Our Second Trip to Slovakia
Ever since my trip to Slovakia with my father, he had wanted
to go back. I did too, of course, both because our family in Dhla Luka was
loving and beautiful and amazing, and because I’m a traveler – I’d be excited
about a trip to Dubuque, Iowa just because I’ve never been there before.
But Dad had larger plans – he wanted to take his wife, and
my entire family, which at that point was my wife, and our two sons, who were
then 13 and 3. It also turned out that my sister-in-law (well,
step-sister-in-law if you want to get precise about it) was also available, and
since she’s smart, enthusiastic and wonderful, we included her in our plans as
well.
I was still working for the airlines at the time, so I was
able to secure some family passes, and we started to make big plans. We were
going to fly into London on July 6th, 2005, stay overnight, and
spend a day or two in London, enjoying that amazing city, then fly over to
Vienna, Austria and make the drive over the Carpathian Mountains into Slovakia
and stay with the family for a few days. Then, he had even built in a few days
to stop in Rome, Italy to visit the Vatican City where he had spent much of his
youth studying to be a Roman Catholic priest.
Neal, my oldest, had recently been studying the Roman era in school, so
we could even tie in some history lessons.
