50:46

50:46 No that's not the score of some family competition from the wedding - that's the hours spent traveling versus the hours spent at the wedding. The whole trip turned out to be about 4 days and more than 2 of them were spent on the way there and back. Nonetheless, I'd do it again. It was worth seeing the last sibling safely hitched. Top two photos are of the wedding and need no explaining.

The trip there and back was so bad it's funny. It's a story all of its own. Kodiak, Alaska to Greenbrier, West Virginia - you'd think it would take maybe 15 hours each way, tops. Afterall, it only took Zoya and I 36 hours to travel to South Africa. I needed 31 hours to get back from Greenbrier! The bottom photo shows my company (George, Ella, Dicky and mom) at the beginning of the trip home in the airport lobby.

I should have known things were not going to go right when the check in lady begged me not to check my bag but to carry it on the plane instead. She explained that she could not fit 5 destinations onto the baggage tag (from Greenbrier to Atlanta, to Chicago, to Seattle, to Anchorage, to Kodiak). I grudgingly agreed and we rooted around in my bag and took out all the carry on contraband (toothpaste and shaving cream).

I started the trip with my Mom and George, Dicky and Ella, and my cousins the Willis's. Getting through security George's 'hips of steel' set off the alarm, and when he tried to explain, it quickly got ugly. Small time airport, and they gave George the wringer. He was talking back and it quickly went from bad to worse. They went through all his bags and even strip searched him. Inside security we were all watching the show and laughing so hard some of us almost wet our pants. It went on for a good half hour. When he finally did get through and join us, George did not think it was all that funny (it turned out he had to go through security again because his plane was cancelled!).

Anyway, I flew on to Atlanta and Sunday's newsworthy thunderstorms and tornados wreaked havoc on the flight schedules. After numerous 'OJ Simpson' sprints to various gates and many long waits, and fruitless discussions with ticket agents I finally missed the penultimate flight to Alaska from Seattle at 11:45 PM by 10 minutes. I spent the night on the chairs in the 'C' terminal hearing all about the earthquake in China on CNN while I tried to get to sleep. I finally got to Kodiak at 3:30 PM the next day! Patrick