Back Home!

When the conference ended, a bus took those who wished to the Gold Coast airport. This seemed like a good option, so that's what I decided to do. It meant, however, that I had to be packed and ready to go early Wednesday morning. I decided to do most of the packing before I went out to dinner with the Delbarton gang. That's when I discovered that the brand new rolling duffel that I had purchased for this trip  had a major gash in it. It looked as if one of the side seams had given out and there was now an opening along the entire length of the seam. Man, was I angry! When I read the on-line reviews for this product, one reviewer did, in fact, complain about just this. Since it was only one review amid many glowing ones, I dismissed it as a one off. Not so, I am afraid. Well, I intend to complain loudly to eBags about this, or I will pillory them in an on-line review and on Twitter. I did manage to procure some duct tape from one of the guys at the front door of the hotel . . .

I got to the airport as scheduled and had a two-hour wait that grew into three as once again a flight was delayed. As a result, I didn't arrive back in Sydney until 7:00 p.m. I had booked a room at the Holiday Inn at the airport, which was only a 10 minute ride from the terminal. I checked in, dropped my bags and went downstairs to get dinner. I had to be up at 6:00 so I wanted to be in bed early. There were two restaurants- a loud bar/bistro and a much more subdued venue that was offering a buffet. I opted for quiet. It was a good choice. The food was quite good and since it was a buffet, there was no waiting involved. The plan was working. I got back to my room, watched a little TV and switched off the light.

As always on airport days, I was awake before the alarm went off. I made myself a cup of instant coffee in the hotel room, which seems to be the way to go in Australia. No Keurig for them! I did the last minute packing, showered and was ready to go in plenty of time for the airport shuttle. Now, the duct tape didn't really work all that well, but I was happy to learn from the front desk that Sydney International had one of those bag wrapping services. So as soon as I got to the terminal, I had my bag mummified in saran wrap before heading to check in.

From the Qantas airport lounge

At 7:30 a.m, the airport was already jammed. Another reason to be extra glad that I was traveling business class, that and opportunity to wait in the airline lounge before departure. It is such a more civilized experience. Soon we were boarding our airbus A-380, one of the biggest planes I have ever seen for the 15 hour flight to LA.
I won't bore you with the details of such a flight, but it went quickly enough.We made good time, so we were an hour early arriving in LAX, that is to say at 6:00 a.m. Fortunately, layover time in LA was little over an hour.



We boarded our flight to Newark right on schedule, but take-off was delayed (again!) by almost an hour because of a "minor mechanical problem", according to the pilot. Well, it was fixed quickly enough but we seemed to sit on the runway for an awful long time. I was beginning to have flashbacks to a hellish airport experience a few years ago. Thankfully, though, we did take off; and, despite the fact that it was one of the bumpiest flights I have had in a long time,we succeeded in getting to Newark in one piece. I got to the baggage claim area but was anxious when I did not see my driver and my phone was on 1%! Have you ever tried to find a plug in the baggage claim area of Terminal A at Newark Airport? Not easy, but I did. And when the phone had a little more juice I called the limo company and was assured that my driver would be there shortly. I still had to wait for the mummy to come down the chute to the carousel before I could leave anyway. Then all the pieces came serendipitously together; and so I was finally on my way home to Morristown. It felt good to turn into Delbarton and know that I would not have to deal with airports for another month!

It's great to be home.