Just the beginning.

March 24, 2011                  DOWN UNDER, ALL OVER & NO WORRIES

Linda and DeeDee arrived at O’Hare on Mar. 22^nd for their 5:45 flight.  Check –in and security were uncrowded and slick, so we had time for a bite to eat in the United food court where Deedee proceeded to spill chicken noodle soup on her white shirt.  Our plane was late arriving from Philly so we sat for an extra 2o minutes waiting to board.  After boarding we spent about ½ hour waiting for ground services to confirm how much fuel was loaded before departing. (This was a good thing)   Finally in the air, we decided a glass (or two) of cabernet sounded good before dinner, which Deedee proceeded to spill down the same white shirt.  Blame it on the turbulence – at least that is Deedee’s story and she is sticking to it! 

We arrived at LAX about an hour late – which lead to the lack of an open gate and another hour sitting on the tarmac.  Now…we have less than an hour to find the right counter and get to our flight and anyone who flies knows that does not work and we missed our flight to Melbourne.  We were able to make a later flight to Sydney with another connecting flight back to Melbourne.  After a delightful 14 hours in a metal tube, we arrived in Sydney with about an hour to clear customs, catch a bus to the domestic terminal and catch our short flight to Melbourne.  Not finding our promised GCT agent, we hopped a shuttle into town and our hotel.  While we reached our destination …our luggage did not. Quite remarkable that this is the first time this has happened with all the traveling we’ve done.   Quantas was quite accommodating and offered us each $100 to purchase the missing ‘incidentals’  The downside was that we had to walk about ¾ of a mile in the rain to get to the Quantas office from the hotel.    Our luggage is promised for tomorrow and if not….well it’s back to the Quantas office for another payment. We did find a Target store and bought a few things we were missing.

This evening, we met with our tour leader for an orientation, followed by dinner in our hotel with 12 of the 14 travelers participating in this pre-tour of the outback.  Seems like a nice group of seasoned travelers even though many are GCT virgins.  Time will tell.

Eagle-eye Linda had spotted a liquor store across from our hotel and we are enjoying a glass of Shiraz before turning in for the night.    Our bodies are very tired but it isn’t 9 o’clock yet and who wants to be up at 3am.

Off tomorrow for a bus tour of Melbourne…More to come.