The People Are the Best Part, Part 2

I'm writing this as Evelyn and I relax in front of the Olympics, one week and one day into the games. We were in Brazil when the games opened in London last week. We recorded the opening ceremonies. I wonder when we'll have four hours to watch 'em!
We landed at CVG yesterday (Friday) morning about 11:30 on a 90-minute flight from Charlotte. We left there about 10:00 after landing before 7:00 a.m. on a flight that had left Rio after 10:30 Thursday night (9:30 Cincinnati time). We saw some beautiful and interesting sights in Brazil, especially in Rio. More about that in a later post. But I'm thinking this evening about the people who joined us on our tour. Many of them commented about the gracious, compatible, easygoing flexibility of all the folks in our tour group. We took lots of pictures of scenery, but I want to show the people. Even without their pictures, they are what I'll remember most about this trip. But I want to include their pictures here too.

Jan and Carolyn DeWitt posed with our Brazilian tour guide and host, Rafael Soares, and Evelyn in Brasilia. The DeWitts are from Johnson City, Tennessee, where Jan serves as an emergency room physician.

Evelyn posed later in the week with two others from Johnson City: Bob Wetzel (left) and Bruce Shields, both active in ministry and teaching after retiring from their work at Emmanuel Christian Seminary.

Jim and Ivy Price are from Irmo, South Carolina, retirees who have traveled all over the world. I didn't get a picture of them together, I'm sorry to say, but I snapped this picture of Ivy taking a picture.

Rick Reisinger is president of the Disciples of Christ Church Extension Fund. He and his wife, Denise, were welcome additions to our group.

Earl and Gretchen Watson had a challenging time during our tour, because Gretchen slipped and fell Saturday night, damaging her knee so that she couldn't stand. They were great troopers and missed very little of our tour as everyone in the group helped push and lift the various wheelchairs we secured during the week to keep them with us.

Julia Keith serves on the World Convention staff. She and her daughter, Johanna, joined us for the second week of our tour, and we were really glad to have their help lowering the median age of our group members!
Finally, one of my favorite pictures of Evelyn and me. She hates to fly, but I'm sure glad she decided to fly with me on this trip we'll never forget. (That's Sugarloaf Mountain in the background. Evelyn rode the cable cars to the top, too, in spite of how thin those cables look from a distance.)