Africa visit with Eric & Susan

mayo - junio 2023

With the $2,000.00 voucher we received from United Airlines last year for being bumped off of our flight to Panama, I decided to use it for a big trip to see Eric and Susan. Eric was in the same youth group as me at Northwest Bible Church in HS Leer más

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Viajero Africa visit with Eric & Susan
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- 4 jun. 2023 10:41
- ☁️ 63 °F
- Altitud: 640 m
- Sudáfrica Province of KwaZulu-Natal The Msunduzi Pietermaritzburg -29.627842, 30.3893829°37’40” S 30°23’22” E
Día 9
2 Churches, Old Friends, and Picnic
4 de junio de 2023, Sudáfrica ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F
We attended the English speaking church in town as the choir from UBI was singing 3 songs. Susan was the choir director. They did a great job.

While visiting afterwards, I ran into Dan Genheimer. He was a classmate of mine from Moody.

The story goes, Dan’s mother and Ramona Schroeder were classmates at Wheaton and when Dan started attending Moody, he would frequently go and visit the Schroeder’s at Foster Ave Baptist Church and that’s where I attended while going to MBI.

Another story is that we ran into him like during Gary’s 3rd year at Moody when Dan brought their son to attend John Brown University.

Small World … Big Family

Then we drove over to the Binion’s Sulu church. I didn’t understand a thing except when they interjected a few English words here and there.

We drove to a park and joined Stephanie and David and kids for a pizza picnic. There was a miniature train we all rode.

We finished the evening with a FaceTime call to dad and then to Mark Hopper (our old youth director) from way back in the 70’s.

Eric and Susan had a Skype call with their kids. Then we taught them the game “Left, Center, Right”, a game we played on the cruise ship during Sea Days.

While playing the game, we shared some hard times, good times and funny times while being a missionary. We enjoyed sharing.Leer más
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Viajero Africa visit with Eric & Susan
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- 5 jun. 2023 11:44
- ☀️ 61 °F
- Altitud: 1.129 m
- Sudáfrica Province of KwaZulu-Natal uMngeni Spitzkop -29.36407, 30.22493529°21’51” S 30°13’30” E
Día 10
Howick and Karkloof Falls
5 de junio de 2023, Sudáfrica ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F
After breakfast Glenn and I ventured out Howick to see the falls. Beautiful.

Then on to Karkloof Falls.

Think LEFT as we (Glenn) drive the Binion’s borrowed Toyota.
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Viajero Africa visit with Eric & Susan
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- 5 jun. 2023 13:54
- ☀️ 61 °F
- Altitud: 1.380 m
- Sudáfrica Province of KwaZulu-Natal uMngeni Curry’s Post -29.358112, 30.13973229°21’29” S 30°8’23” E
Día 10
Lunch at Terbodore Coffee Roaster
5 de junio de 2023, Sudáfrica ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F
We had a lovely drive through the rolling hills and stopped here at Terbodore coffee roasters. Nice gardens.

There’s a lot of English influence-tea houses, etc

I ate chicken pot pie. Glenn enjoyed chicken pasta.

The cheese cake and carrots cake was delicious. We bought an extra one to bring to Eric and Susan!Leer más
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Viajero Africa visit with Eric & Susan
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- 6 jun. 2023 20:38
- 🌙 55 °F
- Altitud: 1.107 m
- Sudáfrica Province of KwaZulu-Natal The Msunduzi Sweet Waters -29.600138, 30.28695529°36’0” S 30°17’13” E
Día 11
Last day in South Africa
6 de junio de 2023, Sudáfrica ⋅ 🌙 55 °F
I must have been tired as I slept in til 8:45. Glenn was up and about.

We drove to the shopping center about 3km away for breakfast. We ate at a restaurant much like Panera bread. I had waffles and Glenn had scrambled eggs. Then we went to Spur, the local grocery store, as I wanted to see if they had any more TimmTamm cookies that we liked in Australia. Nope. But I got some other cookies.

We made it back to UBI just in time for Glenn to grill the chicken for the cookout.

The past 2 days Eric and Susan participated in a strategic planning meetings with the leadership and board members of Union Bible Institute. And so at the end, they had a cook out. Everyone (20) came over to the guest house where we were staying and we enjoyed the late lunch in the dinning room.

I met Ben Barthelemy who graduated from Moody in 2008 along with Thomas. I also found out that he’s related to Tammy’s husband. Small world…Big Family.

