Saturday morning at last arrived!  Today is the big on, we leave for Linz, Austria where we will see Brenda, Tom, Kristopher, Jeremy and our newest grandson Andrew who was born March 20, 1981. We were up by 8 o’clock as Beth and Mark* spent the night with us and were anxious to get going. They were on their way to their new home in Seattle, Washington after being married just two weeks ago. (April 18). We said good-by to them about 8:30 and they started out in their 17 year old truck camper, a 8 week old puppy, (a Dalmatian) and towing a motorcycle that Mark couldn’t resist.  They did manage to pack and take along all of their wedding presents, Beth’s hope chest, her hat stand and all sorts of camping gear, and all of their clothes.  It looks like they really do plan to stay out there. I’m worried the truck will break down, but Beth assures me Mark is a good mechanic and he’s able to fix anything that goes wrong.

 Back into the house to get dressed. We meet Betty, Billy, Libby, and Ernie* at 9:30 to go eat breakfast at the Holiday Inn.  Back to the house to dress for our trip and talk to Dixie and Kristy* who is staying in our house while we are gone.  At 12:30 we leave for the airport (1/2 hour later than planned due to Billy being late).  We left G’ville by Eastern at 1:10 p.m. and arrive in Atlanta at 2;17 p.m.  Very nice flight. I’ve only been up on an airplane once before (a 55 minute flight from Charlotte, N.C. to Jax) so it was exciting for me.

We had a 4 hr. layover in Atlanta (the largest airport in the world). Met some friends from our church (Diane and Clay Brinker) on the plane so we met them in one of the restaurants and had a snack with them. We left Atlanta at 6:30 p.m. on Delta and arrived in Frankfort Germany at 9:05 the next day. We were 8 hr. 15 minutes in the air. What a beautiful sight coming over. It was a very smooth flight. We were served supper about 8 p.m. – breaded fried boneless chicken breast, rice with almonds, green beans, toss salad, roll, piece of cheese, drink and a chocolate dessert. Very good.

We paid for earphones and listened to music. The movie starred Jack Lemon so I decided not to watch but try to sleep.  It was very uncomfortable but I did manage to dose off and on between 9 pm and 11:30 pm when they turned on all the lights and started to serve drinks!  By 12:30 am it was getting light outdoors and by 1 am it was daylight and they served breakfast! It was a beautiful sight to look out the windows and see it turn from darkness to full light.

After breakfast everyone (all 241 passengers) I think wanted to use the five toilets. They were lined up and down the aisles of the plane. I managed to get to one only 15 minutes before we landed in Frankfurt.

At last (after a 4 hour layover) we leave for Linz, Austria on Lufthansa flight 258.  We go downstairs and get our boarding pass. We board a bus which takes us way across the field to get on our plane. Before we board we each get a small plastic bag with lunch in it. It had 2 hard rolls – one with roast beef and lettuce in it and the other with cheese in it. A delicious chocolate bar, a sweet roll and a drink which was think and no good!  The one hour ride [flight] over was just great. We could see out practically all the way over and it was beautiful. The clouds were something I have never seen before and it was a funny feeling to be up above them looking down on them and not looking to the sky!

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