We're Off - Oct 19, 2010

We left Alexandria about 815 am on Tuesday morning, taking a shuttle to the MSP Airport for our connecting flight to New York's Kennedy Airport.

Traveling with a group presents its own challenges and every group is different.  It is easy to forecast the character of each group within a few short minutes together.  Our group from First Lutheran was all at the church on-time and no one had forgotten their passports or anything else critical for the trip.

Within a few minutes aboard the shuttle they were all engaged in conversation, laughing and getting to know each other. They were all excited about the details of the trip being posted on a blog so that they could share the trip with friends and relatives.

Not having blogged before, I wasn't sure what I was going to write about the first day.  Then it happened. I noticed one of the tour participants had spilled her coffee on the bus seat and was busy wiping it up.  I grabbed a few more paper towels from the driver and I offered to wipe her behind.  Well, not literally - but I did offer to help her dry her slacks.  Just like on Dragnet - the names have been changed to protect the innocent. (but her initials were B.R.!)

We arrived in MSP and met 8 more of the group, including travelers from South Dakota and California.  Check-in was a snap and everyone boarded the flight for an on-time departure to NYC.

It was a beautiful day in NYC so we had great views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan as we arrived at JFK.  Since our connecting flight was also on Delta, we didn't have to change terminals at JFK, but it still was a bit of a walk. It felt good to stretch one's legs after sitting for most of the day.

As you walk through the terminal it is obvious that you are in an international city.  People of all races and cultures were sharing the terminal.  We even had 2 people from Boston, relatives of one of the tour members, join our group here.  We were relieved to find them waiting us at the gate.

One of our group members (M.S) had never been to New York before and thought she really need to say that she had "had a Cosmo in NYC" so she and Terri found an establishment just a few steps away from the gate. I told them to be back at the gate at 615 PM.

About 645 the gate agent was announcing "Last Call"  Apparently these bar patrons heard this and misunderstood the announcement, because it was still a while before they showed up for checkin.

Actually, I am just kidding. They did show up on time and all were on board for our trip across the Atlantic.  A good conclusion to day 1 of our Excellent Adventure.