Up in the air!

The first plane that was supposed to fly from Altoona to Washington DC was a rather small plane. It was also supposed to land in Johnstown but the staff at the airport said that they couldn't go to Johnstown due to a blizzard. All the talk about a blizzard scared little TJ but the lady just laughed and said that bumpy plane rides were fun plane rides! Hahaha! Nor so fun when the lady gor motion sickness from all the bumping up and down in the air through the blizzard. The lady got so sick that she had to throw up in a little paper bag. Luckily, the air plane people places little paper bags in front of every seat in the air planes. TJ guessed that it's common for humans to get sick. TJ was just having fun.

Finally they landed in Washington DC on an airport named Dulles.A nice man who said he was born in Afriva, in a country called Ethiopia, was kind enough to drive the lady and TJ in a wheel chair to the next plane.

Airports are really, reallyt big places and it's easy to get lost. It's a lot, A LOT, of people there, trying to find the plane that they want to travel with. The lady bought some pretzel sticks from Auntie Annie's so that she and TJ could have a snack after the bumpy plane ride. TJ got a little bit worried when he saw the BIG airplanes. Then he saw a lot of children that were going to fly with the same plane and they didn't seem scared at all so TJ acted all tough and confident.

When they found their seats on the plane, TJ was excited. They were showing movies on the plane! And some nice people called stewardesses came and handed out drinks and snacks and food! Flying was pretty fun after all... After nine and a half hour, not so much fun any more. Just boring. Most humans fell aslepp. TJ was just hanging out. He found a cute teddy bear girl a few rowes over that he could flirt with.

They landed again in Munich, a city in Germany in Europe. Another nice man came to pick the lady and TJ up in a whell chair. This man was from Russia and he drove them both in the wheel chair and in a liuttle bus directly to the air plane out on the landing field. There was a snow storm in Germany too. Really cold.

Tha last plane took them to Sweden, to the ladys home town Gothenburg. The sun was shining and TJ was very happy to be done with the long trip.

First part of the trip!

Finally it was time to go. TJ had been waiting for this day since tha lady had been real busy the weeks before the trip. She was working ALL THE TIME and TJ was by himself in the house. Every night the lady came home and talked to TJ a little bit and then they went to bed. One night, she forgot about TJ and he had to sleep on the floor. He was real angry that morning.
The evening before the trip, TJ had hoped for that they would go to  bed early so that they would be well rested - but noooo.
The lady was up ALL night packing. TJ had to help her close the suitcases. They were sooo full with clothes and gifts and lipstick and blankets, the lady even put down her own pillow!

TJ tried to tell the lady that the suitcases probably weighed too much. He had seen on the tickets that they could only weigh 50 pounds each. It is hard to be a fluffy tiger when you talk to humans because they won't always listen. The lady didn't listen at all.

Not until they were at the airport and she had to UNPACK 45 pounds of her stuff. HAHAHAHA! That's what TJ was thinking. I told you so! The lady had to put her purse, her shoes, her laptop and a lot of other stuff on a conveyer belt that went into a machine. She even had to put TJ in there! He was brave though. He knows that they have to x-ray everything that people carry on to planes, just to make sure that there are no bombs or weapons. Tj was kind of proud that Homeland Security thought he might be a bomb....

He also met Tom, an old friend of Della's dads. Tom is a professional snowboarder out in Idahoe and efter a short visit to Altoona, he was flying back there to play in the snow. They made an extra security check on Tom and TJ thinks that that was because Tom looks like a hippie. Or a terrorist. TJ is not really sure what a terrorist is, but he knows it's really, really bad. Tom on the other hand was very nice, he played with TJ and even let him try his skateboard!