Just a short update to let you all know that we’ve made it safely to Dubai.  We’re overnighting at a local hotel and will be on our way to Kabul at noon tomorrow.

Our flight out of Denver arrived in Washington DC a few minutes early, which helped scale back our planned all out sprint from gate D21 to C1 at Dulles to a more manageable pace.  We actually arrived at our departure gate just as they began boarding... not too soon, not too late.  (pant, pant)  Nice.  And the next flight from Washington DC to Dubai, although about 8 time zones too long, was smooth and uneventful.

We also arrived a little early in Dubai (love the trade winds at 35,000 feet) so after a brief cab ride to the hotel we walked down to Dubai Creek (it's the main river through Dubai) where we jumped on a river boat and got a fish's eye view of the city's bustling international marine trade area.  Then another cab ride to the Dubai Mall where we grabbed a bite to eat at the Food Court.  (Yep, we're 7,000 miles from home and we ate in a shopping mall food court… are we a bunch of guys or what?!)  Then it was a short stroll to catch a few photos of the Burj Kalifa (tallest building in the world) before heading back to the hotel for some shuteye.

With our 4-hour "tourist" portion of the trip behind us, we’re hitting the sack for a few hours now and are looking forward to our arrival in Kabul tomorrow when we can begin to focus on the real reason for this trip.  Each and every one of the men on this team are excited to begin to put our months of training to good use.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support -- we know we would not have made it this far without it.

--Bob