We haven’t flown on commercial airliners for awhile. We went to the east coast three years ago, and Penny went to Oregon for Mother’s Day in 2008. But we decided to go back to Oregon to visit our daughter Kim, and our Aunt Theone Whitlock in nearby Washington State.

We had some technical problems with the flights –some things don’t change in the matter of a couple of years– the wind in Denver kept us on the ground until 11:00 p.m. MST, and weary from a tough day we finally arrived at Kim’s house in St. Helen’s, Oregon, at 4:00 a.m. Central time.

The day in the airport allowed us as much “people watching” time as you might get at a day at the South Dakota State Fair. Lowell and Evelyn White, a couple from Long Beach, California, walked up to our table at a busy Denver International Airport food mall. “Pardon me, sir, would it be alright if we shared your table,” Evelyn asked. A personable woman and a licensed minister, she sat down with us and was soon joined by her husband. 

Lowell was on his way to Anchorage, Alaska, to begin a 6,000 mile, three month long bicycle trip to the Florida Keys. We were the first “friends” he encountered on the beginning of the trip and they interviewed/videoed us to put on their website. The purpose of his trip is to promote awareness of the division in the world.  A chronicle of his trip can be viewed at at www.holyspiritrider.com.

People were milling around the airport, most of them not interested in a little smile or idle chit chat (South Dakota style), because their flights had been cancelled or postponed by the winds. They were headed for places like Akron, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, Seattle and New York. One gigantic Lufthansa Airlines jumbo jet was loaded with three hundred –maybe more– people and hauled them to Frankfort, Germany.

After about ten hours of sitting in the waiting area, we encountered a young woman with an adorable nine-month old baby girl. She spent all of her time tending to the needs –both physically and emotionally– of that little girl. And the baby was responding very well to the hubub of activities and the coming and goings of jets outside our window. But at about 12 midnight, after sitting on the loaded plane for two and one-half hours, the baby finally came to the end of her tiny rope. A flight attendant tried to calm her, and Penny even took a turn, but it was to no avail and she spent the next half hour complaining loudly to everyone on the airplane.

Three kids across the aisle were traveling alone with mentoring from the flight staff. Anxious to get home, the little brother was beginning to get impatient. Once the plane was in the air his head immediately fell against his big sister’s shoulder. She looked at him, a faint smile crossed her face, and she let him sleep. The big sister finally went to sleep, but the third child, a girl of about seven years of age, sat and watched satellite television the entire flight. She must be a night owl. Once we were on the ground the stewardess came to the kids and said they would be the last ones off the plane… the little brother began to fidget again.