Well we did it, we took the plunge! We now have one way tickets to Papua New Guinea! We will have a one night layover in Brisbane Australia to give the family a break from Planes, trains and automobiles. We depart Monday February 20th at 6:15 pm from Norfolk International…and arrive in New Guinea on February 23rd…not sure which day of the week though. We cross the International date line on our flight over the Pacific and somewhere along there we completely skip Tuesday, February 21st! The only way I can explain that is “Time Travel,” eat your heart out Captain Kirk. He had to sling shot around the sun and all we have to do is fly west…for a long, long time! Anyway, we end up in Brisbane Australia on the 22nd which will be Wednesday…I think??? Whatever…not only will we have traveled into the future on this trip, but we’ll also have crossed the equator into the Southern hemisphere! I recall crossing the equator one other time in my life while in the service, but it wasn’t very pleasant. Some of you know all about the Shellback initiation all sailors have to endure the first time they cross the equator. I remember my knee caps were raw and my hands looked like hamburger from crawling all over the ship for hours, hanging my head over the side shouting for flipper, and crawling through a tunnel of a weeks worth of spoiled leftovers from the mess deck. It took multiple showers to get all the bacon grease out of my hair…but I digress. One of the strange things about the Southern Hemisphere is that when you flush the toilet the water swirls the opposite direction…weird huh? And instead of the “righty tighty, lefty loosey” rule for nuts and bolts its, “lefty tighty, righty lossey!” Just kidding…about the bolts, the toilet water really does swirl the opposite way. The flight time from our own Norfolk Intl. Airport to Goroka Airport in New Guinea totals exactly 24 hours in the air! You may recall Mel and I have 3 daughters ages 6, 4, and 2…please pray for us over those 24 hours, I have a feeling we could make the evening news reels! No doubt there will be some stories for the ages to be told about this trip in the years to follow.
Many of you have been praying for this moment with us and your prayers and ours, have been answered. Thank you so much for all of those prayers and donations. We hope you will call or email us to get together and hang out before we leave. It’ll be our last chance for 4 years. Give thanks in all things…the Simmons.
Jevon Danica Rich says
Congrats guys! Awesome!