Final wrap-up

Every trip has an ending. Here's my experience of this one. Counting:
* waiting for the Uber at my hotel in Miami, then the ride out to Miami International
* a couple of hours to check in (and pay $200 for the 3rd checked-in bag) and something to eat in the Lounge
* board and fly 3 hrs to Dallas, TX
* transfer to the nifty Skylink automated people-mover that connects the 5 terminals at DFW, ride around the airport as if you were on a rollercoaster (without the peaks and troughs), alight and walk to the AA Lounge
* walk to the boarding gate for the flight to Melbourne
* wait there for an interminable period while the luggage of some people who didn't show up was retrieved from the hold on the plane
* board the B787, push, taxi, and takeoff
* fly, not straight towards Mexico and Australia, but across to Los Angeles, THEN across to MEL, 17 hrs
* get off the plane, get bags, negotiate Immigration Control, get to the kerb and get an Uber
* ride into the city and get 3 heavy bags, a cabin bag, and a laptop bag into my building and up to my flat...
Best part of 29 hrs on the go (apart from sleeping on the plane, which for me is never particularly restful).

We departed Miami to the east and turned back to track west for Dallas. I got a good low-level view of eastern portions of Miami before sporadic cloud got in the way. I did get a great view of the shining Caloosahatchee Canal, looking back toward Fort Myers and I imagined how tiny our motor yacht must have looked as we transited along there, heading for Clewiston and Lake Okeechobee. From there, it was all above and in cloud until only about 1,000 ft above Dallas and on final approach.

Takeoff from DFW (50 min late at 7.11 pm local) was in darktime and I could see nothing during the flight due to reflections from inside the cabin, although I know we tracked across Albuquerque to Gallup, NM, before a slight left-turn and a track directly to the immediate north of Los Angeles, across the San Fernando Valley, and straight out to sea. Mealtime was completed as we crossed the California coast at 34,000 ft and tracked southwest, to fly to the south of the Hawaiian Islands, following the darkness as Dec 1 became Dec 3. I had several snoozes and was aware as we crossed the northern tip of Noumea at 40,000 ft at 1:40 am AEDT, as I could see the lights of some small towns. By 3.45 am I could see a faint glow of light away to the right, which I would judge as being Newcastle, NSW. Sydney was soon very clear off to the right and we crossed the Australian coast at Shellharbour at 4.10 am. On the same track, we then crossed the remote NSW Budawang National Park, away to the south of Canberra, then abeam Corryong and Bright and overhead Lake Eildon and Kinglake, to arrive at MEL at 5.10 am, almost on time.

My flat was not overrun by mice or fleas, but it was dusty. Turn on the fridge/freezer, the water to the toilet cistern, check the car down in the carpark (battery dead flat, had to get the RACV roadside assistance tech to sell me a new one), start to unpack 4 bags, get some laundry done, arrange with my ISP to get the internet up (booked for Friday), arrange an appointment with my GP and another for a scheduled service for the car, and 4,700 other things.

But it's good to be home!Leia mais