Travel Day #2

I woke up on the plane and saw the beginning of a gorgeous sunrise. The edges of the horizon were painted with blue, purple, red, orange and yellow… such a beautiful spectrum. A few minutes later I could see the outline of something amazing. It didn’t take long for the outline to become a full portrait of mountainous grandeur. I think we were flying over the French Alps. As the plane turned slightly north, we exited that mountain range but you could see another range of mountains north of us. We were entering Northern Italy and I was now looking at the Swiss Alps. What a beautifully creative artist our God is!

We landed in Milan. Once we got in the terminal, “Chicken on Bikes” realized that she’d left her phone on the plane. Wow! That’s a real dilemma for her. This girl is a text-messaging addict. So, she and “The Well” waited where we were while “Red Bird” and “Running Feather” went ahead with “The Diva” – since “Diva” had to make a mad dash. I went to the info desk to ask if they could have someone look for “Chicken on Bikes’” phone. And, what do you know… they found it. Can somebody say GRACE!!

We all met back up at baggage claim. Once we retrieved all of our luggage, we went out to the greeting area where we were met by our super cool driver – I’ll call him “John.” When we got to the parking lot we had to stop and sigh at the lovely backdrop of the Swiss Alps. We boarded our tour van and started heading south to Rome.

“John” stopped at a small “fast food” place where we got some of Italy’s delicious pastries. A few people tried the coffee – unsuccessfully. They weren’t ready. We got back on the van and started again on our road trip – listening to a variety of music on the radio. Although we had no idea what they were saying, the music was beautiful. Music is such a universal thing.

As we rode through the country of Italy, we eventually found ourselves riding through snow. Soon after that, we were in mountains again. “John” informed us that there is also a mountain range that runs vertically through the country – and this was the range we were traveling through. What a gorgeous sight!

We made a pit stop at a service center. When I got out of the van I heard what sounded like a group of children all crying at the same time. Upon closer examination, I realized that I was hearing a trailer full of sheep – all bleating at the same time. As many times as I’d heard that sound on TV – it really doesn’t compare to the real thing. I wanted to hook up a microphone and record the sound so I could sample it in a song. Perhaps something about God’s sheep knowing his voice; or about the Lord being our shepherd.

As night began to fall, we still hadn’t arrived at our destination. Eventually we discovered that “John” had never been to Rome so he didn’t really know where he was going. We were the new characters on that hit ABC show – “LOST!” But we all decided that it was perfectly fine – since we were all in a country we hadn’t visited before… and since “John” was paying for dinner.

We finally arrived at the hotel. John gave me the money for our meal and we went to our rooms to shower and change. We went to dinner at a quaint little restaurant and got to taste what real Italian pasta is like. WOW!! It was fantastic! The food and service were excellent. Now, it’s time to sleep. We’ve been traveling for 36 hours. It’s time to sleep and get ready to take another flight in the morning.

I’ll tell you about that one tomorrow night.

Buona Notte!