Traveling with Ray Owens

I set my alarm for 6:00 AM to be ready to be picked up by daughter Candace at 7:30 to be taken to the airport.  I had forgotten to tell my bladder about this plan, and I was rudely awakened at 5:35 by my bladder’s agenda.  Such is the life of a gentleman of 7 plus decades.

            All the last-minute items to go in the suitcase were packed and off we went at 7:30 to MCI.  MCI, that brings me to a conundrum I have struggled with for years.  Mid Continent International airport equals MCI, the airport code for Kansas City Airport.  I understand that there was one or two direct flights from Kansas City to Mexico back in the days of prop planes. I digress.

            Daughter Candace drove us to the airport, and we quickly got our bags checked and made our way to our gate after a brief stop for a cup of coffee.  I could not resist getting a cup of joe from the Parisi coffee shop as we headed to Paris.  There is no longer a Starbucks at the airport but never fear Parisi is maintaining the tradition of overpriced and very strong coffee.

            The first leg of our journey was to Detroit and was an uneventful journey.   We had arranged to meet our dear friends Wes and Lorna Hardin.  We met Wes and Lorna when we were in Graduate School in Logan, Utah.   They are delightful people.  We arranged to meet them for lunch at the Westin Hotel which is integrated into the Detroit airport.   We walked the hall following the airport signs to the hotel.  We came to a major hallway intersection and turned left and asked an employee how to get to the hotel: exit the terminal turn right on the sidewalk and voila you are at the Westin.    I tell you this story because as we left the restaurant, we asked an employee how to return to the airport gates.  He turned and pointed to the private TSA check point a few yards from the restaurant.  We had taken one of my dad’s infamous “long cuts” to arrive at the hotel.

The meal we consumed with our friends was very good and conversation was superb.  It was good to catch up with the Hardin family.

We are now on the airplane in Detroit readying to fly to Pari!  I am about to take a little red pill which I anticipate will allow me to sleep until we reach France.

Seven hours later:  the pill worked tolerably well.  I slept on and off for about 6 hours of the 7h 19m trip.   The fun will soon begin in the timeless City of Lights!

Five of the intrepid crew are on this plane together.  Locating them should not be too difficult when we arrive in Paris.  Sister in-law Pat is flying solo across the Atlantic from Houston.  She is scheduled to arrive about 30 mutes after we do. 

Charles De Gaulle airport has devised a master plan to make sure all arriving people get their 6 miles of walking in before needing to walk in Paris.   The baggage claim is 7 miles from the arrival gate.  There is an 8-mile que to go through passport control which has 2 operating gates to scan your passport.   Then it is another 9-mile trek to the taxi stand.   Oh, to add insult to injury when we arrived at the carousel to get our bags the good folks had removed our bags to a mystery location so they could load the next flights bags.  I exaggerate but only a little.

After being assured by the taxi representative inside the terminal that they would have a van for 6 people and 12 bags all for the low cost of 66 eros, we were guided to the taxi stand.  After starting to load the bags I confirmed with our driver that cost.  He said with all these bags it would be 82 eros.  Too late to back out now.   When we arrived at our hotel 6 hours later (it is a long way), I tried to pay with a credit card, and he asked if I had cash.  I said I did not have eros but did have dollars.   I happened to have $86 in my little coin purse and pulled those out.  He thought about it and agreed.   That is about $72 euros and he and I were both happy.

Our plan for day 1 is to mosey in the direction of Notre Dame Cathedral.   I am very excited to see the restored version.  On April 15, 2019, a fire broke out in the roof space.   The structure was virtually destroyed.  They, with herculean effort, did manage to remove most of the art before the building collapsed.  I recall seeing in 1993 the cathedral and it was beautiful but largely covered with a thin layer of soot from centuries of candles burning.  Today it is bright and beautiful building that is virtually all new but the people of the Paris and the world managed to restore the exact nature of the building using the same materials, and construction methods that were originally employed.  I can imagine seeing this ancient structure (that was begun in 1163 and completed in 1260) looking very much like it did when it was new. 

Our purpose for the day was to stay awake until at least 7:30.   We walked around the island where Notre Dame is located and oohed and aahed at the city we made our way to Odette’s bakery.  This establishment was recommended by friends of Elvin as having the world’s greatest creampuffs.  I have not sampled all of the world’s creampuffs, but these were dog-gone delicious. 

I am pleased to report that Paris has improved their bakeries since 1993 when we came with the girls.  The pastries in the windows looked divine but, evidently, they had not invented sugar back then and they tasted rather nondescript.  So much better in 2025.

We started back to the hotel and some of our crew members were talking about going to bed soon.  Others were planning a dinner trip. About 5:30 we all decided to go to find a place to eat.   We ate at a pub not too far from the hotel and 4 out of 6 of us ordered the fish and chips.  It was a nice way to end the longest day (not to denigrate the people who landed in Normandy in WWII).

It was a good day!