Wake up at about 10:00 Saturday morning in Cape Town (so that's about 2:00 am Texas time). Braii, during which Graham (I have been spelling at wrong throughout) brings out successively better bottles of wine. From the braii, run home to pack a bit, then out for one last night on the town pub crawl. A good time was had by all. I think. get home well after midnight, finish packing. Sleep beckons . . .
But then 3:00 rolls around, kickoff for the Pats' game back in the States, and Rob is texting every two minutes. Last text comes at 6:30 (Let's just say that I am in a sense happy that the Pats beat themselves with turnovers, as I would have been apoplectic if they had lost and we could have pinpointed those two wretchedly bad calls that went against the Patriots -- a phantom pass interference and then Bailey's showboating which should have given us the ball on the 20 after the touchback) and a half hour later Doug wakes me up to get ready to go to the airport.
Plane to Joburg leaves at 9:50. Then I have a mere 12 hours to kill in the international departures wing of the Joburg airport, six of which I have to spend on the pre-ticketing side, as Dutch-KLM does not even open for service until 6:30. The flight to Amsterdam is more than eleven hours, but at least I have an exit row seat. Next to a giant Canadian who looks a lot like my friend ken if ken had a thyroid problem. When we get to the Netherlands I have 50 minutes to catch my flight to Houston, and I get to wonder if my luggage will make it on to the plane. No exit row seats this time. Not good times. Ten hours of not good times.
Get to Houston, have five hours to kill. By this time I smell like walrus crotch. Fly through passport control and customs. Get to gate. Bored stiff. Finally board plane. Wait on runway for two-and-a-half hours. Mechanical problems. Then weather problems. then more mechanical problems. I get annoyed.
Get to Midland two-plus hours late. Trip lasted almost 48 hours, I had been awake for more than 60 hours straight (I cannot sleep sitting up, so I cannot sleep on planes). Luggage arrives. Life is good.
Finally crashed at midnight. By 6:50 I am wide awake. Am back on campus, swamped. Too tired to write anything coherent. Trip was great. Africa good.
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