It was "Carmageddon" weekend in Los Angeles when we were due to fly out – they were closing the 405 freeway over the Sepulveda Pass all for two straight days to do construction. Fear was rampant so we left an extra two hours early for the airport. Turns out it was the best traffic ever and we made it to LAX in record time! We even had time for a leisurely dinner at Encounters, the iconic “Space Age” restaurant in the middle of LAX.

That all just added to our epic journey of a five-hour flight to New York, a four hour layover, then a 15 ½ hour flight to Jo'berg, South Africa, another four-hour layover, and finally an hour and a half flight to Durban. We left at 5pm from our house on Saturday and arrived about 3pm local time (including the 9 hour time change) on Monday.

After checking into the “Bel Aire” hotel on Durban’s main beach drag, we freshened up and were ready for the opening night ECCA dinner across town with the Mayor and some other dignitaries. Turns out it was Nelson Mandela day so that was weaved into some of the speeches - one cool thing we learned is that everyone in South Africa is supposed to do 65 minutes of 'community service’ – one for ever year Mandela is alive. Dinner and drinks with some of the ‘usuals’ – ECCA folks we see once a year somewhere in the world, then back into the busses and straight to sleep.