5th Anniversary Trip to Italy - Day 1, Monday April 19th, 2010

Well, I don't normally start my blog about a trip on the travel day to vacation, but this one seemed important enough to actually post an entry about it.  We were driving from Colleen's parent's home in Bethlehem to JFK airport.  That isn't significant in itself.  What seemed to loom over our heads was Eyjafjallajoekull (pronounced “AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul") and the ash plume.  It had erupted the prior week, but even the same flight we were taking to Rome on Sunday had been cancelled.  Adding to our stress was the challenge of American Airlines lack of willingness to provide any advanced notice on the cancellation of our flight.  So, we got up that morning and picked up the one way rental car and drove out hoping that we would not have to scramble and find another car or a hotel in NY to try to delay until they let us fly out.  One item I had checked just before we left was that the return flight from Rome that morning had taken off without issue and that meant the plane we would take would actually be allowed to arrive in NY and that should mean our flight would take off as well.

In the end, we did get to take the flight!  That was a huge relief and it meant our trip would actually begin.  A dream of my life to be sure I can only hope it lives up to my expectations.