Ash Friday

Our flight from Vienna to New York went via Dublin.  This would not be an issue normally but the airport shut due to Iceland's volcanic ash.  This along with the produce vendors losing their shirts because they were not able to get their wares to Europe, their biggest customer, shows that we all indeed share this planet. ("No, Iceland that is YOUR volcanic ash, we will have nothing to do with it.  Freedom Ash!")

Anyway, it was not looking good to fly out of Ireland, but the airport did reopen the day before.  Being stranded in Europe is NOT the worst thing I could think of, however. 

Two hours were added to the flying time as the plane had to go around the ash. Who ever heard of such a thing?  But who ever heard of a mega-ton metal contraption being able to fly through the air.  Man and nature continue to astound.

We landed safely in New York at 10:30pm having had breakfast that morning in Vienna.  I thought of my secret historical crush, John Adams who tooks months to get to Paris and overshot it by boat and landed in Spain only to have to take a donkey 1000 miles with his young son. It took days.  Drag.