Hi, Bye

Hello all and welcome to my blog about my trip to Kenya.  Tomorrow Tom Franklin will pick me up at my house (bye, cat!) and take me to the airport.  I fly to Newark and then to London and on to Nairobi.  The entire trip is 23 hours including layovers, and I also lose 7 hours because of the time difference.  I'm looking forward to being in the London Airport and I brought good reading for the trip:  William Powers' Twelve by Twelve, A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid & Beyond the American Dream (2010).  I'm a fan of William Powers as a writer and a man after reading his Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa's Fragile Edge (2006), describing his work for Catholic Relief Services in Liberia.  Yes, I'm spelling this out as a recommendation.  :)

Gotta go repack.  Both of my bags are about 49.5 pounds, according to my not-too-accurate scale.  If I could slim each down by a couple of more pounds, then I won't have to worry about discarding something at the airport as other passengers impatiently wait to check their bags.