Where in the World are You Stranded?

Borrowing a theme from my friend stranded in Scotland - the travel chaos from "the volcano" whose name no one can pronounce is is the worst disruption in the history of aviation. Where in the world are YOU stranded?

I am taking my blog into 'real time' here to catch you up. Since our Barcelona trip we packed up our apartment, shipped our belongings over the ocean and said goodbye to wonderful friends. Kirk took leave from his job for several weeks and we have been traveling for nearly a month.

Clearly I will have to rewind and catch up on blogging at some point, as there is much to tell. But the highlights of our three part trip include:
1 - Lanzarote in the Canary Islands
2 - 10 day UK car trip circling England and Wales
3 - Eastern Europe (Romania, Slovenia, Hungary)

So, here we sit wrapping up our adventure in Budapest slated to fly back to Brussels on Tuesday PM and then to the USA for good on Thursday AM. Ummm. Not sure it is going to work out. We are in Day 4 of 23 European countries closing down airports and locking air space due to the volcanic ash in the atmosphere.
Since the volcano doesn't show signs of letting up - in fact just the opposite - we went ahead and bought refundable train tickets to at least get us back from Budapest to Brussels on Tuesday, should that flight be grounded. Not a fun extra expense, but it seems critical to at least be in place Thursday in hopes of our transatlantic flight taking off. Fingers crossed. After waiting through the ticket line I left feeling relieved that at least there would be some way back. Even if our wallets were a lot lighter. We are determined not to let a little ash rain on our parade!
So now we sit with the world and wait and watch as Mother Nature takes her course. I want so badly to be in control and to have a crystal ball to see how this will all play out. After eighteen months living away from the States, my heart and mind are ready to return as scheduled. But again as my friend elegantly reminded us, we are not in control. Only God is. Even and especially of volcanos. My family is together, happy and safe. Nothing matters more than that.