27th October - Departure
We all met up at Perth Airport around 9:30pm on Saturday night. Three of the four ladies had a husband there to see them off! After check in and security we headed upstairs and chatted a while before we boarded on time and took off pretty well on time. The flight was OK but the 737 is very tight for room and I felt very claustrophobic.
It was a three and a half hour flight and we landed in Melbourne pretty well on time, just after 6:00am. Then we strolled from the domestic area to the international area. Leanne and Kerry took the time to sit in a massage chair, which they seemed to enjoy.
We had a ton of time and boarded the plane on time a bit before 10:00am. This was where things went a bit off schedule. The pilot told us that a sensor on the main door was not working correctly. Apparently the latch over the sensor was broken and therefore although everyone knew that the door was properly closed the plane itself was playing safe and saying we couldn’t go anywhere. That latch needed to be fixed which took around an hour.
So our 10:20am departure ended up being 12:22pm.
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Massage chair
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Perth to Melbourne
28th October - Flight to LA
So we left Melbourne 2 hours late and arrived in LA just more than 2 hours late at 8:57am.
The flight can be best described as long! A lot more room on the A380 than there is on the 737 but still tough to get comfortable. We all struggled a bit, particularly Ryan who ended up laying at the back of the plane on oxygen for a bit – he is pissed off that we didn’t take a photo of him whilst he was laying there! I was suffering still from the cold I had last week and gastro problem on Friday but we made it. Kerry seemed to sleep the most; Susan seemed to be hyper the whole time and Leanne and Rayls did well considering they spent time helping Ryan out.
Because of the late arrival the immigration and customs area was crowded and took an hour or so.
We go to Terminal 1, for our Southwest flight to Houston a couple of hours before our scheduled 11:55am flight. Rayls and I have flown Southwest many times but never again from LAX. It was chaos with lines snaking everywhere. One line was going out an outside door for check in and then another line was going back through the same door in the opposite direction and then there was the people just wanting to use the same door to get where they wanted to go. There was massive confusion and we struggled through it all and managed to get to our flight with a few minutes to spare. The gate attendant obviously was not impressed with my latish arrival by snatching the boarding pass off me. I nearly told him what I though of his dumb system but said nothing.
The flight to Houston was a pain, but just 3 hours and good to be at our first up destination. Because of our late boarding we all sat in middle seats spread throughout the plane.
I like Southwest but that system at check in at LAX is a disgrace.
28th October - Houston
We landed in Houston a bit after 5pm. It was a fair walk to baggage and then lucky enough there was an Alamo bus waiting to take us to the car rental facility. Short ride and then no line at the Alamo counter – cool! Problem though, I am so use to renting from Alamo that I didn’t notice this one was from Dollar. So back in the shuttle bus to the airport, take the Dollar shuttle bus and this time we got our mini van.
Short drive to the hotel where we all freshened up. Then off to Dennys for dinner followed by a Wal-Mart for supplies.
Back to the room a bit after 10:00pm and I have been watching the last couple of innings of game 4 in the World Series as I type this.
Tomorrow is another day! Everyone is tired but well.