April 8 – Return to St Louis

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Today we returned to the US from our vacation in Australia. It is sad that the adventure is concluding as there are lots of other things to see in Australia, but we are ready to come home.



We had a shuttle transfer arranged at 7:45 to get us to the airport for our flight, so we got up about 6:00 to get cleaned up and packed in plenty of time. However in his zeal to get everything into the suitcases with a weight distribution which would satisfy the airlines, David kept packing things which were still needed. So there were several rounds of unpacking and repacking, only to be done all over again when something else was needed (by that time he couldn’t remember which bag had what things inside). At last we were ready and we had the bags down in the lobby about 7:15.



The van showed up on time and we were the 2^nd pair of customers, both going to the airport. The first couple were loud obnoxious New Yorkers who were the stereotypical “ugly Americans” on vacation. The driver wasn’t very conversational so they kept trying to talk to us, and we were trying to ignore them. We got delivered to the International Terminal, but we had an in-country connection to Sydney, so he had to take us to the correct place. All-in-all, it wasn’t a great way to start this long day.



We got checked in for our flight and the luggage was booked all the way to St Louis, although we were told we would have to claim it in Dallas and rebook it for the final leg of our flight after clearing customs. We grabbed a bite of gourmet breakfast at Hungry Jacks (alias Burger King) and went to our gate. The in-bound flight was delayed arriving, so we were delayed leaving by about 30 minutes. Otherwise, the first leg was uneventful.



We arrived in Sydney and had to jog 15 gates to catch a shuttle bus to their International Terminal (our delayed flight had made the connection here a problem). We were bused to the terminal but did not know which gate to use, so we had to check in again, just to get directions to our gate. We then had to pass through the out-bound Australian immigration, walk past the numerous Duty Free stores trying to make one last sale to the tourists, and down a long set of walkways to our gate. Strangely there were two jumbo jets trying to load at the same time, both using the same small waiting area, so it was very crowded and we had to stand and wait for about 20 minutes (guess the jogging hadn’t been necessary after all) before we could get on our plane.



We boarded a 747-400 which was configured with two aisles (3 seats on the left by the windows, 3 seats on the right by the windows, and 4 seats in the center). The plane was completely full. We had two seats in the center section this time which meant the person next to us had a shorter way to get out on the other aisle rather than climbing over us. The flight left pretty much on time, maybe a little late but not much (about 2:20). They gave us headsets to watch our personal entertainment screens and we settled in for a very long flight. The “flight data” screen gave lots of information about locations, time and temperature at the departure and destination locations, and other stuff including the estimated flight time of 14 hours 40 minutes. After we got to Dallas, David overhead one of the flight crew tell a customer that we had just completed the “longest scheduled commercial flight of anywhere in the world”. It certainly seemed that way.



A couple of hours out of Sydney, they served a dinner meal (including free wines) and we both chose the Sheppard’s Pie – the other choices didn’t sound like what we wanted. The flight was heading west and soon it flew into darkness as we literally flew into the sunset. They eventually dimmed the cabin lights to try to let people sleep, but we both just watched the screen (David saw 4 movies and listened to a variety of music albums whilst Janet watched a movie and then most of season-6 of Big Bang Theory). During the “night” they periodically brought around snacks to those who were awake (slice of pizza, a crisp apple, a package of cheese & crackers, an ice cream bar, and frequently glasses of water). At some point we flew into the sunrise and they brought the cabin lights up again. They served a choice of hot or cold breakfast and we both selected the Continental breakfast (the hot meal said it was scrambled eggs with spinach and pumpkin – yuck L). At long last we reached Dallas and landed pretty much on time. The flight was nice and smooth most of the time, with only a couple of occasions of little bumps, so that was good news. But almost 15 hours in Economy made it seem like a very long flight. When we got to Dallas, the clock time in Sydney was about 15 hours later, but our watch had to be readjusted to say about an hour BEFORE we had taken off! That makes up for the day we lost when we flew the other direction in March.



Arrival in Dallas meant going through their maze of corridors to get to immigration. The process there was highly automated and went quickly (thank you!). We collected our suitcases, walked past the customs person saying we had nothing to declare, and dropped our bags off at a collection point for their continued flight to St Louis. We had to go back through TSA security and this time it was the “shoes and belts off” routine. Nothing like that had occurred in Australia (neither flight) although we did have to have the laptop and purse scanned there – they even let us carry a bottle of water through their inspection in Melbourne. In Melbourne Janet had been randomly selected for “bomb sniff testing” and in Sydney David was given the same sniff test, but obviously we passed both tests. In Sydney there was someone who refused to go through the body scanner machine and we don’t know if he ever got on his flight, but it was an irritation to us as we waited in line behind him.



There was plenty of time for us to make our final connection to St Louis and to remember how to use the cell phone to text Elizabeth that we were successfully back in the US. We were pretty tired by the time we boarded this last flight and dozed a bit on this final leg of the journey. We got to St Louis on schedule, found our luggage and Elizabeth had already come to the cell-phone lot to await our arrival. She was pulling up to the curb when we came out of the terminal. By the way, St Louis Airport is the only place where we had to pay to use a pushcart for our baggage – the other cruise ports and terminals had been free.



Anyway, she picked us up and we drove home via a McDonalds (it was dinner time in St Louis and we had left the house empty of food when we left). Elizabeth told us some of the things which had happened while we were away, and the house and cats were all fine. She went home to her house (had to go to work the next day and she had a sick husband to care for). We called Valerie and Stephanie just to say we were back alright, and we went to bed shortly after 8:00. We both woke up for a little while during the night, but we slept until almost 11:00 the next morning. So now we are back home and hopefully over our jetlag.



All the walking around the airports and sitting in airplane seats was not good for Janet’s knee, but she was taking the ship’s “miracle pills” today (had been using just Aleve the past few weeks) and she was able to cope fairly well with everything. If it isn’t better soon, then she will check with her doctor.



Previously our longest vacation had been our 2011 28-day UK and Europe trip. This trip easily exceeded that trip in mileage, as well as 8 more days of exploring. This certainly was our “big vacation” for 2014. Our next cruise is not booked yet, however we plan to try to organize a 2015 Alaskan cruise with some friends. We will be sending a note inviting those with interest to join us in planning the trip. Even if you cannot go to Alaska with us, you will get a blog link to read about it next year. Until then, that wraps up this amazing story.

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