I take it back... this was the longest ride of my life!

Just in case you are wondering we have made it to Ashton. In this post I'll tell you of all of our travels from Africa to Ashton. We stayed in Rome for 3 days but I'll post about that later. As for the now Longest ride of my life....

Last Tuesday we woke up expecting to get our last few things packed before boarding the small airplane that was to take us from the farm up to Addis. My mom and our little family were to leaveo on the 16th while my dad was to stay and go on the 17th just in time to fly to Italy on the 18th. I know cutting it close...Well, as my parents know too well things don't ever go the way you expect or plan. We were informed via email that there was no plane coming, it was broken down in another country and wasn't going to be able to make it that day. That plane was not just to take us to Addis but to also bring down a bunch of head hanchos from Addis down to the farm to visit with my dad and find out how things were going before he had to head back to the states. Things weren't looking good so we had to make alternate plans to drive (yes DRIVE!) back to Addis. We were not happy campers considering the last 17 hour drive. We knew we didn't have to fly out until  the 18th but still we had to get going. So we packed everything up even Nati was coming with us. He has decided to quit working on the farm because of changes on living locations. (long story) anyway he was coming with us so we all had to scrunch ingo our land cruiser. 6 adults and two toddlers, and our luggage strapped up on top.

This collage shows the terrain we drive through from the farm to Ginir. Very dusty, lots of thorny bushes, trees with beehives, tall termite mounds and very African looking trees.  The road was very bumpy and we had to weave in and out of people, donkeys, cattle and trenches. Our driver insisted on going about 90 miles an hour through it all and I even got sick. I was very relieved once we got to Ginir.

 In Ginir we had lunch, charcoal tibbs and bread! Yummy! I mean it too! They were really good and they give them to you on this cool charcoal pot thing. ??? Delicious, Notice the restaurant conditions, VERY Ethiopian! That picture in the middle was the side of beef from which our tibbs were cut. Yum yum yum, Deliciouso!

Just before making it to Goba which was to be our place to stay for the night we got a call from someone up in the head office in Addis. They informed us that had we waited at the farm for another 15 minutes we would have known there WAS going to be a plane coming to the farm and we could have ridden it back. Talk about frustrating! We were a little peeved, especially when we realized where we would be staying for the night. Kind of shady to say the least. Oh well it was only about 5 bucks a night (60 birr). This was the best place in town if you can believe it.

The next morning we woke up early because we knew we had a long drive ahead of us. We made it pretty far but then got a flat tire.... and then another one. We had to turn back to the closest town to get our tires fixed. You don't dare go through Ethiopia with out at least two spares.

 I don't remember the name of the town but we were there for about an hour waiting. My mom wandered down the street and came across a town market.

It was full of lots of things to buy. Pots, mattresses, butter, honey, whole chickens, garlic and there were a ton of donkeys parked like cars right in the middle. I bought a small black pitcher made from the clay they have locally. It cost about 30 cents.

Once we got back from the market the tires still weren't fixed yet so Nati decided to have us go to a small shack/shop to get some juice and cookies.

Eventually we made it back to Addis, it was about 6 pm and when we got to the guest houses the head hanchos were already back from the farm. They had gone and come back well within the time it took for us to go one way. Kind of frustrating but we knew we were leaving the next morning. Nati was there and so was Seid he had been in Addis trying to work on getting his passport. It was good to visit with them before leaving the next day.

We had to wake up early to get to the Ethiopian Airport and we made it just fine except that Nati and Seid had to pay to come up and say goodbye. I swear they make you pay for everything, I know it's not that much in relation to US dollars but it's just the whole idea of making everybody pay for everything even when you don't ask for it. Speaking of, while going through security two guys jumped in and tried to help us load our luggage and push it around on the trolleys, once we got where we were going they asked for money. We didn't even need them to help plus they ended up loading a backpack that didn't belong to us on our cart and we didn't even notice until we were about to board the plane. AHH! We gave the backpack to the airline people hopefully they got it to the owner, it had a laptop in it and everything.

The flight to Rome was somewhat uneventful and like I said I'll post more about our second trip to Rome later. So yesterday morning we woke up at 4 am loaded the shuttle and then got on the plane to go to Paris. That was only a two hour flight and we barely had enough to get our passports stamped and to through security in the Paris Airport before loading the plane from Paris to Salt Lake City, an 11 hour flight. That was a doozy! Talk about a long flight, the girls were good at first but then they started getting really irritable and so did the rest of us. They had to get after the girls for wandering up and down the aisles  because they were worried they were going to wake people up. I understand but I knew that if I tried to restrain Lily she would scream like a banshee which would for sure wake everyone up. At 2 pm we made it to SLC, we then had to wait a couple of hours for the plane to IF. That flight was only 45 minutes which was good, even though the whole time I had nervous legs but was so tired I could hardly think straight. The girls did sleep which was good. We flew into a very windy, cold snowy Idaho. We jumped in the pickup that had been waiting there at the airport, went to Walmart to pick up a few groceries and headed home. Grandpa Baum, Kristine and Kent had all called to warn us about the bad weather in Ashton but we thought for sure we could still make it with the pickups even though all the roads were closed. We tried every route we could think of but still no luck, even though we were only about a mile away from the farm we had to turn around and head to the Ashton Inn. Which is where we are now, awake, dealing with Jet Lag and trying to figure out what to do if the roads don't get cleared, which looks to be the case so far because the school is closed and that's a sign that they haven't cleared the roads. So close and yet so far away!!! AHHHH!!!!

I feel like I'm in the movie "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" Minus Andrew and Dad sleeping together in the same bed, :) but we are just trying to get home for Thanksgiving for Pete's sake. If the weather does not improve we may have to have Thanksgiving downstairs in the lobby with all the other locals snowed out of their homes. ;)

So there you have it, the longest ride of my life, Africa to Ashton, and still not home.