I sat on a bench, with my luggage (which made the trip with me) until 5:30, we went to dinner at Red Lobster, Jonah and James and I enjoyed the shrimp tacos, among other treats before going to Morden. I stayed with them, getting ready for the bridal shower until Friday evening, when Jess drove us to the farm. Of course Jacklyn also came to the farm, the back seat was a little crowed with the three of us!