So, I am at work, sitting in the breakroom, thinking about my next trip. It is June 1995 and we have recently began a codeshare with Continental Airlines, that would give us many more destination choices. I am wanting to visit Paris to see the grave of Jim Morrison, and of course all the other usual sites in Paris too! I looked in the computer system and saw that the flights to Europe were mostly full, except for this one day when they were wide open. It was on! I reserved a room at the Ibis Hotel at Orly Airport. On the morning of June 18, 1995 I flew from Las Vegas to Phoenix on America West Airlines 1229. It was a 737-200 aircraft for the hour flight to Arizona. My next trip was from Phoenix ... read more

We drove out to Cape Point this day. Wow! It was absolutely amazing to be standing at the Cape of Good Hope! It was still sunny and warm so it was a perfect day! That afternoon, we went to the Victoria and Alfred waterfront mall. We did some shopping and I also bought some CDs of some great music that we had heard down there that we had not heard back home. One was an older Kylie Minogue and the other was Lena Fiagbe. Good stuff! We had a great seafood meal at the mall and then explored the area some more. This was the last night here, so we made it a good one. Stayed out drinking a little bit.... read more

We did a morning game drive this day. We got to see two more Big 5, including rhinos and buffalo. The only Big 5 that we did not get to see was the elephant. Kind of disappointing! In the afternoon, we went to NLP airport for our flight to JNB. We were only going to pass through JNB on our way to Cape Town. The flight was an Airlink airlines Dornier 228. The crew let me sit up in the first row and let me listen in on ATC. How cool! They had told me that an American Eagle flight had crashed in Indiana and later I would find out that it was the ATR plane in Roselawn. How sad to hear..... Once at JNB, we stood by for the Comair flight to CPT. Full! Next ... read more

The next day, we were to take the same van back to JNB. We waited and it did not show. We still waited and it did not arrive. My friend called the travel agent who said they would get things straightened out. Finally, the driver was there and we were pressed for time. He knew we had to hurry and he floored that vehicle! We were waiting so long that we never did get anything to eat. We had a flight from JNB to Nelspruit(NLP) that afternoon and it was going to be close! Well, we did not make it. It was also the last flight of the day. I was not too worried, I just thought we could get some rest and try again the next day. At least we could finally get some FOOD! ... read more

That is all I heard from friends and relatives in the weeks leading up to my trip to South Africa. I heard such things as "nice knowing you" and "you will be eaten by lions or killed in a race riot" On the day I flew out, a fellow employee said "I will look for you on CNN"! The date was October 28, 1994. I was going to South Africa and I was excited! This would be only my second trip off of the North American continent. I had worked the night before until 2am, went home and got ready and went back to the airport at 5. I flew Delta 974, a 757 from LAS to SLC, and was seated in 2B. The next leg was Delta 1424, a 767-300 to JFK. Once again, I ... read more