Journey's End

Dave didn't want to end this journey with a picture of the A-Team (see post below). Neither did I. I'd much rather end it with the picture above of Harrison and his daughter. There's something about the look of deep satisfaction on his face that captures for me the sense of fulfillment I felt on the successful completion of (our part of) this project.

Of course, since we're Oak Ridgers, we couldn't return from Belize without an incident of some sort. Let me recap:
- In 2005, we were almost routed to Honduras due to the lack of a fuel truck to refuel our plane;
- In 2007, Chuck and Dale...
- In 2008, there wasn't enough fuel in Belize, so each of our several flights had to stop somewhere (Cancun, Cozumel) to refuel;
- In February of this year our flight was canceled and we were rerouted from Atlanta to Charlotte where we rented a car and promptly ran into a snowstorm.

This time around we figured there was little chance of a snowstorm. Indeed, our flight from Belize to Miami proceeded without incident. Instead, the flight from Miami was delayed due to bad weather (including tornadoes) in Charlotte. When we finally boarded a half hour late, we were put on ground hold due to weather in Charlotte, then we needed an extra 800 lbs of fuel in case we had to divert to another airport, then we needed 4 volunteers to deplane to compensate for the extra fuel. Good thing there was only 3 of us! They trundled out the fuel truck, only to discover a broken fitting. They brought it back and swapped for another fuel truck and finally got us in the air only an hour and 45 minutes late.

We landed in Charlotte a little after 1 AM with a 5 hour drive ahead of us. Thankfully the shuttle was quick to pick us up and return us to the Best Western where we had left the van over a week earlier. Dave and I searched for classic rock stations to keep us awake as we drove through the fog and the drizzle and the mountains.

We rolled into Oak Ridge in time to greet a cloudy sunrise, tired and satisfied and wondering where the next step in this fascinating and unpredictable journey might lead.
- dan