As we headed out to the airport with plenty of time (or so we thought) we made our first stop to pick up another team member (and long time friend) Dominique.  We arrived, checked in, and were ready to roll when we saw Dom in the 'special services' line.  Hmmm...we know he's super special but it was kind of a red flag.  He finally makes it to the counter to check in when (regardless of his printed confirmation) they proceed to tell him "Nope, no ticket sir, we don't show you in our system".  Dom, digging for every ounce of patience he had, politely said 'Yes I'm sure you do'.  As the clock is tick tock tick tocking away and the timeframe to get through security is passing, Dom still has no ticket.  They proceed to tell him he has a ticket from Amsterdam to Kilamanjaro but not from Seattle to Amsterdam...and he only paid $20.  What!?  How is any of this possible??  As Dom continues to wait and exhibiting greater tolerance than I would have...we were told we needed to head through security and we would get a private escort to rush us through.  As the ticketing agent escorts us she says 'I hope you make it but not sure your friend will be on this flight!' 

We board the plane and as the doors are about to close we see a bright orange shirt running down the aisle...yep it's our little brown friend!! He made it!!!

We laugh, we eat, we sleep and are at ease that we are making this trek together...we also rested in the fact that the flight attendants assured us he had a ticket all the way to Tanzania with his bag checked all the way through. 

We get to Amsterdam and run into the rest of our team, say a quick HI and head into another security line.  Dom again ends up in the 'special services' line.  We get though and here he is again, fighting for a ticket.  'No sir, you aren't in our system, you have no ticket!'  Again Dom displaying a great amount of patience says 'you must have my ticket...this is the one part of my flight they had on file?'  Nope...once again no ticket.  This time, we line up to board and Dom isn't coming...he is still waiting, waiting, waiting.   We board, the doors close and no DOM...oh my now what!!??

We make to Kilamanjaro...got all our bags but no bag of Dom's. Praying that he made a flight and they pulled his bag we desperately try to get some wifi to re-connect after the past 9 hours. 

We finally log on to find out that Dom was compt a hotel in Amsterdam, food vouchers and some spending cash!!!  Go Dom...he is hopefully arriving on a flight today so we will see what stories he has to tell us.

The other 3 on our team should have their own story as they flew into Nairobi and are taking a bus here...Can't wait for the sharing tonight!