The big day to head out on my trip had arrived. I would be able to fly out of our local airport (Barkley Regional) which would leave at 6:25am. So, I wanted to get there about 5:30 which required me to get up about 4:30am. I got there no problem. I checked my bag and the young man very kindly explained how things would work once I got to Melbourne. I got through security with ease (one of the nice things about Paducah) but we waited after security for about 20 minutes before boarding. I am constantly reminded by Josh that I get to Barkley too early every time. We got on the plane, took off and got to O’Hare on time.
When I got to O’Hare, I headed straight for the United club in the F concourse. I’d heard it was one of the nicer new ones and I had over 5 hours to kill so I went in to buy a one time visit pass. They are normally 50.00 but because I got there before 8, I got a pass for 35.00. The new lounge is beautiful. There are plenty places to sit and relax with plenty of outlets and free wireless Internet. They also give you all the soda you want (I filled up on Coke Zero). They supply breakfast with various items – I got some scones and bagel sticks. I relaxed on a large couch and did some work and just rested. They brought out lunch about 11:00. I had vegetable soup and crackers and even tried some hummus. They had something called Brownie Brittle for dessert. Since Internet costs 9.99 at O’Hare plus I got breakfast, lunch and soda for free, it really ended up not being a bad deal. I finally had to pack up and head for my flight to LAX.
My flight to LAX went fine and I got there about 4:00 LA time. I grabbed a bottle of soda and a candy bar and started looking for TVs. The Cardinals were playing the Dodgers (in St Louis) so I figured someone there would be showing the game. I figured incorrectly, no one was. I ended up keeping up with the game on my phone while waiting for Josh and his co-workers to get there. It was very good to see him when he arrived. We went to dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s for our last “American Meal” before our trip. Josh and I bought a couple of candy bars for the trip to Melbourne. It was going to be a 15 hour flight.
We got on our plane and headed out. There was in-flight entertainment on the back of each seat. Josh and I played Yahtzee against each other and I started flipping through TV shows. Then I made a mistake. For the first time I can remember in many years, the flight provided airline food for free. I ate the dinner they provided thinking that even that I’d had trouble with the food years ago, I’d be fine today. Well, the food disagreed with me and I had an unsettled stomach all the rest of the way. I watched several shows (including a pretty good mini-series about Harry Houdini) plus listened to Mike Matheny’s book “The Matheny Manifesto”. I put on a mix of 80’s music to try and sleep. I dozed a bit but never could sleep. Too many people would jostle me when they walked the aisles. They offered us additional food (a snack and breakfast) but I could not eat much of it. While you are on the flight, they give you paperwork to fill out. You have to fill out a customs/immigration card stating they you are not carrying in things like explosives, fruits/vegetables, meat, etc. I had also had to say I was carrying in medicine. You fill out a separate form questioning you about Ebola – they want to know if you’ve been to Africa recently. You need this to get through Immigration/Security.
We finally landed and started the process. The automatic passport readers were out so we had to have our passports manually scanned. I handed the officer my Ebola paperwork. He glanced at it for a split second and we headed on. We came to another group of officers who looked at my passport and then my card I had filled out. They asked about medicine and I told them it was prescription. As I tried to get it out of my laptop bag, she said it wasn’t necessary and waved me on through. So much for needing that letter I got from my doctor. We went to baggage claim to reclaim our luggage and showed our passport one last time as we walked past a young man looking at our luggage for anything suspicious. We got by no problem and were finally officially in the country!
Josh and several of the young men with him stopped at the local location of Optus (one the local phone carriers in Australia) to get a Sim card for use while in the country. My company had graciously upgraded my phone plan to international while I was gone. Once that was finished, we haled a large cab (there were six of us) and headed for downtown Melbourne.
That’s plenty for this post. My next post will tell you of our first adventures in the city of Melbourne.
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