9/2/10, Thurs Departure & 9/3/10 Fri Arrival in France

Thanks to John for helping us get out of the house with everything we needed on time!

So we were off on our great adventure getting lunch at the airport before heading to the terminal when I looked up, saw it  and knew right then we were in flying trouble. Eric was wearing the t-shirt he got when we were in Boulder, CO at Taylor's OM World Competition. The Competition was awesome, however the flight home was a complete disaster. So when I saw that t-shirt I knew.

We headed for our departure gate in GR for our first leg to Detroit. We boarded on time (so far so good), sat for a bit and then were told there were mechanical problems.  We waited a bit more and some of the passengers were getting a little upset. Lots of passengers had little time to their next flight out of Detroit. I, however, wasn't a bit concerned, we had lots of time in Detroit before our flight to Frankfurt. The Captain comes on again and announces we must leave the plane, they are heading back to the gate so the  plane can have diagnostics run. We are waiting, an hour goes by.....no word. Now I'm thinking we are not going to get to Detroit for our flight to Frankfurt. Eric manages to get us on stand-by on the last flight out to Detroit. Luckily, just when I think we are going to spend the night in GR and start the adventure over again tomorrow, they call  our name and we get on the last flight out. This flight arrives in  Detroit 15 minutes before our flight to Frankfurt is to take off. I didn't think we were ever going to get off the plane. Eric was closer to the front so he found out what gate we  needed to be at. I told him run as fast as you can and hold the plane and I would wait for Taylor to get off this plane. He took off running yelling the gate number to me as he went. Gate A50 we were at A5 and had less than 5 minutes. I ran back down the jet way until I could see Taylor getting off the plane and said "run". We took off running, luggage flailing along side us. Almost took out a few people along the way, but we weren't the only ones running to flights. The whole Detroit airport is a complete blur. As we were running I heard them announce the final boarding for our flight and we were only at A20, my head was telling me we are never going to make  it. Taylor ran like a champ! We got to A30 and then of course, restaurants, keep running (Shelly you're right, the Zillmers never do anything the easy way)......Finally I spotted Eric, he was there with  a flight  attendant ready to check us on. Thank God! That was way to close, but we were on the plane and headed for Frankfurt. I looked out the window as we were rising up into the sky and saw a rainbow! Beautiful, I now know the rest of the trip will be fine.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. They fed us alot on the plane, I saw lots of good movies, and we were able to get to Strasbourg and then our house in Holtzheim with no real issues.

31 hours with only a couple winks of sleep.  Maybe a couple hours total sleep and we were headed to dinner before bed.  Of course I had to share a carafe of wine with  Eric. A Riesling with my salmon pasta dish. It was all delicious but they are way to slow at bringing the bill here in France and it was all I could do to to stop from falling out of my chair. A bed never felt so good!