Day 32

Well, what can be said? Day 32 was a travel day, and a long one at that (really what should be called THE travel day, as it is all the way back home.) We left the hotel at about 9AM Melbourne time, and caught the first leg of our journey at 12:20. We landed at LAX at approximately 8AM PST on Friday morning. I can't get past that. We landed 4 hours before we took off. LOL. I didn't get any sleep on the flight for some unknown reason, and neither did Colleen. She was not at all happy, again, with me in Business class and her in Economy. Still, we had plenty of time to get through customs, etc. and be ready for our flight to Dallas. She was able to catch a smoke, which at least helped settle her nerves a bit.

American had the flights completely booked, so I couldn't get her upgraded to First class on the domestic legs. Since she was so upset, I told her she could fly home First class on the domestic legs. That gave her a pretty decent chance at some sleep (and a couple of free cocktails to allow her to be drowsy.) I felt a little better about that.

In the security line at LAX, we stood behind Michael Ian Black. If you have seen the recent Sierra Mist commercials, it was exactly like that, since we watched him go through the security gate. He had a very nice iMac, one of the 17-inch bad boys. A real brush with greatness once again. This one was cool because he was a pop celebrity, not a tennis or sports celeb. He did have some partially faded cheesy fake tattoo on his neck, and looked like he'd been partying the night before, but who were we to judge? I know I looked bad. I had been up 16 plus hours already.

While waiting for our flight, we were approached by a fairly drunk man looking for a light for his cigarette. He had flown in from Sydney, and apparently took advantage of the business class liberal alcohol policy. Now, I will admit that I did have at least one in the Melbourne airport to calm my nerves before flying, but I wasn't going to be lit by the time I hit LAX. That's a recipe for disaster and serious jet lag. More water, less alcohol. :-)

The Dallas flight was uneventful. We got to our gate early enough to grab some food in the terminal. Our last junk food meal. :-) By the time we got to Dallas, I was fading fast. When we boarded the plane, I was asleep in coach even before the plane had left the gate. That was handy. Still, I didn't manage to finish my last book. I only have a couple hundred pages left, but I had really thought I'd be done after all the flying.

We landed in Raleigh to find winter once again. Well, actually, when Colleen went outside to smoke, she and I discovered that Dallas was bitterly cold as well. But, it was somewhat rainy, cold and damp here. Very much a winter day in the South. We landed at 9PM. I did the math, and we had left Melbourne at 8PM on Friday night. That meant it was a total of 25 hours of flying time, and a 29 hour day for us. We got home to a ton of mail, etc. to have to go through. Ahh, the miracle of coming back to reality. Bills, checkbook balancing, and taxes. :-(

Well, this is going to be the last post I promised as a daily. I know, I didn't post until Monday, but I was tired, and jet lag had kicked in. I will keep up the blog, and continue to post as interesting things come through. Be on the lookout on our main site for the pictures and slide shows. We definitely have some interesting ones out there. :-)

Cheers!