July 3
Time is flying past. When I started this blog theme we had nine months to go to the conference. It's now eight.
The exciting news is that Twila, Cec Murphey's assistant, has managed to finalise my bookings in conjunction with a S.African travel agent, Sandy Hume. Marion Ueckermann, my friend who is coming with me, has also confirmed her bookings, so we're on our way. Now all we need to do is book for the conference!
The bookings haven't opened yet, but here we are with our air tickets! The prices are set to rise hence our early purchases. In fact, the cheapest set of seats on our flights were already sold out -- nine months in advance.
I fly from Port Elizabeth to Jo'burg on Saturday 27th February.
There I'll spend the night with my brother and family. This achieves three things:
- It gives me quality time with Al and Denise and boys - something that happens rarely.
- It lets me spend time with David (my youngest son) and family in the comfort of Al's home the following day and saves me from trying to enjoy the little ones within the confines of a busy airport.
- It means I will start the trip fresh! We only fly out at 9 p.m. so if I'd come direct from P.E. then spent time with David, Pam and the kids at the airport, I would have been exhausted before we even boarded the plane.
Marion will meet up with me at the airport late afternoon and we'll set off on our amazing trip to Florida.
Johannesburg to Atlanta takes 16 hours 15 minutes actual flying time. (I trust the plane has a real big fuel tank!)
After going through immigration, we then have a few hours at the Atlanta airport, prior to boarding a plane to Orlando.
At that point, a new cyber friend, Glenda, has offered to meet our plane and take us to the hotel or B & B which we've yet to find. We'll have to nights to sleep, eat and sleep some more to try and recover from jetlag and get into the American time frame.
Another new friend, Clella, has written about our trip on her Kindred Heart Writers' Blog, a group that came into being as a result of the Florida Christian Writers' Conference.
We plan to move to the conference center on 3rd March so that we are well settled before the conference begins on Thursday.
The return trip will follow a similar pattern. We'll stay overnight in Orlando, then fly to Atlanta on Monday. We catch our connecting flight on Monday evening (i.e. 2 p.m. S.A. time) and arrive back in Johannesburg around 5 p.m. Tuesday. Man, that's a long flight!
Because of the late arrival I have chosen to stay over with Al and Denise once again, then will fly home to Rob in P.E. on Wednesday 10th.
I'm slowly getting organised for the conference . . . and in the process have discovered an area of total chaos. Read more.
