Here's Chapter One of my trip to meet Marina Chedakina. I met her on the internet and we have been emailing, phoning each other for over a year now. Also, we have sent each other photos and I sent some other things - a video tape of me, some small gifts, etc.
It's Sunday, April 21, 2002.
I'm ready to go to Kherson, in the country of Ukraine. Ukraine is part of the old Soviet Union. Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union 10 years ago, on May 1 (this is their Independence Day Holiday).
I say good-bye to my cats -
Bye, Piper - have fun with your favorite paper bag :-)
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Bye, Luke - have fun catching bugs while I am gone :-)
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Since I am traveling into Soviet territory, I need to be extra careful with my baggage - this is a lesson I learned before. So, I "shrink-wrapped" all of my luggage. I wrapped it all with Saran Wrap and then used a whole bunch of packing tape all over it - makes it very hard for anything to "accidentally" fall out of the luggage, where someone might just sort of "pick it up".
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Here I am on the plane, leaving Knoxville - this is so much fun, it's too cool :-)
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Then I transfer to an Air France airliner - here is the "TV-screen" as we begin the trip over the Atlantic.
I met several French people, who were all very polite and cheerful.
I think the seats on the Air France jet were larger than on the Delta
jets, there was more leg room, and the food was better, everything was
better with Air France.
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