The movers showed up on time on Tuesday and everything go loaded without incident. I wasn’t able to do much cleaning of the house once the furniture was moved out. This made for a brief guilt trip. I had hoped they would empty one room. I could then clean that room while they worked to clear out another room and so on. No such luck. Oh well, not much I could do about it.
It must have been around ten or eleven when Mom and Dad got to Grand Rapids. It took some doing but Dad got everything into the van. We had two 30” (huge) suitcases, two of a more midsize, two carry-ons, two backpacks, couple of boxes containing food stuffs that Mom and Dar would be taking, the plants, and an incredibly large dog carrier.
We got to Dar and Thom’s around 6:00pm on Tuesday. Kirk and Tara had arrived on Wednesday night. Thursday morning we had an early (and very delicious I might add) Thanksgiving dinner.
We left for the airport shortly after 1:00pm. I was glad the whole family didn’t come to the airport. I cried when it was time to say goodbye. Dar, Thom, and Justin were by the window looking at our plane. I assumed to watch if the dog had gotten on board. Scary part was I thought Thom and Justin signaled that they saw or were seeing the dog being loaded into the cargo hold. Somehow, I got the impression from Dar they hadn’t seen him yet. We changed planes in Frankfurt, Germany so before we boarded the plane to Prague I had them check that a dog in a large carrier was loaded. He was.
Flight was uneventful. It got a little bumpy at one point, but only for a short while. The movie was “My Best Friend’s Wedding”. Jack wasn’t really into chick-flicks so he skipped listening to it most of the time. I thought it was okay. There were two movies listed. For some reason they only showed one.
As I mentioned before, I doubled checked with the desk before leaving Frankfort that we were still all starveling together. For the majority of the smaller planes you board a bus and they take you out to the plane. As the bus came around the corner of the building I thought I caught a glimpse of the dog carrier. They just seemed to be standing at the cargo opening. It may have been that the carrier was a tad too tall for the opening?
Prague has a new terminal. This was the first time we used the new arrival portion of the airport. Luggage started coming out onto the carrousel as soon as we got to it. However, there was a very long delay at one point where no luggage was coming out. We wondered if maybe they were at a point to where they had to get the dog out of the cargo hold and having the same problem as they may have had in Frankfort.
We collected all of our luggage and went to find someone who could help us locate the dog. A guy said the dog and carrier would come up and onto the luggage carrousel. He didn’t quite understand when I told him that the opening were that luggage was popping out was nowhere near large enough for that carrier. He then went to find someone who could help us.
A lady whose English with quite good came and introduced herself. She was with the agricultural department and asked if anyone was here to meet us. Jack went out and found Hanka (Mike’s wife). Hanka and the woman did a bunch of talking with both at various points nodding to the other and saying ano, ano (yes, yes). At this point we still hadn’t seen the dog.
We all walked around a corner to a small alcove area with the lady from the agricultural department. From there we saw them wheeling the dog carrier on a cart to us just as it slipped off the cart. No harm done. Shep was just lying in the carrier with this disgusted looked. Not a bit of fear, ears at a normal position until Jack said something to him. Then he went into his poor puppy routine. He hadn’t gone potty the entire time! The lady was nice enough to let take him out of the carrier and walk with us from that point on.
I really don’t recall how much time had passed, maybe 15 minutes, so the area where one waits for the people who have finally gotten through customs and have their luggage had thinned out. There stood Mike, Marek (their son), Marie, and Jiri (Hanka’s parents). My first thought was six adults, a kid, a dog, and a year’s worth of luggage! It will take four trips in the car to get everything and everyone to the apartment. Luckily it’s only 10 minutes from the airport.
They actually got all of the luggage into the car. Their car is a Skoda Octavia. It is about the size of a Handa Civic and has a very deep truck with back seats that folded down. Mike and Jiri then drove the luggage to the apartment. It took them a couple of trips from the car up in the elevator and into the apartment.
While they were gone, I walked the dog over to a grassy area with a bench off to the side. He took a good pee. I had the baggy with me in the event he took a dump. Walked awhile, stood awhile, and sat awhile in 38-40 degree weather for just over an hour. Man that was cold! He thought the weather was perfect and laid down most of the time. It could have been worse. It could have been windy and snowy.
Marie and Jiri took the bus to their house. The rest of us piled into the car and headed for the apartment.
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