JFK to Athens.....rather, JFK to JFK!

Flying into JFK late afternoon on the 9th was really quite effortless, one transfer and we were here before we knew it. Larry had upgraded our seats, so we were in a great location with lots of leg room. After a quiet night - decided against going into the city this visit, conserving energy and getting a good night's rest after watching ET on the classic movie channel, we sank into a deep travel-fatigue- and fresh-headcold-induced sleep!

Up and out in a timely manner this morning - arriving at the airport about an hour before check in. After exchanging pleasantries with other travelers, we spied Dr. Currid ambling along in front of the Olympia desk. A somewhat frustrated look on his face, his eyes met ours and he came over to Larry and me, with the news that he understood that we had "a bit of trouble..." Turns out that he wasn't talking about my fresh cold :), but the fact that our flight was delayed about three hours - instead of leaving at 4:30, we would be taking off at 7:20! We had just been told by a West Virginian grandmom traveling with her grown granddaughter from Connecticut, that Olympian had held a 24-hour strike yesterday! And, now a delay - hmmmm. Dr. Currid said he wasn't surprised - that the Greeks were quite adept at strikes! We agreed it would just give us a headstart on the memories!

 Visiting over lunch with Dr. Currid, we began the stuff of building a relationship on many levels - teacher/student; prof/prof; pastor/"parishioner"; fellow traveler and friend/friend. Among the stream of people flowing by our table, we met the first two of our trip co-travelers - an RTS student and her friend. Dr. Currid kept a look out for others, cruising around the terminal - the Dunns were the next to appear. Seems they had gone into the city yesterday and took in some of the Big Apple.

And, now, we wait. As the afternoon creeps on, we are surrounded by waves of people, many with ear attachments, speaking oh, so many different languages, hurrying to meet their flights, a high percentage scurrying along talking into the air as they "excuse me" in their various languages through the throngs of travelers; lots of people working on laptops or charging phones at Samsung posts located here and there in the terminal; Starbucks taking care of business in the way only Starbucks can!

That's all for now.

Won't be long now.....

Countdown: five days to go and we will be off to NYC for an overnight before the international flight to Athens, Greece on the 10th. From there a connecting flight will take us to modern Salonika (Thessaloniki).... and into ten days of "Ancient Pathways - Paul's Journey through Greece and the Lycian Coast" with Drs. John Currid ( the Spear's minister at Ballantyne Presbyterian in Charlotte ) and Dennis Ireland, both faculty at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC.

Continuing getting things in order to be gone for 13 days: the usual - arrange for the newspapers and mail to be held; arrange for the plants to be watered; take clothes to the cleaners and run errands to collect needed supplies. For Larry, preparations at school, including test grading and completing class work to be on line for three classes at the university. Attending an annual departmental pig pickin' tonight, we managed to hold the silly grinning down when folks asked us about our upcoming trip.

And .. must arrange to mail Elizabeth's 5th birthday present (wonder if we can place a l-o-n-g distance "Happy Birthday" singing telephone call on the 17th from our ship, Aquamarine?) before we leave.