Before my mission, I had never traveled somewhere in an airplane. I had flown before. When I was about 12, Raymond Humphreys took me and Brian for a short 10-minute ride in his airplane. Brian was my friend. Raymond was his grandfather.
I left the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on March 16, 1987, to travel to my mission. We rode a travel bus from the MTC to the Salt Lake City International Airport. Our flight itinerary was as follows:
- Salt Lake City Utah to St. Louis Missouri (TWA Flight 0704)
- St. Louis Missouri to Boston Massachusettes (TWA Flight 0774)
- Boston Massachusetts to London Heathrow (Pan Am Flight 0054)
- London Heathrow to Munich Germany (Pan Am Flight 0054)
As an interesting side note, both of these airlines no longer exist. Pan America World Airways (Pan Am) ceased operations on December 4, 1991, and was acquired by Delta Airlines. Trans World Airlines (TWA) flew its last flight on December 1, 2001, before being absorbed by American Airlines. Another interesting side note, my mother's brother, Justin Livingston, worked as a pilot for TWA his entire career after he finished his tour in the Air Force as a pilot in the Korean War.
Travel Documents
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| trip itinerary (note the $618.00 cost) |
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| my boarding pass for the flight from St. Louis to Boston |
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| my boarding pass for the flight from London to Munich |
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| TWA travel folder for holding my tickets |
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| my baggage claim ticket |
My family (parents, siblings, aunts/uncles/cousins, girlfriend) met me at the airport and came to the gate to see me off. After saying goodbye to my family, I boarded the plane with nervous anticipation. I was excited to begin my missionary service, sad to leave my family and friends, anxious about flying on an airplane, etc. Needless to say, my emotions were a wreck.
The take-off for the flight was uneventful. Even though our flight left Salt Lake at 8:25 a.m., the flight attendants fed us breakfast on the flight to St. Louis. The meal was scrambled eggs, bacon, and toasted bread. The eggs were reconstituted and kind of rubbery tasting. After eating them, I wished I had not eaten them.
As we approached St. Louis, we experienced some air turbulence. The plane bounced around a bit. At this point, the combination of my emotional state (see above), the reconstituted egg breakfast, and the air motion combined to make me feel extremely queasy!
Fortunately, one of the things I did when I first boarded the plane was review all the material in the seatback pocket in front of me. Thus, I was aware that TWA had provided a nice paper sack in the seatback pocket. As the plane touched down on the runway in St. Louis, I was puking in the little grab bag. After I was finished, I felt much better. The queasiness was gone!
The bag had two metal strips inside of tape across the top. I carefully folded the top of the bag down and then used the metal strips to seal the bag. I left the bag sitting on the seat as a small gift for the cleaning crew to find.
The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. I remember the following things.
When we landed in Boston, I purchased a postcard to send to Kelly and Iris.
We flew across the Atlantic at night. I was sitting close enough to the window that I was able to look out and see the sunrise as we traveled around the earth toward London. It was the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen.
When we landed in Munich, the plane did not pull up to a terminal jetway. Instead, we landed about a quarter-mile from the terminal. Then we got on a bus to ride to the terminal. This was my first experience riding on an articulated bus (I called it an accordion bus). My companion and I rode in the middle of the bus standing on the circle plate and touching the accordion sides.
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| inside the accordion bus the plate covering the middle between bus halves |
After we got off of the bus and entered the terminal, I saw a number of German Militiamen holding automatic rifles standing around the airport on guard. In most cases, they were walking in pairs. Several pairs had a German Shepherd with them. I was just a little frightened by them.
We found the mission president and his wife. They took us to the hotel to sleep.
Going Home
At the end of my mission, I flew home by myself from Munich to London-Gatwick to Cinncinati to Salt Lake City to Idaho Falls. I flew on Delta for this trip. Interestingly, the other missionaries who came home on this transfer with me all flew to Salt Lake City as their final destination. I left Munich two hours after them. They flew through JFK in New York. I arrived in Idaho Falls an hour before they arrived in Salt Lake City.
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