I had my 3:00pm zoom call with the Azmera group that meets weekly at 8:00amTyler time. It was a very good zoom call about gratitude.

Glenn and I played Phase10, then we played with Susan as Eric read my Coast to Coast bicycle book.

We had to cancel our monthly zoom call with the Guatemala field because of roaming blackout.

Early morning pick up for our ride to Durban airport.Leer más
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Viajero Africa visit with Eric & Susan
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- 7 jun. 2023 18:49
- 🌙 59 °F
- Altitud: 1.706 m
- Sudáfrica Gauteng Ekurhuleni Rhodesfield O.R. Tambo International Airport -26.132484, 28.23286126°7’57” S 28°13’58” E
Día 12
Long Travel Day
7 de junio de 2023, Sudáfrica ⋅ 🌙 59 °F
Woke up at 4:30am with Eric and Susan walked us down to get our ”Uber” to the UBI gate.

Travis drove us to Tambo Airport. It was dark, however the 1:15 drive to the airport, was the deepest orange and yellow colors of the sunrise. Travis did drive kinda fast, but 120km is only 74mph. There were lots of semi trucks on the road.

Once we got to the airport, we ate bfast at Mug and Bean. Glenn had an omelet and I had a corn fritter. Pretty good.

When we arrived at the gate fir the 11am departure, we learned it was delayed til 2pm. We found a plug-in for our iPhones at the Wimpy” hamburger place and we ordered French fries.

As we were boarding the flight we struck up a conversation with a fellow heading to Joburg and then on to NJ and Dallas. He’s on the Premium plus cabin.

Once arriving in Joburg, we ate at Hondo’s (a restaurant recommended by our safari guide). It was good, but the flavor was pretty hot.

We did walk to the airport observation desk just as the sun was setting.

We enjoyed our mandatory Magnum ice real and I did some last minute souvenir shopping.

Our United flight is operating 2 hours late, now departing at 9:30pm

Boarding!Leer más
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Viajero Africa visit with Eric & Susan
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- 8 jun. 2023 13:14
- ⛅ 72 °F
- Altitud: 18 m
- Estados Unidos New Jersey Essex County Oak Island Junction Newark Liberty International Airport 40.698269, -74.17887940°41’54” N 74°10’44” W
Día 13
Nearly Home
8 de junio de 2023, Estados Unidos ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F
We had a 16 hour flight on UA. We sat at the back of the plane.
Man, was it a long flight.

It took us an hour to get out of customs and immigration and then an hour to go through security check.

We enjoyed the “free” yearly United Club pass. We took a shower to refresh then we enjoyed late breakfast and lunch in the Club.

You can really tell how NYC is suffering from the blowing wild fires from Canada.

We’ll see mom and dad tomorrow after our 2 zoom calls, then we’ll drive back to Tyler.Leer más
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Viajero Africa visit with Eric & Susan
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- 9 jun. 2023
- ☀️ 90 °F
- Altitud: 190 m
- Estados Unidos Texas Smith County Elberta West Mud Creek Lake 32.286091, -95.28323432°17’10” N 95°16’60” W
Día 14
Back Home
9 de junio de 2023, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 90 °F
Before we checked out of the hotel, we had 2 Zoom calls. I had my weekly call with my Bolivia friends - Virginia and Linda. Beverly showed up late. Then our Member Care Zoom call with folks from Spain, Canada and US. We said goodbye to Bill and Jenn as they have a new job at their church. They were great with the missionary kids!

Today, we visited M/D. We got there at 11am and dad was waiting for us. The volunteers from Deloitte were doing the gardening stuff. And dad had already met up with Sally Sanford earlier in the morning and showed her his apartment but also wanted her to see mom.

Glenn and I walked across to Peak to find Sally. She in turn walked back with us and greeted mom as she ate lunch. Mom asked the normal questions ie where do you live, do you have a boyfriend and are you looking for a boyfriend? Laugh.

Dad showed Sally her room and said “you can tell that Beverly and Sherrie have been here” regarding decorating.

Dad had no complaints about the ice cream we brought to him. Blue Bell Dr Pepper float!

We also met the home health nurse…she said wounds look good.

She said “your dad is a social butterfly. Or like the mayor here.😅

We drove on home. We were pleased to see the new flooring looked so good. Nice job. Most of the furniture was put back correctly.

I left to run some errands so Glenn could put the bed together. We met at Panda Express for dinner. Then we both fell asleep while watching Jeopardy.Leer más
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