Living in the Smoke

I have been stranded in airports around the world for many reasons. Once I was with a team and we were delayed for three days in a row. The reason that was finally given was they had no windshield for the plane. I was glad to be on the ground. I have even seen burning planes on the runway. This year we had a flight cancel from a remote island. It was complicated by the fact that it was the only flight off the island and we had an international flight to catch in a major city. In order to make that flight we had to drive four hours on a jungle road, hire a boat to take us to another island and then hope to get a seat on another flight. It all worked and we made the international flight.

We have a new challenge here in Alaska--due to large forest fires around the city of Fairbanks. Flights have been canceled and we are scheduled to leave on Tuesday morning. Lack of visibility and ash in the air makes it dangerous to land and take-off. This will be interesting because we have very little time to play with. The team will meet in Seattle and travel together to Indonesia. There are enough obstacles in getting to Indonesia but the new one is smoke.