Catching Up

Hey all, I’ve finally got my computer working, semi-reliable internet access, and some down time so I am going to work on this in stages. I’ve been jotting this particular section down in bits and pieces for the past week so the times are a bit incongruous. I have faith that you all can figure it out. I am in Hobart after an awesome week in Cairns, but first thing is first.

I.                    Preparations

Logan came into town a week ago Monday and provided plenty of distraction from packing and other preparations I should have been engaged in. We had a lot of fun going down to the boat and hanging around in West Chester.

The heat came Thursday evening, when it suddenly dawned on me I was leaving on Sunday and I had accomplished very little in the packing department. That night my computer hard drive crashed, taking all of its data with it. Among the data was my beautiful packing spreadsheet that I had spent hours working on. Thursday night was the only time I was really nervous about the trip; I had lots to do and the computer nonsense had caught me completely off guard. Friday morning I hit the ground running with a trip out to Best Buy for a new hard drive, only to find that I had purchased a desktop (as opposed to a laptop hard drive). I sent Logan and Pete to exchange it for one that would actually fit into my computer while I scrambled to make up a new list ( a hard copy this time) and get packing. By the evening I was probably about 85% packed and I had a functioning computer. On Saturday we took the boat out for one last run before I left, and between Saturday night and Sunday morning I tied up the loose ends.

II.                  The Trip

We departed for the airport about noon on Sunday, and after an easy drive we parked the car and after an easy drive in we parked the care and my family came with us to the security line to make sure the guitars got through.  Everything went smoothly and we said out goodbyes.

The first leg to Dallas was on time and went without a hitch. We had a long layover, so to amuse ourselves Logan and I rode the SkyLink train a full loop around the airport, stopping in the middle to get some food. Getting back on the train, Logan pointed out that the name SkyLink was suspiciously close to SkyNet (the rouge computer system in The Terminator). Fortunatley, the computer controlling the SkyLink train seemed to have no hard feelings towards us and we boarded the plane to LAX a few minutes later.

Los Angeles is where the story starts to get a little interesting.  We had to go out through security and walk over to the international terminal and check in with Qantas to get our boarding passes for the rest of the trip. As we approached, what we first assumed was a lot of people waiting for taxis and other transportation started to look more and more like a check in line. It stretched out the doors of the terminal and easily a hundred yards or more down the sidewalk. Nervously we walked passed, hoping that we wouldn’t have to stand in it. Even though we had a comfortable layover time of about three hours, I don’t think we would have made it to our plane. It turned out the line was for Singapore Air, so we dodged that bullet. I am curious about how many people in that line made it to their plane on time. In the (much shorter) Qantas check in line, we chatted with a guy we recognized from our last flight. As we exchanged final destinations, a girl in line turned around and asked us if we were going through Australearn. We met Rebecca, who will be studying in Tasmania with us.

While deciding whether to get dinner outside of security, I assured Logan and Becca that there was probably lots of food on the other side. I was kind of spooked by the Singapore Air check-in line and wanted to make sure we would get through. Fortunately, we cleared security in about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, there was only one restaurant on the other side, and their prices reflected that fact. Chock one up against my ethos.

Waiting in the lounge, we ran into several other Australearn kids. Our plane had been delayed even more so we gathered together and swapped the requisite information about our home towns, our majors, and our final destinations. We were all headed initially to Cairns for the Australearn orientation, but then we would travel to several different universities throughout Australia. We also pulled out the guitars and played a little in the airport.

This is where the story starts to get interesting, but I need to collapse in bed. Hopefulkly the next installment in a day or two. Hope all is well back in the states!