“Life Happens” Heaven Got Another Angel”

• July 4, 2021
• By Pen n Daryl
• 3 Comments

Hello one and all!

We had an abrupt change of travel plans, when Daryls sweet mother passed away very quickly. She was 9years old.

Instead of flying from Georgia 🇬🇪 to Ukraine 🇺🇦, we flew back home to America 🇺🇸 

After we bring closure to ourselves, as well as our family, we will do what we always do, and continue to live life and travel.

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Obviously, since we are back home, after being gone for 3.5 years, we won’t return overseas, till we see more family and friends, while we wait out the time required to fulfill business for Daryls mom.

We have road trip plans from California to Oregon to visit family, and friends, then a trip to Hawaii to visit more friends. After that, we plan a round-trip cross-country road trip; West Coast to East Coast: to also visit friends along the way, and stay with our family in North Carolina. (Yay, Grandkiddos)! Then, back to the West Coast; California after that. Whew!

It all looks good on paper right now, but y’all we know we KNOW how to make things happen!

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Stayed Tuned!  

In the meantime, here are some photos and commentary from our 28.5 hour flight from Georgia 🇬🇪 back to California USA 🇺🇸

Happy 4th of July!

Thank you, one and all, for the love ❤️, support and prayers 🙏 over our mom, the travels back home, and the continued love and light into the next few weeks. We so appreciate it.

We made it into Ontario, California 🇺🇸 from Georgia 🇬🇪 last night; 28.5 hours later.

Only one lost suitcase that went to Denver, instead of California, but United Airlines is suppose to deliver to us by tonight. We shall see….

After reporting the lost luggage, we got a taxi for the 40-minute drive to Apple Valley in the high desert of California. Coming into moms apartment was very strange and it still feels like she will be walking through her front door, soon, to join us. 💔

We were very wiped-out, so by midnight, getting horizontal and sleeping, undisturbed, was heaven!

Up too early, as we begin the jet-lag process, we also begin the clearing-out of Moms items to donate to charity, and putting other items aside for family, we will finish with the Housekeeping, that follows these things. Then, we have the funeral and burial to get through. We are hoping for a good, strong showing of support from family (and friends) for mom! She was such a special lady and deserves the respect❤️ Not everybody is so lucky to have a Mama for 93 years…. And a Granny for that long!

We have been gone from the states since 2017 for four years; traveling full-time, only briefly coming home for a few months in the summer of 2018, here we are (back) again. It is all so surreal, and has not fully sunk in at all. If not for Mom, we would not have come back at this time (to the states) for a visit. But, mom is worth it, and Daryl is honored to have been selected to settle her affairs.

We will stay for over a week, here in the desert, then we go to Orange County, as we have a list of things we need to do before we leave the states for more traveling. Tomorrow we will slip home for an overnighter, as we need to get to our storage unit to find appropriate clothes for Mom’s service.

Next week, after closure with Mom, we will work on a new passport for me, new glasses, banking, clothes/shoe shopping, DMV visit, etc. We are not back home, permanently, as we have more foreign travel we want to do: four countries left in Asia, more Africa, more Europe, and more South America. We have two suitcases with supplies, in storage at a Mumbai hotel, we have never been able to get back to, to collect, as India is still locked down!

We have such great tenants in our home in Orange County, and they have been receiving many Amazon boxes on our behalf since last week. I was able to get Prime for $1.99 for one week. We have so many worn-out electronics, electronic covers, cameras, lenses, lens covers, charging banks, charge cords, etc. it is kind of fun to replace with new, for less struggle, while in self-tour as we have a couple more years of foreign travel to go!

After we leave California, we will be driving to eastern Oregon; first to see some friends and family, then on to Newberg in the Pacific Northwest (where I was born) to visit more family. After that, we will fly to Hawaii, return to Portland, Oregon, then drive cross-country to North Carolina, to stay with the big and little kiddos there. My daughter has collected all the souvenirs we have shipped home to her over the years, from our world-travels, and she has stored them for us. We will load-up the car with our treasures in North Carolina, and drive back to California to unload all into our storage unit.

All this planning looks really good on paper, so far, but you know us, we tend to figure it out and make things happen! If we are allowed to leave the states again (COVID rules) as we hope to, the plan is to depart by end of August, as long as Moms affairs are complete.

We will continue our travel-blogging after the heaviness of the coming few weeks, as staying busy, and embracing life is key! Travel is travel, even if it’s in our home country. The United States is quite beautiful and interesting, too! We look forward to showing her off as well!

Thank you again for those who were asking and caring about our plans. No, we are not in quarantine at all. We had to do the standard PCR testing to show a negative result.

Mexican Food with guacamole and chips, and Black Angus Prime Rib are in our near future. You have no idea how we have missed these two choice foods over the years!

Daryl went to the grocery store this morning for a few things. We are very lucky to have such conveniences and stores like we have here in the states. It’s a total culture shock for us, now!

1st of 4 Planes
Tbilisi, Georgia 🇬🇪 to Munich, Germany 🇩🇪
Lufthansa 

Up at 3AM to get to the airport on time, departed on a 6:35AM flight ✈️, from said airport

In flight, around 7:30AM, we get free water ✅, but had to pay 6 Euro dollars for two cups of coffee! No food option at all, not even to purchase….

~$2546 for the two of us on one-way airfare cost✅

~$   245 for (2) 50lb checked bags and one small 20 pound bag✅
Memories… $Priceless$✅

Masks not helping with those with BO, and others farting!

Flying over Europe 

Canals of Europe

2nd of 4 Planes:
Munich, Germany 🇩🇪 to Newark, NJ USA 🇺🇸
United Airlines

THIS is us, following the rules with the 😷❤️
This flight is the first flight to the USA, since Germany opened up for some travel. Now we know why we could not get out of Georgia 🇬🇪any earlier.
We only have a 45-minute layover in Newark to perform customs duties. We already have a maintenance issue, here in Munich, and are grounded while maintenance has a looky-loo 👀

We need a Miracle, because our days of running through the airport to catch the plane before the doors close, are long gone! 🙏

Flying over Munich, Germany 

3rd of 4 planes
Munich, Germany 🇩🇪 to Newark NJ, USA 🇺🇸
United Airlines 

“BACK IN THE USA 🎵 🎶 🎼”
We got our miracle today! Actually we got two! This plane as well as the 2nd plane waited for us! 45 minutes to do customs in New York.. collecting our luggage, rechecking it (Newark) and getting on board.

So grateful!

Currently it is 11PM in Georgia, where we left from this morning. But our new time zone in New York is 3PM

Houston, Texas Airport 🇺🇸 Raining 

4th of 4 Planes
Houston, Texas 🇺🇸 to Ontario, California USA 🇺🇸 

We are fine… no worries 😝
United Airlines🇺🇸

Leaving Texas, flying over the USA  🇺🇸 

Flying into Ontario, California 🇺🇸 

4 of 4 Planes Complete! We are safe and sound on the 

28.5 total hours of planes and airports. We had one, 20-minute of layover wait times in Texas, and the rest, it was a mad dash to catch the connection! Crazy stuff!

Mom is proud of us, from heaven. We just know it! ❤️

Mary R Guggenmos ~We rejoice with her, as she finds comfort, in her eternal, heavenly home ❤️
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Next blog post combing, when we begin our road trip from California to Oregon!