20060530 Tuesday  Sydney, NSW, Australia to LAX         No Photos   

We took off from SYD at at 1030 and arrived at LAX at 0700 the same day. International Date Line effect again.

Dolores saw a sign at Ayers Rock that said, "Australia - it's a bloody long way" and "12700 km". Today's flight was 7,877 miles end-to-end, which confirms that it's a bloody long way.

We piled into the plane, took out our books and basically read all the way to LAX, arriving a little after midnight Sydney time. We'd wangled window and middle seats in an exit aisle row for huge legroom, which helped a lot in the 747-400 with its tight seating. So we were as comfortable as possible, but my tail still fell asleep a couple of times.

Beverages were complimentary. The guy next to me had a different travel policy; he downed two beers, then dinner with five mini-bottles of wine, and slept to LAX.

At LAX, we caught the hotel shuttle to the Four Points LAX hotel, and were lucky in that they had a room we could occupy immediately. So we flopped down and napped till early afternoon. Then we went out to a Denny's for a real American hamburger and chocolate shake.

Now we're back in the room, doing the computer chores. Tomorrow we get up early to get the Delta flight to ATL and connect to home. Wow, what a trip.



20060531 Wednesday Panama City Beach, FL             No Photos

Home again!

Air travel today was a bit screwy, but we survived. Delta leases a couple of gates from United, so we wound up going thru security over there after checkin in the Delta terminal. Strange. Our papers were checked as we entered a fenced-in area. We then went up an escalator and at the top, our papers were checked again. I suppose someone could have got onto the escalator half-way up, but it seems unlikely.

Finally got going on the 767 - smooth enough flight - clouds all the way, so we couldn't see much.

ATL was the customary zoo - people everywhere. We found the gate for our little turboprop plane to PCB. We taxied forever. Finally the pilot whipped all the gerbils into action, the propellors spun and we wandered down to Panama City. Took a bit to get a taxi at the terminal, but then we got home in fine fashion.

We dragged the suitcases into the bedroom, where they still lie. The house was 80*F, where we'd left it, so we set it back to normal.

Went to the store and got a few supplies, then made sandwiches for dinner. Tasted good after all the fancy living. 

Brush fire north of town has taken out 300 acres - still dry here.

So that's it!! End of trip.  Glad you could come along.