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After the long day of safari and 4-Hour Drive, it was comforting to arrive at the Eagles View Lodge (the first place we stayed).

And the staff had saved my silver thermos!! It was great to get it back. I’m always so glad we over-tipped just for these reasons.

Since Tom was leaving in several hours he just used my room for a shower and freshing up after that dusty Safari. I ended up in the same room he originally stayed in.

I love the artwork.

HORRIBLE NEWS!!

Brian picked up Tom and took him to the airport. Tom boarded his plane and landed in Uganda for 1 hour. Never got off the plane.

HOWEVER!!! Ugandans who boarded the plane could have had Ebola. So Tom was given the choice to route himself to New York, Atlanta, or Houston.

He chose Houston and no longer needed his hotel room for the 16-hour in Istanbul lay-over. He could not get his $100 refund. Also he had to pay $600 to fly himself from Houston to San Francisco.

So this trip was pricey for us in all ways.

This panicked Jane. Because tomorrow she was flying from Kigali for an 11-hour flight. She wondered why that same plane arriving, was only 8 hours. And then it hit us! Was she also landing in and Uganda as Tom had??

Sue did some quick research and found she was stopping in Nairobi — which was not on the list for the Ebola alert.

How I know the prayers I requested from y’all were working, was that Sue and I were both scheduled to fly from Kigali to Uganda to Amsterdam. And it was nothing we did; but just weeks before our flight we were notified that flight was canceled and we were going directly from Kigali to Amsterdam. I was already scheduled for Atlanta so if the ebola interview was only 30 minutes as Tom had, I probably would have made all my flights anyway.

I feel we dodged a bullet anyway. After the long day of safari and 4-Hour Drive hell it was comforting to arrive at the Eagles View Lodge (the first place we stayed).

I have no pictures from the gorilla Golf Hotel, any airports, or the inside of any planes. Apparently I was just OVER IT!!!

Getting from the top of the mountain at the Eagles View Lodge to the airport was going to be difficult so Sue booked one room at the Gorilla Golf Hotel which had a shuttle to the airport.

I’m surprised that my theme of this trip hasn’t come up until now. But the name of the trip is titled INDECISION AND CHAOS.

We had four people with opinions and a tour guide that gave us options. Often those options lost something in translation and thus began indecision and chaos.

First I tried to Uber from the Eagles View to our new hotel. There is no Uber and I ended up downloading an app called MOVE which works like Uber. But there were no cars available when I needed it. The receptionist at the hotel was very helpful and called one of the workers who had a day off to pick us up and drop us off at the hotel.

Needless to say I’ve already deleted the MOVE app from my phone. It was useless.

We arrived at the gorilla Golf Hotel to a very surprised trio of workers who claim we had no reservation. It was hard for Sue to prove it because the confirmation was sent to her email and she wasn’t able to collect her emails for the last several days of the trip.

They finally find the reservation and state it’s for one person. Sue explains that we were all going to use one room and asked if that was okay. They were very nice and said of course.

After 20 Minutes of them screwing around they finally said, you will pay when you leave. That was interesting since Sue had already paid in full.

The woman walked over and very nicely hand us all keys with different room numbers. It turns out they had booked us into three separate rooms, which was totally wrong.

It was very difficult to explain to them that we would not be spending the night or even using the bed. I pointed to Jane and said she is getting a transfer at 4:30 today to the airport and I pointed at us and said we are getting a transfer at 10:00 tonight.

I think their minds were exploding that we would pay for a hotel room just to use for a couple hours. We finally got it straightened out but then found out the transport was 20 bucks a ride for a 2-mile trip.

At that point we were just happy we were going to be heading home.

It was worth all the indecision and chaos since we sat out on a deck, relaxed, and having drinks.

Jane got to the airport with no problems, Sue and I watched a movie on TV on my Netflix account, took a shower and put on clean clothes and we were transported to the airport.

But not before pulling up under a portico and having to leave everything we owned, including purses and passports, inside the car, dogs checked the car, mirrors were placed underneath the car. Had to go through a magnetometer and then wait till they were finished.

Apparently we passed, and we jumped into the car and got to the airport.

I had done very well in my eating to this point, but ended up eating a party-sized bag of cheese potato chips before I hit DAB Airport.

I bid Sue a fond farewell in Amsterdam and she headed to Minneapolis and I to Atlanta and then DAB.

This trip gets a rating of 13 out of 10 in that I experienced so many things I had not done before, was a physical challenge, and did not get sick on the trip.

I warn anyone planning on going to think long and hard about their physical abilities. We lucked out in the gorilla trek. Many people had to hike 2 hours up the mountain and 2 hours back just to see the gorillas.

That being said, if you think you can and it’s on your bucket list, DO IT NOW!! You are not getting any younger.

Fond memories once I reached home.

These are the pants I had on when an when the gorilla brushed by my leg.

This is the color of the Rwandan dirt and it was so embedded in my hiking boots that I had to soak them in water and then scrub brush them clean. The tennis shoes go in the laundry; but not the boots.

As an aside, the boots are laying on my garage floor. A garage floor owned by a landlord with buildings the color of white and brown. I did a lot of painting in the garage.

I am so happy I am retired and my new job is traveling!

These are the treasures I brought back from Africa.

The more often I wear the necklace the more that I’m happy I chose it.

The little wooden keychain with the name cantsbee was the gorilla I was most like. The last photo is the carving of his nose print. Every gorilla has a nose print as individual and unique as a human’s fingerprint. So cool.

It wasn’t until a day after I arrived home that I felt a scratchy throat and went through the same crap I went through after mongolia.

It involved a runny nose and sneezing but I never got sick. Was it allergies? Was it a virus? Friends had many different opinions.

13 days later, I find it must have been contagious because my dad now has it. 🙁

But if the past is any proof, he will get over it much quicker than I did.

BTW, all his bruises from falling out of his girlfriend’s bed are healed. Weeks later his girlfriend was bending over and made a faceplant; and got two black eyes and a gash on her nose. She is also is totally healed.

Because of these things, I spent an inordinate amount of time looking at my feet and the floor.

I am off to a wedding in Sioux Falls, South Dakota with my sister this Thursday.

I still received an appreciate all your prayers for my healthy traveling.:-)

Safe travels,

Linda Jeanne