We leave at midnight, and arrive for a 6 hour stop over in Amsterdam - enough time to go home, greet the cats and the chicken, take a shower and clean up the house a bit. 

Then we return to Schiphol and board for Atlanta. When we arrive, we are picked up by a minivan with a black driver. As soon as he speaks, I can't help but ask where he is from: Nairobi! 

Of course we have a lot to talk about, and before we know it we are dropped off at a bed & breakfast.

We are here for the wedding of our niece, and we receive messages that the rehearsal dinner is finished and the welcome party is underway.

After a moment of rest and a shower (we have been on the road for 48 hours) we find a car that has been arranged for us, and through the night and the humidity of Georgia, we drive to the venue. 

It's amazing what the smell of warm land and the humidity do with my memory. Living for 18 years in America leaves it's marks. Memories rush  back and in my mind I relive a thousand warm evenings with long forgotten friends. I see myself with my brother and sister in law canoeing in the night in the swamps of the Everglades in Florida. Stars overhead and the black water hiding aligators. I see myself talking with fellow students outside the dormitory at night. Just stretching the time in order not to say goodbye. A lifetime of memories because of the smell of warm humidity. What a romance in traveling...

And then we meet our family, some of whom we did not see since the wedding of our son, three years ago in the Philippines. 

Lots of hugs, lots of talk, but we are tired and midnight finds us in a huge American bed, while the airport hums gently in the background.