March 29 - The Longest Day

THE LONGEST DAY

The alarm was set for 5:10, but I was up before then.  Before dawn we walked about 10 minutes to the Manly Wharf and caught the 6:30 fast ferry (18 minute ride) to Circular Quay. Some interesting predawn views of North Head at the mouth of Sydney Harbour and of the Opera House ...

North Head and the harbour mouth

The Opera House at dawn

The "Old Coathanger"

Once at Circular Quay we caught the light rail train to the international terminal of Kingsford Smith Airport in Sydney.  The lines at Virgin Atlantic (VA) and security were long, but we made it through with plenty of time to spare.  Even had time to finish our shopping at the airport shops, including one of the things I had had absolutely no luck finding anywhere in Australia!  So we were feeling pretty good ... until we got to the VA gate and began waiting for our flight to board.  We were delayed for 90 minutes, which meant that we would likely have no more than half the 3 hours we had allotted to make our connection at LAX.  But what you gonna do?

Our luck changed some.  The VA planes are relatively roomy, and the staff are attentive.  I had booked us both aisle seats, and neither of us had anyone sitting in the seats next to us.  Absent the Air NZ Skycouch, that's about as good as it gets for a transoceanic flight for which one doesn't pay an arm and leg for first class.  I worked out that one compelling reason that I seldom sleep flying back from Australia is that rather than leaving when one's body clock says, "bedtime!" return flights leave late morning to noon ... and for a 13 hour flight that means the body clock doesn't run down until the last few hours of the flight.  So even though they served lunch a little over an hour into the flight, then turned the lights down, the body clock wasn't fooled.  I coped.  I read a little and watched Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (quirky but well acted) and American Assassin (formulaic and predictable).  I dozed some during the last 3-4 hours of the flight.  About 2 hours out we were served a decent breakfast, and some were encouraged to fill out customs forms, though Americans didn't have to.

As we feared, we arrived at LAX 90 minutes late.  I thought, "We're toast.  No way we make our connecting flight out of here." But this clearly isn't their first rodeo at LAX, so those of us with <90 minutes to make a flight were given an orange "Express Connection" form to take around.  Surprisingly, they worked!  They zipped us through immigration and customs, so hope was alive.  Then we realized that the international terminal was as far away from the domestic terminal for Southwest is as for any of the 8 domestic terminals.  Wayfinding and terminal-to-terminal transportation are not "luxuries" they wasted a lot of money on at LAX, so we were looking for the shuttle bus to the other terminals. I asked a security guard, and she said walking would be quicker.  Man, it was a long walk!  But Susan did great hauling a suitcase and keeping up so we'd have a prayer.  At Southwest we checked in 30 minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave ... and were told by the agent that since our bags were being checked less than 45 minutes ahead of the scheduled departure, they couldn't assure us that they'd make it on our flight.  We just shrugged, made it through security (the pissiest guards we encountered in either hemisphere), and got to the gate before they had begun boarding.  We were in the last boarding group, so we had lousy seats, and of course, it was the only flight on our trip back that left on time.  The flight was full.  As it turned out, I didn't care because I nodded off and slept most of the way to San Antonio.  Also, it hadn't occurred to us that we were traveling on the Thursday before Easter weekend, or that we were changing planes in San Antonio, where they were hosting the Final Four this weekend. Oops!  Made it fine to San Antonio, found a Steak 'n Shake to eat one last unhealthy meal, then waited for a late takeoff ... and found out why it was going to take  a puzzling 3 hours go get from San Antonio to Birmingham:  The plane was stopping in Houston ... that's Houston, Texas! We arrived late and -- you guessed it -- left late from Houston.  So we arrived 30 minutes late in Birmingham.  But we arrived safely ... and our bags made it!!!

Our daughter Katie and her girls met us at the Birmingham airport. We had left the option open of driving home if it wasn't too late when we arrived or staying at their house if we were too tired to make it safely. We decided to drive the 2 1/2 hours home even though we were later than we had planned to have been.  We stopped by their house to give them and our son-in-law their gifts and have a cup of coffee, then left for home around 8:30. Probably not my smartest decision, but I had slept almost the entire time we had been flying after leaving LAX plus a few hours on the flight from Sydney. I was tired, but not really sleepy. Unfortunately there had been an accident on the Interstate before Tuscaloosa that delayed us an extra 20 minutes, but other than that the traffic was light. I stopped and got out to walk around and stretch about half way home. Still I began to hallucinate some in the last half hour. But we arrived safely at about 11:30 pm. Our dogs greeted us enthusiastically, and we felt so grungy from having traveled 24+ hours straight that we both showered. I even unpacked my bags. I finally got in bed after 1:00 am, and I needed no rocking. Our bed welcomed us, and we it.  

We were home, and home is wonderful.  But what wonderful memories we had just made in beautiful lands with friends who are our family Down Under!  Life is good.