Last Beer in the States and Out Like a Scout

My friends Aaron, Sean and Dan took me out for some beers the night before I left at Gordon Biersch in Rockville, MD. It is a pretty good brewpub.

My flight left at 5:00 PM on Saturday, June 2. It was an uneventful 15 hour flight with the exception of some turbulence over Angola very early in the morning that had me a little green in the gills. As the morning sun rose, I gazed out the window as we crossed the border into Botswana. I saw a fairly substantial river below me ( have to consult an atlas to find out which one) and I noticed that all the man-made features I could see on the ground below were along this river. The entire rest of the landscape was devoid of any signs of human habitation with the exception of the occasional dirt road winding off into the middle of nowhere. Almost as soon as we crossed the northwestern border of South Africa I could see freeways, buildings, houses and farms. It looked much like flying over the midwestern United States. I must admit that I was a little uneasy when we were in African airspace due to its reputation as the most dangerous airspace in the world. This is usually attributed to the lack of training and competence of African Air Traffic Controllers. I will suspend judgement.

After getting off my plane I had to wait about 40 minutes in line for Passport Control. There was only one window open due to a general government employees strike that is currently going on in South Africa. Evidently they want a 12% raise because of inflation and the government has only offered them 6%. Hopefully it will all be resolved soon. I had a joyful reunion with Susan on the other side of Customs, and we found out where to go to pick up the dog. When we got to the SAA cargo facility the dog was there but they were unwilling to release her to our custody until the State Vet signed off on the paperwork. Unfortunately, he was not answering his phone. After waiting around for about an hour and calling him about 20 times on his cell phone we were finally able to get in touch with him and get Sophie released to our custody.

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