Where in the world are Duane and Gayle?: My Bags are packed, it's time to go!

There is a quote "that most people spend more time planning their one-week vacation then they do their lives" and this is true and most of that time is spent deciding how to get all the stuff in the two suitcases that can't go over 50 lbs! Well, a few attempts, some good advice, it's done!

There has been lots of planning into this life change and it's all coming into place. We rented the house and next week Duane will move out and stay in a friends house and Grady will move into his first apartment and begin college. House is almost empty, final touches being done and I'm headed to the airport. The morning of my departure I told Duane, I'm not leaving you, we just have different departure dates! Looking forward to the day I pick him up at the airport and bring him to our new home!

E-Tickets in hand and I was off from Tucson to Houston - a two hour flight and 935 miles, not too bad. A short two hour lay over went fast as all the teachers coming from the Houston area put yellow bandanas on our luggage so we could identify each other. We met in the cafe near our gate - in total 15 teachers! This was our plane with 43 rows, ten seats per row with two aisles dividing the middle section and six bathrooms.

The next leg of the trip was Houton to Doha, Qatar - almost 17 hours of flying and 8060 miles, we exit the plane and go through Immigration to get to our next flight Doha, Qatar to Abu Dhabi. We had to wait about an hour to board for the short 55 minute flight, a total of 190 miles.

All in total from Tucson to Abu Dhabi was a travel time of 23 hours, with a flying time of 20 hours, over 9000 miles! The time truly did go fast: chatting with new friends, watching movies, four in total on my own personal screen and three meals. The Qatar crew was excellent, so friendly and provided outstanding professional service.