We called a taxi and were off. When I checked in we discovered that my suitcase was 37 kilos. They only allow 32 kilos so we opened the bag up and started trying to get more weight in the backpack. It wouldn’t hold any more bulk. I started tying things on the outside of it like boots and the sleeping bag etc. Then we stuck it back down in a huge Quantas plastic bag. We got the weights more equalized and neither was over the limit. I couldn’t pick up either of them. The backpack in the plastic bag is particularly a problem because there was nothing to grip onto. Thank goodness I didn’t have to handle them too much again.

It was a sweet goodbye. I had such a wonderful visit and was so happy to see Andrew so happy and involved. It was a day that we knew was coming and it was time. He was ready to head on to his next adventure and it was time for me to enter the working world again. Rus told me it would be quite an adjustment it has been. My flight to Sydney went fine, as did the one from Sydney to LA. I watched the 8:00 movie, which was Contact but opted to sleep through George of the Jungle. They woke us up for breakfast and to give us our customs paperwork. I looked at my watch and it was 3:30 a.m.! It was broad daylight wherever we were.

The tough part of the trip was from LA to home. I got in LA at 11:30 a.m. We were early but our gate was occupied so we had to sit on the runway 30 minutes. I think my bags marked heavy put them on the bottom and they were among the last off that flight. I got them on a cart and proceeded through customs. Then I had to make my way with them from the international airport to the domestic. I couldn’t carry the luggage to catch the bus so I had to roll the cart across the airport to the other side of the road. I ended up finding Delta without too much trouble. There was a flight leaving for Dallas in 20 minutes and they tried to put me on it stand-by but it was over filled. At least they had checked my bags!! My bags ended up arriving a day before me in Shreveport. There were no more flights with space until 1:45 a.m., but I figured that was still better than the 7:00 a.m. I had. It meant I got to Dallas at 6:30 a.m. and didn’t leave there until 9:57 a.m. I was home about 11:00 a.m. I’d been on an airplane for two nights of "sleep" and in airports or planes for over 40 hours. I was ready to be home!!