Europe or Bust!

I wrote this yesterday throughout the day but was unable to connect until now. Enjoy!

We are finally taking off! The process was a little frantic, to say the least. First of all, I was supposed to bring a splitter for my pda headphone jack so Wendy could listen with me. I completely forgot, so we made a quick run to Walmart last night to pick one up. No problem, right? Then we were packing our last minute odds and ends when Wendy held up the splitter and started laughing. I think her exact words were, "I don't have any headphones." I looked at her with a "you're kidding, right?" look on my face...but she wasn't. So we decided we would pick some up on th way to the airport if we had time. We went to bed around 11:30, although we had both said we would be in bed early.

Three AM came quite early today. After showering and quizzing each other for the 37th time about having everything we needed, we made our way to the airport. We decided to hold off on the headphones until we got to Chicago. Once at the airport, I have to admit...there were some tears. Seventeen days is the longest I have been away from Keith since we started dating over 5 years ago. No matter how excited I am to do go to Europe, I will still miss him very much. Poor Wendy and Kyle will not see each other for 21 days! Kyle will be in Burns Flat doing driving training for the NPD Academy for the week after Wendy and I return.

Once checked in and through security (where I was scolded for not having my sunscreen in a plastic bag), we made our first international call. We had to confirm our reservations with the hostel in London. The chap on the end of the line was quite chipper and hummed as he confirmed our reservations. Of course, it was almost noon in London. He gave me directions to the hostel (which we already have), but due to his absolutely perfect English accent, I only caught a few words such as "tube" and "Bakerloo Line."

Well, we are now in Chicago about to board our flight. By 4:30 CST we will be in London! Yipee!!!

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I was unable to send this in Chicago...almost missed our flight trying to! We are safe in London and turning in for the night. It is 1:30 am here...7:3Opm in ok! But we are very tired. More to come tomorrow.