I’ve enjoyed a number of activities since the Chilean Fjords trip and before our trip to Madagascar.
- The month of May included a trip to Yosemite Valley National Park, a visit to Minneapolis to see Monica & Jake, and quilting.
- I stayed in Reno quilting for a few weeks the end of June and beginning of July awaiting my first grandchild. He arrived early July and is a cutie.
- August involved an organized bike ride with Keti with 5 days of actual riding. We added an additional 4 days driving/touring to Spokane and 2 days driving back home. In Washington, we visited the United States’ first World War I memorial, which was a life sized replica of Stonehenge. The 50+ mile biking day was a personal best distance, the 8+% grade on another day was the steepest grade I’ve biked and the 8,771 foot long tunnel was by far the longest(only) tunnel I’ve biked in.
- I cancelled the two cruises that were planned with Jennifer. Then I booked two more and cancelled those- really I’m not indecisive. My nephew is getting married so I canceled the cruise that conflicted with his wedding date and then cancelled the other one because its price was dependent on having more than one cruise booked. Of course when I cancelled the first one the second one got more expensive. Live and Learn.
And now I’m on my way to Madagascar! Wahoo.
Rather than fly straight to Madagascar, I flew to Johannesburg, South Africa where I”ll spend a day getting used to the South Africa time zone and then it’s off for a 17 day trip to Madagascar.
It was a nice, uneventful flight to Johannesburg, South Africa- left San Jose, California 12:40pm on August 18th and arrived at Johannesburg, South Africa at 7:40pm August 19th. It was 4 3/4 hour flight from San Jose California to Atlanta Georgia, 1 1/2 hour layover then a 15 1/2 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. But as a matter of fact we landed almost an hour ahead of schedule so it was only about a 14 1/2 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg.
After getting off the plane, I was very happy to see my guide as I was worried they didn’t know about the early arrival. He assured me they watch the flights very carefully to ensure they are not late.
I brought my laptop so I could see my photos on a larger screen but forgot the laptop password. After multiple attempts, checking the help center, getting the ‘you’re locked message- you’ll have to wait 20 minutes before you can try again” message, I finally entered the correct password. Turns out I didn’t forget the password at all but only mistyped it. I would have gotten into my laptop over an hour earlier if I hadn’t mistyped the password the first time I tried it which caused me to think I forgot the password. Guess I really was tired from the long flight.
I’m staying at the City Lodge OR Tambo Airport hotel in the Johannesburg airport- you can walk thru the airport from baggage claim to the hotel.
I loved the bar of shampoo/soap in the paper box at the hotel- so much less waste than the shampoo in little plastic bottles that are usually provided. And the shampoo worked quite well.
Tibor went to South Africa 13 days early so he could enjoy the wildflowers in full bloom. And he added in a whirlwind 24 hour stop over in Istanbul- especially to see the Bosphorus Strait and take a ferry from Europe to Asia. He’ll be meeting me at the Johannesburg hotel and we fly to Madagascar on August 21st.
