Day 27

After a late night there was no chance of a sleep in.
Carol, Mike’s wife, is up early as she has to go to college for an exam, and we will not see her again this trip.
I did not sleep all that well, no particular reason, as we are all set to go. So I am tired.
There are tears as Carol leaves. She has been a great host.
We do the final pack. As we have some time we also wash all our dirty clothes, so are going home with clean stuff, other than our travel clothes, which will be on the nose by Sunday.
Sue’s brother Percy has promised us breakfast from Tim Horton’s a take –out coffee place.
We wait, and wait, and wait until Mike decides that we should have breakfast and makes some BLT’s.
They go down well, and of course just as they’re being digested, Percy arrives with coffee and the breakfast sandwich. Pretty much like a McDonalds breakfast burger. OK but not really needed.
By this time the three last to leave last night are in the house.
Thank full our lift arrives. We are heading across the border to fly out from Detroit Metro and have to cross into the US.
At the border, we get the usual, where are you from, how do you know each other. We are ten told to park the car and wait, as they want to do further checks.
So there we are with about a dozen other vehicles in our car, with a yellow sticker on the windscreen.
A guard comes and takes the car keys and puts them on the roof. We wait and wait, then the sniffer dog comes around, does over all the cars.
They then come by and ask for the trunk (boot) to be opened. The sniffer dog comes around again and jumps in all the car trunk.
We wait. The guards lead off some guys behind us, in hand cuffs, and we are handed back our passports and released.
The trip to Detroit Metro takes quite a time, it seem far out. When we arrive the airport is almost deserted.
He check in is simple, we are the only ones in the line.
Luckily the bag going for the holiday is checked right through to Adelaide. It just gets in under the limit at 50lb.
We also have all our boarding passes right through as well, and we are sitting together.
Security is at level Orange, so it’s off with the shoes, coat, take off any belt. Pockets empty and into the full body scanner, which we survive without embarrassment.
Of course in spite of the drama at the border crossing, we are 2 hours early.
The place is deserted, there are no planes at the gates and none come and go.
A policeman on a bike circuits along the concourse zigzagging back and forth it is so empty.
Surprisingly, Qantas flies out of here to Dallas Texas. Now that’s odd.
The plane arrives and we are together in two seats. The flight is uneventful, other than being late to arrive for us and late arriving at Chicago.
So late we have to run. The Chicago to SF flight is from another terminal, and as luck would have it we have to catch a shuttle bus.
The shuffle bus is empty as we get on, with the prospect of having to wait whilst it fills.
No as soon as we are on off we go, across the airport to Terminal C.
Our plain is boarding as we arrive so there is a rush to get on board.
No time for a pee.
Our seats are terrible. The plane is a Jumbo 747 and we are in the middle of the middle row. That means climbing over people to get out.
Crap.
That wouldn’t have happened had I been able to get my seats on line.
My travelling companion (the aisle person) gets up to go to the toilet, so I grab the opportunity and do likewise.
The flight is predictably boring, however I do start a new book. Chris O’Brien’s Never Say Die about his life and then being struck down with malignant brain cancer.
We buy some snacks and wine and guess what the wine is Australian red and white. The exported brands we have seen in our travels often bear names that no one would recognise like Walleroo Creek, which we see advertised on a huge billboard just out of Quebec.
It’s a good read.
The flight attendants are cheery with the trash man moving down the aisle collecting trash with a happy demeanour.
The flight ends in San Francisco and we have a 3 hour stop-over.
SF is quiet, with Mexican the meal of our choice with a Corona.
You get quite dry flying, so the beer was quite welcome, wet and cold.
Even though we have our boarding passes from Detroit we are called to exchange them for Air New Zealand ones.
Sue deals her best hand. It’s my birthday! Can we get an upgrade? Sorry there are no upgrades as the flight is full, though I will make a note and maybe they will give you champagne!
We board in a most peculiar process. They call for the rear end passengers first, which makes sense, however just about everyone boards with that call.
We are in the middle and board as instructed, however all the previous boardees are still in the aisles. It takes a long time. There is no room in the overhead lockers.
We are in the middle, with one aisle seat.
I am disappointed, however it actually works quite well, but more of that later.
It is good to hear some Australian-like accents again.
The flight briefing, safety stuff, is very entertaining. The Air NZ people have taken a humorous approach, and nearly everyone watches. A first.
It’s now 8.00PM local time. We have been up for about 18 hours.
The ANZ staffs are airy smiling, happy people with a great mix or ethnicities, Maori, Chinese and Anglo. They all look like they enjoy their work. It all helps.
We get fed of course, so we eat twice tonight and then settle in for the night.
I manage to chew through Chris O’Brien’s book. I am glad the lights are low as it is quite sad and brings tears to my eyes.
Sue gets enveloped in a movie, has noise reducing earphones that make person to person communication difficult.
We are in the aisle behind the babies. There are three and one cries as soon as we get pushed back from the gate and cries continuously for the next 15 minutes. I think we are in for a noisy trip however she stops and is quiet for most of the trip. The other two are obviously great fliers as they hardly peep, and we don’t detect if they poop either. Poop is the North American version of shit. Shit is impolite!
It is now about 10.30PM
But more of that later as we cross the date line and it is now Sunday 7th November.