Coming Home

It is a wonderful thing to get an opportunity to travel halfway around the world and experience things you would never get to experience if you stayed home. But part of the price you pay for such an adventure is the odyssey of getting back home. In our case, the odyssey took a total of 33 hours for us to get from the door of our Bed and Breakfast to our own doorstep in Overland Park. We were on three different flights, the longest one lasting 18 hours from Johannesburg to D.C., with a middle of the night stop in Dakar for refueling. Some of our fellow passengers managed to sleep through much of the flight, but Clif and I spent most of that time trying to find a comfortable position where we could snooze for a while.

The only snafu came when had to go through customs in the D.C. airport. We had to pick up our luggage and carry it with us through customs (after waiting for 45 minutes to actually get from the plane to the airport, but that's another story). The customs official asked us the usual questions about whether we had any plants, seeds or fruit with us. We said "no." Then she asked if we had any biltong - a kind of African jerky. I said "yes, two small packages." I had bought some ostrich and kudu biltong as a gift for my son Rob, after being assured that I could bring it in the US. The customs official told me I would have to surrender the biltong, which meant digging through my suitcase, with all my dirty clothes, in the middle of the customs area. The official thanked us for understanding, and told us that if we hadn't claimed the biltong and a search of our bag had uncovered it, we would have had to pay a $300 fine. So, to any of you reading this who are planning to go to Africa and buy souvenirs, don't get any biltong, or at least eat it while you're in Africa.

I realize these thoughts aren't very deep and profound, but the lack of sleep has left me with only enough brain cells to pass along this helpful biltong tip. I will write more tomorrow and post some more pictures after I've had a good night's sleep.