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Africa visit with Eric & SusanAfrica visit with Eric & Susan
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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 Read more
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  • TravelerAfrica visit with Eric & Susan
    Day 14

    Back Home

    June 9, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 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.    Read more

  • TravelerAfrica visit with Eric & Susan
    Day 13

    Nearly Home

    June 8, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Read more

  • TravelerAfrica visit with Eric & Susan
    Day 12

    Long Travel Day

    June 7, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 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!    Read more

  • TravelerAfrica visit with Eric & Susan
    Day 11

    Last day in South Africa

    June 6, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 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.    Read more

  • TravelerAfrica visit with Eric & Susan
    Day 10

    Lunch at Terbodore Coffee Roaster

    June 5, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 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!    Read more

  • TravelerAfrica visit with Eric & Susan
    Day 9

    2 Churches, Old Friends, and Picnic

    June 4, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 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.    Read more

  • TravelerAfrica visit with Eric & Susan
    Day 8

    With Eric and Susan

    June 3, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F

    We met Friday night at the huge Pavilion Mall in Durban. We had a delicious meal getting caught up on what’s happened. We told stories about our being brought up in the Methodist church and the switch over to Northwest. And the old high school youth group trips, old friends and old times.

    We drove in 2 cars through the curvey roads up towards Pietermaritzburg And eventually the Union Bible Institute campus in Hilton.

    We are staying in a guest house.Friday night we slept under 2 blankets. No heat.

    Saturday morning, we left at 8 to go to outdoor market and then we walked thru the botanical gardens. We’re south of the Ecuador, so it’s winter here, the trees are turning. Susan stayed back to fight her cold.

    Then a tour of the town. We stopped at the old train station that has a history story of Gahdi. Then we ran several errands with Eric and also drove up to a resort near-by.

    I took a 3 hour nap and we joined Eric, Susan and adult daughter Stephanie, David and 2 grandchildren Brad and Ira for dinner. We celebrated Eric’s 66th    Read more

  • TravelerAfrica visit with Eric & Susan
    Day 7

    Day 3 Safari heading to Hippo

    June 2, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 55 °F

    On our way to see the Hippopotamus, we saw Lion, Giraffes, Zebras and Elephants!

    As we drove along the national park road, we came across some droppings and then the buffalo (that looked like water buffalo) were asking skittish and nervously looking around. Then Paul heard the Babboons screeching/yelling through the jungle, sending out warning signals to the rest of the animals that the lions were near by.

    Our tour guide, Paul looked over his shoulder back and forth then turned into the day-time picnic area and there were 3 lions, about 3-4 years old. They were casually strolling through the picnic area sniffing the bar-b-que pits. We understand that these 3 lions are brothers.

    There is another pride of lions over several tolling hills away. Again I need to watch the Lion King movie again.

    We took a 2 hour boat ride thru the estuary and spotted H.u.g.e. hippopotamus several times. We saw crocodiles and several South African bald eagles.

    Now we are headed to the “largest mall in the Southern hemisphere in 1982” to meet up with Eric and Susan.

    We’ve had some cell phone chip problems but we got all sorted out at the rest stop/potty stop and to purchase a “wimpy hamburger”

    We’ve had Paul as our tour guide for the past 3 days. And now for a 4 day visit with Eric and Susan. We’ve know them for 45 years as Eric was in Northwest Bible Church with me back in the 1970’s. Glenn and I took mom and dad down to Austin along with baby Ellen for their wedding.    Read more

  • TravelerAfrica visit with Eric & Susan
    Day 6

    Day 2 part 3

    June 1, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    After a good 1.5 hour nap, we journeyed back into the Hiace van to spot more animals.

    Glenn and Paul ate lunch while I slept. We were driving for another 2 hours before it got dark. We saw a beautiful sunset.

    The day was perfect!    Read more

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