Before the long flight.
The taxi picked us up at 0500, but we had to make a detour to an ATM because his charge card terminal was malfunctioning. We checked our bags for the short hop - less than an hour - from Launceston to Melbourne. After collecting our bags and breakfast we navigated through security where we were checked for explosives, and through exit immigration. The walk from there to the gate took us on a serpentine path through the extremely bounteous duty free shop and another complex of shops. At one point, I turned to Jonathan and asked “Isn’t there an airport around here?” The gate was the furthest down the pier and we were the first passengers at the gate.
Before the long flight.
Narrative now goes here.
Mom sipping Irish coffee at Red Lobster.
Jonathan 'smiling' on command at Alexander's in Roanoke.
This is what my hiking boots are dealing with now.
Our flights - MEL/LAX, LAX/ORD, and ORD/ROA - were uneventful. At LAX, we used the Mobile Pass app (the United flight crew recommended it on the flight from LAX/MEL) to go through customs and immigration. Use of the app took us out of a line of 100 to a line of 3, thus we cleared in what seemed like record time. We checked our roller boards for the remainder of the itinerary, and made the rest of the flights to Roanoke with our backpacks.
At Mom’s apartment the next day, we opened the boxes of clothes we had shipped there before leaving Saint Paul, and transferred them in the the roller boards and put our dirty trail togs into the boxes and shipped them back to Saint Paul.
Thanksgiving was a festive occassion at the Summit Restaurant in Christiansburg, with our daughters Harris and Devlin and their moms, M’lyn and Diane driving down from Rhode Island, and Cindy and Mike from Arlington. Alas Madison couldn’t make the trip as she got a major assignment from her mentor and needed time to devote to the project.
Our return home to Saint Paul was delayed 24 hours due to our connection being bollixed by a snow storm that went through Chicago a day or two earlier. We took advantage of the extra day in Roanoke to have dinner at Alexander’s, a nice restaruant in downtown Roanoke. But our dirty clothes made it home before we did.
The next travel has not been decided - the ups and downs on the tracks on the Freycinet Peninsula taxed Jonathan more than he anticipated. We've tentatively identified a tour Madagascar: Off the Beaten Path but we will need to assess what 'off the beaten path' means with respect to the challenges of the trails. If we go, it will likely be our last major international adventure tour; we're planning on bringing our focus to domestic travel adventures going forward.