Back Home Again in Indiana

I am writing this from the comfort of my own home this morning. It’s great to be back home! I got here last night right at the stroke of midnight. The trip home was fairly uneventful with the exception of a couple of things noted below.

We were about an hour and a half late leaving JFK, but I am guessing that’s fairly normal. Getting to New York was quite a long journey. Security was really tight in Istanbul. I arrived at the airport and immediately all of my bags were screened. Then I checked in and checked my bags. Passed passport control without incident; I picked the slow line of course. Next was the typical security clearance before heading to the gate. This is never easy with my computer and all the other stuff I carry with me, but I went through just fine. “Ah, I am finished with security!” This was the foolish thought I had.

When I arrived at gate 223 I saw that people were lined up for yet another security check. First I was quizzed about everything that I had done since I had cleared the last security check point. I made it through this first obstacle without incident. Next was the metal detector deal; off comes the belt, shoes, vest, and out comes the computer, etc. I make it through the metal detector, but they wanted me to boot up my computer. OK. It was a little inconvenient but not a problem. I thought I was finally finished. Wrong again.

Next I went to a cold steel table where I guy with gloves went through every compartment and pocket of my computer backpack and the other bag I was carrying on. This took about 5 minutes. I was very cooperative, thinking, “This is OK; just about done.” Zipped everything up and smiled at the security official. He smiled and said, “Come with me.” He said something in his Turkish tinted thick English about, “body search.” Gulp.

He led me to a private area of the gate and pointed to a door. The door opened. There stood this big burly beastly bulging Turkish man with rubber gloves. With a very slight sadistic smile he pointed my way into the room. At this point I didn’t know what was coming next! Much to my relief he gave me a pretty aggressive “frisk.” Whew! I left room and made no further eye contact with anyone.

The flight was around 11 hours. It was pretty good. I read a lot, watched a movie (August Rush - enjoyed it), listened to a bratty boy run wild and unrestrained (this was beyond typical child behavior), and enjoyed the frequent airline food (actually it was good!).

I tried to communicate with the Turkish man next to me. The only thing we managed to communicate was that the supplied cookie was good. This was done with pointing and doing “thumbs up” motions. Oh well...

It was so nice to get to Indy. My beautiful wife and four kids were all waiting for me. After a brief, sweet reunion, Lester went back to Butler, and the rest of us headed toward Mitchell. I slept well and will begin the process of swinging my body clock around to local time.

I don’t know what I will do on the blog for the next few days, if anything. I guess you’ll just need to check back. Sorry about that. I just a little time to get organized and figure out a few things.

Thank you to all who have faithfully prayed for my family and me. Clearly your/our prayers have been answered. Everything went well, and the trip was more wonderful than I imagined it would be. There were surprisingly few problems, which I believe is a testimony to your prayers.

Love to all.