Australia

Considering we were on the plane for 15 hours, I don't really remember much of this leg of the trip.

After being awake for some 19 hours, I was dragging ass pretty hard at this stage of the game.  We'd eaten supper at a restaraunt near our gate where I was fortunate enough to have been able to drink two pilsner glasses of Bud Light.  I just didn't realize at the time how fortunate I was.

We boarded the plane at 10:30 local time.  Once we took off the cabin crew announced that if we would like to take a nap, just put our tray down and they would wake you to ask you what you wanted for supper.  They didn't have to tell me twice.  I remember blinking and then I remember Annita shaking me awake to tell me they were going to start serving supper.  Those two Bud Lights went through me quicker than I had anticipated, and I knew I wanted to have a beer to wash down those two Nyquil gel-caps, so I excused myself to make room.

Annita had the beef and vegetables while I elected to have the chicken and rice.  It was only about 3 or 4 hours after our last meal so I didn't eat very much of it.  The flight attendant had asked me what I wanted to drink and I asked her what kind of beers they had.  She said they had VB and something else.  If I would have had a coin in my pocket, I would have flipped it, but I didn't so I just took a VB.  I knew I was in trouble when I could smell it the second I opened the can.  I took a sip.

I'm going to take a guess that VB stands for Very Bad.  I had a sudden urge to try to lick my "21 hours since last shower" armpit to get the taste out of my mouth.  Fortunately for me, I'm not that flexible.  I finished my supper, then popped the two Nyquil and took a big pull of of the ole VB.  I still shudder when I think of it.  After several more drinks, I finally finished the beer and I had a big sigh of relief.  Shortly thereafter, I had a huge burp that didn't taste much better.  It was somewhere around this point that I realized how lucky I was for those last two Bud Lights....

Shortly thereafter, I closed my eyes for a long sleep.  Roughly four hours later, the plane hit some turbulence.  The pilot quickly got on the PA and announced what was happening.  Directly after that, the cabin crew got on and made another announcement.  That was QUICKLY followed by a newborn baby, three rows up from us, SCREAMING HIS LUNGS OUT!!!  It only took 5 or 10 minutes of that for me to get tired of it.  Luckily, Annita had gone through the pouch of crap they gave us and we had a set of earplugs mixed in with the sleeping eye patches.

The night was fairly uneventful after that and we're pretty sure we got about 10 or so hours of sleep, minus the supper, breakfast and screaming baby.

Once on the ground in Melbourne, we went through security and gathered up our luggage.  We walked out of the secure area and were met by Kerrie and Emelia, Annita's sister-in-law and mother.  Kerrie gave us a ride downtown for us to meet Roberto for lunch.

(Click to Biggenate)

(I realize the pictures say Auckland, but they actually were taken in Melbourne.  I'm a blonde.)

Kerrie then gave us a tour around the harbor.  Surprisingly enough, I took more pictures....

(Click to Biggenate)

I was a bit disappointed that the compass didn't list the distance to "Dighton, Kansas," but I guess they can't put all of the important sites on it.

We made a brief stop at a local liquor store to grab some bottles of wine for everyone else, and a couple of beers for myself.

Yes, just a couple.....

That last picture was taken on the counter at Roberto and Kerrie's house.  Speaking of their house, this is the absolutely disgusting view they have from the back porch of their house.

(Click to Biggenate)

At this point, it was pretty much a struggle to stay awake until we finally went to bed at 9:30.  I started this blog Thursday night, but due to circumstances, it's not posted until Saturday morning....LOL

As we're not at the end of the blog entry, I thought I'd post one more appropriate photo.....

Two Down, One to Go...

Two Down, One to Go...

The plane left the gate at Denver and almost made it to the runway before they stopped the plane and asked over the PA system if there were any doctors or nurses on the plane.  No reply.  They kept down the line, getting to "are there any EMT's on the plane?"  Evidently, there was an elderly lady that was having breathing problems, as they had taken her a bottle of oxygen.  The pilot turned around and headed back to the gate.  I pulled out my cell phone and texted my friend Shawn, who is a doctor.  I told him he should have been on the plane, they needed a doctor.  He replied, and I'm paraphrasing here, you should have said, "I'm not a doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night."  While humorous, I don't think the airline personnel would have seen the humor in it.  Besides, we stayed at a Comfort Inn, and the delivery just isn't the same.....

