FriendBurst Blog

Days 1, 2 & 3 – Thursday, Friday & Saturday – September 16, 17, & 18

Weather:  Good for flying (I hope)

Destination:  Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Total Miles Traveled:  7,761 as the birds fly

Price of Fuel:  What is the cost of jet fuel?

Route Taken:  Las Vegas to Los Angeles to Sydney

Highlights:  The flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles was scheduled to leave at 6:45 p.m., but because we arrived to the airport, not hell-bent at the last minute, but on time with a little to spare, the airline decided to run a bit behind schedule.  Geez, I hate flying, but how else do you get there?  A slow boat through China, maybe?  I don’t really care as long as we can make our flight from Los Angeles to Sydney at 9:45 p.m.  I don’t want to waste anytime stuck in L.A., especially at the airport.

Flying to Los Angeles took all of 40 minutes.  Just enough time to get us up in the air, put a drink in us, and set us down in L.A.  We made it with less than 20 minutes to hightail it from the domestic terminal to the international terminal, check in, get through security, and make it to our boarding gate.  I must have set off some alarm somewhere in the dark recesses of the airport screening room when they put me through the super x-ray machine at LA International, because I was pulled out of the line for an upper body pat down by a TSA officer.  I asked the girl if they did this for all the passengers or if I was just special.  She replied with a polite “no” and said she does what they tell her from the backroom.  You just can’t have any fun with those guys.  Then when I went to pick up my stuff off the conveyor belt, they grabbed my travel vest to double check it.  Turned out my e-cigs charging pack gave them some concern until I told them what it was.  I guess I’m a marked woman.

The plane was huge and it was fully booked.  It seemed to take forever to get everybody on board.  We, of course, were in the last row, middle section.  The seats weren’t that much different from any other plane I’ve traveled on (which really haven’t been that many).  A tiny bit wider with a tiny bit more leg room, but it was far from enough.  The flight attendants were very doting, the food was really good, and everything was included in the ticket fare.  All in all, Qantas was almost everything they say they are.

It was a very long and uneventful plane ride.  A very, very long plane ride.  It didn’t help that it was night time and I actually think that made the ride seem even longer.  Every seat had an awesome entertainment console with movies, satellite radio, some television, outside flight camera, real time flight tracking, and video games.  I watched The Last Airbender and Ghost Writer, which I thought were both fairly good movies.  I tried to sleep after dinner, but all I could do was snooze off and on.  In between snoozes, I tried to play a few video games, but I just couldn’t get into it.  Too excited I suppose.

When we finally landed it was Saturday in Australia, the sun was up and I was dog tired, but the adrenalin rush from the excitement was keeping me going.  My butt has never been so sore or cramped in all my life.  Walking through the airport made my blood start circulating freely again and everything in my arms and legs felt all prickly.  Gratefully, that didn’t last long.

We went through Customs & Immigration without any problem.  The immigration officer wanted to know where we were staying while in country and when we told him we rented a motorhome, he asked where we were going.  We told him, he looked at us in astonishment, and told us we would not be able to make the drive in the 29 days as we have planned.  He asked if we realized how big Australia is and how far it is between places.  We said that we did, but I don’t think he believed us.  We figure if we can make it over halfway across the United States in less than 4 days, we could make it around half of Australia in 29.  I know he’s betting we won’t by the smug smile he gave us.

All of our bags arrived with us thereby checking the biggest worry off our list.  We made it out to the taxi stand and were amazed to see a line to get a taxi that was just like the ride lines at Disneyland.  Another 20 minutes of waiting, the line creeping along every so often, and we were on our way to the Cheapa Campa rental office.

Stops:  Since we were flying over an ocean, it’s a good thing we didn’t have any stops along the way.

Where We Stayed:  In our seats, except to stretch and walk through the cabin every few hours.

Where We Ate:  Again, in our seats.  For dinner our choice was Mahi Mahi.  The evening snack was popcorn, a fruit bar, peppermint candy and water.  Breakfast was a bowl of Raisin Bran, with yogurt and melon on the side.  I could have had the frittata, like the Man did, but since I had no clue what exactly that was, I thought I’d play it safe with the Raisin Bran.