Day: February 28, 2019

We were scheduled to leave LA on March 2nd at 10:55 pm but didn’t take off until 11:41 pm. I was looking forward to our flight because I heard Qantas has an all Australian crew and the ladies from down under are beautiful. As many of you know, my brother married an Aussie (Fayla) and she is beautiful. I have to admit our flight attendants were not my type but Patrice thought they were very attractive.

The flight and the flight crew were fantastic. We were welcomed aboard and given a gift of pajamas to wear.

This was a long flight, 15 hours from takeoff to touchdown. It gave us plenty of time to have two meals (pretty good food), plenty of snacks (I love dark chocolate), watch 3 movies (“A Star is Born” – overrated; “If Beale Street Could Talk” – too depressing; “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” – funny but dark) but more importantly we had wonderfully long naps.

Arrival went smoothly. We passed through customs without incident, picked up our luggage, and were met by our OAT tour guide, Darrin. While waiting for the rest of our group to assemble I wandered over to a newsstand to start to assimilate some of the local culture. I noted the local paper and it was dated March 4th. Now, wait for one second! We left LA on March 2nd at about 11:40 pm and took a 15-hour flight but we arrived 2 days later? How can that be? I know I slept a long time but not two days worth. I asked Darrin about it and he said something about an international date line. I said, no thank you, I’m happily married. He then explained that during the flight it was actually March 3rd for a very brief time then somewhere over the Pacific we crossed into tomorrow and it became the 4th. So the 3rd came and went without me even noticing it. I checked my Fitbit and it said, zero steps for March 3rd. As far as I am concerned if my Fitbit says zero steps on March 3rd, the day did not exist. I looked up famous events that occurred on March 3rd and found essentially nothing. The first Senate override of a President (John Tyler) occurred on March 3, 1845 but other than that, not much. So I am okay with March 3, 2019 not being part of my life and will move on to March 4th without any complaints.

After checking into our hotel we went on a brief walk of the downtown area. Now we are at the hotel and

will soon meet up with our tour companions for dinner. I am quickly running out of gas. after all, we went from March 2nd to the 4th in 15 hours. I deserve a little rest.

Today we are off on an adventure to Australia. Let me rephrase that, TONIGHT we leave on a trip to Australia. Our plane is due to take off at 10:55 pm. I don’t recall ever leaving on a trip that late.

Patrice has long been lobbying for a trip to the down under. Personally I never really cared to go to the place. But with Patrice being so open to traveling to all the MLB parks (let’s see if she will really go to Cleveland, Milwaukee and Cincinnati) how could I decline this wish.

This will be our first trip with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) who comes highly recommended by our friends Don and Ginger. So far they seem to have their act together (OAT, not Don and Ginger although I’m sure D&G have their act together too). We have received lots of information and recommendations to help us prepare for our vacation. Our tour guide has been in contact and recommended we read “In a Sunburned Country” by Bill Bryson to help us get familiar with this far away continent.

Let me quote from the book, “Of the world’s ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian. Five of its creatures–the funnel web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick, and stonefish– are the most lethal of their type in the world. This is a country where even the fluffiest of caterpillars can lay you out with a toxic nip, where seashells will not just sting you but actually sometimes go for you. Pick up an innocuous cone shell from a Queensland beach, as innocent tourists are all too wont to do, and you will discover the little fellow inside is not just astoundingly swift and testy but exceedingly venomous. If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or even carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback. It’s a tough place”.

Now let’s wait a second. This is what the tour company wants us to read prior to paying them a bunch of money to takes us to, and around, Australia?

I need to go now. I’m going to check to see if we can reroute this plane to Cincinnati. “.