The Flores Journey

We boarded our flight from Phoenix on May 30, 2010 at noon. We had packed most of our belongings into 5 large suitcases which we were going to check. We also had Peyton’s stroller and car seat in which Peyton was fast asleep. My dad dropped us off at the airport and I ran inside to search for some sort of cart to help transport all of our items. We also had our laptops, two backpacks and Peyton’s diaper bag. I was able to find a lone flatbed that was parked against one of the elevators. I brought it back to our mound of suitcases and began to load them up. We finally got everything loaded and I’m sure we looked like a couple of mules hauling everything to get the bags checked. I had taken a gamble and not insured the bags to cut back on costs. It was definitely a gamble as this was all of our life’s possessions that we could fit into the suitcases. We covered the bags with prayer, knowing that God knew what we really needed anyways.
We got to our plane without incident and boarded our 2 hour flight to Dallas. From Dallas we flew to Washington Dulles where we spent the night at a hotel there. We had to pick up our bags and haul them to the hotel via shuttle. It was about 10:00 in the evening when we arrived at Washington Dulles. One of the men who worked for the airport saw that we had a mound of luggage and offered to help us figure out where we were going. I told him the name of the hotel and he helped us get to the place where the shuttles came to pick people up. It was very dark outside on the street as we waited for the shuttle. We gave the man a tip for helping us and he said he would wait with us until our ride arrived. Claire and I were a bit on edge because it was very dark and we had all of our luggage on the side of the street. There were several other people in the shadows and I was very happy when the shuttle did show up. We got to our hotel and settled in for a very restful sleep.
Our alarm went off at 5:00 in the morning and we sprang into action. We fed Peyton some breakfast and poured ourselves two cups of coffee. We had showered the night before and were very excited for the day. We had to recheck our bags at the airport, but this time they would be able to go all the way to Cape Town, South Africa. The previous day we couldn’t check the bags all the way to South Africa because according to airport policy, they can’t have bags sitting at an airport overnight…. Because of this, we had to spend quite a bit extra for checking the bags. We spent 200.00 for our bags from Arizona to Washington Dulles. From Washington Dulles to South Africa the cost was 400.00. In total we spent 600.00 to get all of our stuff to South Africa. We had received an email the day before from Andy and Leigh, our teammates on this adventure, that someone they knew had offered them money for bags. Because they were set they referred them to us. So this individual decided to send us the hundred dollars that they were going to send Andy and Leigh. We are so grateful. God is good!
We boarded our flight from Washington Dulles to New York which took about an hour and a half. We had a couple hours at New York and finally boarded our SA flight nonstop to Johannesburg, South Africa. We were very happy to see that on this flight, there were small television’s mounted to the back of the seats in front of us. On this very long flight, Peyton slept for several hours but she definitely got a bit restless. I can’t blame here she was stuck on our laps for 14 hours and she didn’t know why. Claire changed all the diapers in the plane’s small bathroom. I have an amazing wife. (Please readers, don’t stone me for not changing any of the diapers.) Our seat partner was a young German girl who was very friendly with Peyton and understanding. There was one point that this German girl was sound asleep and Peyton was wide awake. Peyton was sitting in Claire’s arms and was determined to reach out and touch the girls face. With a coo, Peyton squirmed and lunged at the girl almost waking her up. Claire quickly grabbed Peyton and handed her off to me. Claire and I took turns taking walks with Peyton to the back of the airplane and fetching her apple juice. I’m not sure why but she drank more apple juice on that flight than she has in a week. Her diapers were loaded to the max and we were afraid that we might run out. I don’t know if it was boredom or what. We did offer her drinks a lot because she would get a little fussy and apple juice helped to settle her down.
Claire and I were able to catch some sleep while Peyton slept. I personally got two solid hours of sleep, but really didn’t feel like I was too exhausted when we arrived in SA. I remember thinking to myself how good I felt even though I had barely slept. I could just hear the prayers of my parents and friends. “Lord please keep Bryan and Claire alert as they travel, especially when they have to drive from the airport to their home in after such a long three days of travel.” Thank you very much!
We arrived at Johannesburg and had a couple hours until our next flight which would take us to Cape Town. We were directed by someone to a certain gate and began to wait for the flight. I sat real close to the gate not wanting to miss the flight at all. We were sitting with three other people who were also making the flight to Cape Town. Claire was in the bathroom freshening up and one of the girls commented, that she thought she heard our flight for a different gate. I shrugged it off and said that the screen showed us departing from this gate. When Claire came out I walked over to the woman who was standing at the gate next to us and she informed us that the flight was already boarding but at a different gate. We all hurried to that gate and were the last to board. I hate walking on to a plane as everyone is sitting staring at us with accusing eyes for holding up their plane. Praise the Lord that we didn’t miss that flight. That would have been horrible.
(Bryan)