Every journey starts with preparations. Some of these go back a long, long time. For us, it all started one day last spring when Mark was sitting in my kitchen, chatting online with his friend Ted. He suddenly looked up, looked at me, and asked, “Do you want to go to a Genesis concert?” Of course I did. The concert in question was to happen September 16, in Hartford, Connecticut. Living in Kansas, we are about equidistant from either coast in the US. We made plans to travel to Hartford.

Then, we had another one of those looking-at-each-other-and-wondering moments. What if we took the opportunity, since we were already on the East Coast, to continue on to Europe. My mother still lives in Germany, and it seemed almost a waste if we didn’t take advantage of our already being a few hours closer to Germany.

~.~

By Friday evening, September 14, our bags were packed and friendly neighbors retained to look in on the cats, bring in the mail and in general keep an eye on the house.

Saturday morning, September 15, we awoke early. Mark, being the more organized and cautious of us, had a careful plan in place; he allowed extra time for everything – breakfast, shower, packing last minute things that couldn’t be packed until the last minute, getting to the airport with plenty of time to spare – all of which made for a wonderfully relaxed morning.

MCI, the Kansas City airport, has special meaning for us. It was here that on Saturday, August 12, 2006, after having met online and exchanged hundreds of emails, we finally met in person. So, starting another journey there, one year and one month and three days later, seemed appropriate and fitting.

(posted by Sibylle, September 16, 2007, before noon)