(Click to Biggenate)

But we did make it!!!!

And it was just in the nick of time too!!!  We only had about 12 hours once on the ground until our flight was due to leave for Melbourne.  We had to hang around for about 3 hours before we could get our tickets for the last leg, so we went and ate lunch.

We pretty much twiddled our thumbs for the remaining 2 hours, but once we had the tickets we were off to the golf course!!!  We went to Westchester Golf Course and Driving Range.  We'd read the reviews on the web and didn't have our hopes up too high, but it was a very nice course and in pretty good shape.  We rented clubs that looked like they had never been cleaned.....EVER!!!  I had a Callaway driver that looked like one of the previous renters didn't like their shots and had pounded it on the ground, denting the bottom of the club.  It said 460cc driver, but it looked more like a 440, maybe 445cc.  On the lighter side, with the bottom dented in, it didn't drag so much when you hit it "a little fat."  The biggest problem we had with the course was the greens looked like a hail storm had just passed through.  I honestly think Nita and I were the only ones repairing the greens!!  I quickly took the lead in our little 9 hole endeavor, but we won't go into the final score.  I hate to brag.....

We caught another taxi ride back, made our way through security and ate supper.  Its now 7:20 pm, local time and the plane doesn't take off until 10:40 local time.  That's 12:40 am western Kansas time and we crawled out of bed at 4:30 am after 4 or 5 hours of sleep.  I'm beginning to think I'll be able to sleep most of the sixteen and three quarter hours we'll spend in the air to Melbourne.

Of course, the 2 Nyquil I'll take on the plane, washed down by a fermented hops beverage of some type will assist that!!!!

One Down, Two to Go....

Not much sleep was had last night.  I was tired, but I was also afraid that we wouldn't wake up on time and the entire trip would be shot.  Annita and I turned off the lights and TV in the hotel room at about 10:30, knowing that the alarm on my cell phone would go off at 4:30 AM.  It seemed like I had just closed my eyes when the hotel room alarm clock started going off.  Apparently, the previous occupant was thinking of us and set the alarm to go off at midnight.  Annita pounded on the clock until it quieted down.  Approximately 9 minutes later, we found out that she hadn't turned it off, she had only hit the snooze button.

When the cell phone did go off at 4:30, there was a slight "discussion" about who was going to take the first shower and who got to sleep for another 10 minutes.  I won.  And by that, I mean I got to take the first shower.

We made our way downstairs and after a brief stop at Wal-Mart, we were off to the airport.  It's amazing how empty Wal-Mart is at 5:15 in the morning.

I'm still amazed at how thorough the new pat downs are at the airport.  Surprisingly, those rubber gloves didn't chafe at all.  I did need to step outside and have a cigarette afterwards.  I'm just disappointed that I didn't get his phone number.

Once inside the plane, the co-pilot gave us our pre-flight instructions and he said something about "Beachcraft 1900" and "comfort" in the same sentence.  Annita leaned across the aisle and said "comfort?"

They then did the standard safety instructions also.  Of note was the fact that our seat cushion could be used as a flotation device.  I'm trying to think of a place that has less water than the area between Garden City Kansas and Denver Colorado.  The only place I can think of is the Sahara Desert.  I'm pretty sure they've recently discovered that most locales on the planet Mars have more water than western Kansas.  I guess I should feel lucky.  If, by some chance, our plane happens to crash land in some farmers stock tank, I'm not likely to drown.

I'm merrily typing away on my computer, composing this blog and Annita is sitting beside me, sipping on her McDonald's coffee and reading her new book.  My main complaint about the second leg of our journey is that Annita is sitting in row 30 and I am, for some unknown reason, sitting in row 36.  It's like when we take trips with friends and they separate us so they don't have to put up with our PDA's (Public Displays of Affection).  I didn't think we made THAT big of a scene the last time we flew.....