A regular and uneventful start day. Picked up by the Conn-X-ion shuttle at 6:45, and braved the peak hour traffic down the highway to the Brisbane airport. Check in and security went without a hitch, and for once I wasn’t singled out for an explosives test – we must be in Brisbane and not Sydney.
Plane was a few minutes late, so time for a few laps of the terminal while we waited.
Short 3 hour flight to Auckland on an Air New Zealand 787. Watched Ticket to Paradise to while away the time – I’ve definitely seen worse on a flight.
Coffee at the airport after yet another round of security.
And it’s still Tuesday.
All of the US bound flights were in their own terminal at Auckland, with extra security measures and random drug swabbing. A Houston, San Francisco and LA flight were all boarding at the same time, and a couple more were on the board for later.
When we boarded our Air NZ 777 for the long haul to LAX around 8pm we found that it was not completely full, and we were lucky enough to have a spare seat next to us, and nobody in the seat in front or behind Greg, so there were very few interruptions during the night. Watched another movie and ate dinner before settling in for the night.
Only managed a couple of hours sleep, but felt reasonably rested when the lights went on for breakfast. Landed about 15 minutes early, and it’s still Tuesday. Tom Bradley is pretty good these days. No arrival cards to fill out anymore. No real quarantine, and customs was pretty quick. So far we’ve never been asked for proof of vaccination anywhere, so that has definitely speeded everything up, although the TSA personnel still yell at you.
A couple of hours to walk all the way down to Terminal 7 to catch our next United flight, drop bags, navigate security, and mainline some more coffee.
Boeing 737 this time – full and waitlisted. Arrived on time in Houston. The usual bunfight trying to find directions to the shuttles, which shuttle picks up where, and where is it going – all made more difficult in the dark as all the information desks must only work business hours. Eventually the taxi marshal allowed me to use his phone to call the hotel, and the shuttle duly turned up.
Wonder of wonders – the hotel had actually heard of a debit card, though they still wanted to suck out a sizeable deposit in case two elderly, dead-tired tourists were going to party and trash the room.
Wandered into the Hot Biscuit next door for a very late tea, but heck its nice to be back in a land where you can get a meal at anytime.
Finally got to bed some 33 hours after we got up – and it’s still Tuesday.
Ramada by Wyndham Houston Airport South
I laughed all through that email.
It was very entertaining, and it brought back some not so fond memories of Air travel.
And it’s still Tuesday !!!!!