The Journey Begins                                                                                                                        

My journey started January 31 with a little excitement.  The 2 days before I was to leave were bad weather days, Tuesday VERY foggy and Wednesday 9 inches of heavy wet snow.  Thursday was bright and COLD. 

Wilda and Darrell were there to take me to the airport about 1:45 in the afternoon.  All went great checking in at the airport but went down hill from there.  After waiting at the gate for some time a notice came up on the board saying the plane was delayed.  About a half hour later the plane came from Chicago.  It had to be deiced before coming to Appleton.  We loaded as quickly as possible but not fast enough.  When I arrived in Chicago the door was already closed on the plane to Washington, DC.  They had printed boarding passes for several of us that had missed our flights.  Mine said I was to leave Friday morning at 6.  They then asked me if I could go to Reagan National Airport instead of Dulles International.  I told them that would be OK so they got me on a 7:25 pm flight.  Of course that plane was also late.  Once loaded and ready to go it also had to be deiced.  Instead of getting into DC at 10:13 we got in about 11.  My luggage had been ticketed for Dulles so they could not get it on the plane I was on so it came in on the 6 am flight on Friday.  Bert called and had them deliver them to his house.  They arrived about 10:15.  All is came safe and sound.

Hope this is the end of travel excitement for this long trip.