We're baaaaaack!!!

We left Denise & Roy's at 5am. First flight went Great! Sarina even had her own seat. About a 1.5 hour flight. That will be the last of the free seats though, I'm afraid to say.

Got to Brisbane and had to catch a ride to the International terminal and the cabbie wanted to wait for another fare -- three suitcases in the trunk, and two bags, a stroller, Sarina and myself in the backseat, and Scott climbs into the front and he says yeah you ride in the back seat man? I want pick up another fare. Say WHAT?! The car is completely full and we need to get going. 'I been waiting over an hour, need to pick up another fare'. Yeah, whatever. Scott told him to get his butt moving. He wasn't too happy but neither would the additional passenger have been when he'd have had to squeeze into that packed car.

The second flight was fairly smooth, Sarina was a bit anxious. We weren't so lucky as to have a seat in-between us like last time, the flight was packed.

Once we got into L.A. and through customs, we checked in and moved towards our gate, we decided to grab a bite quick at the Chili's Too nearby, sounded good and refreshing. Then I realize it's only about 9am! So much for lunch. But their breakfast menu has a few possibilities, I leave Scott to order me a hot breakfast and the Fly or Run for Sarina (fresh fruit, muffin and yogurt - PERFECT! that's just what she needs). I get back and Scott says they no longer have that. Umm.....okay, then take it off the menu you jerks! Or at least draw a line through it. How irritating is that. There was only about seven items to begin with. Oh well. After a while the server drops off our food and doesn't return. Scott's breakfast potatoes are cold. We're over half done eating and he finally comes by, Scott tells him about the cold potatoes, and he says, 'but you've eaten half of them'. Barely! there wasn't many to begin with. 'But if something isn't right I have to take plate back to kitchen and they'll say, these are half-eaten'. Well, yeah! You left us for 15 minutes with no service. 'Okay, I have two Sprites on your bill (Scott had ordered two, I canceled mine though), if I can leave both on there I'll get you new potatoes'. Say What?!? In order to get hot food you're going to over charge me for something else? Geezus. Whatever. Then he comes back a couple minutes later with two plates of potatoes - at least four times what the original amount on Scott's plate was. So that made a lot of sense. He obviously didn't want to have to locate a manager to correct the bill so he had to get around it. What a yahoo.

So then we wait at the gate for our flight to Chicago, listening to the woman at the ticket collection telling everyone not to waste time and get into their seats quickly we need to leave promptly, yadda yadda. So we're all on the plane, a person or two getting situated yet, and the captain comes on saying that slight bump you may have felt a few minutes ago was an agent down below who ran into the plane. he may have broken it, we're waiting for maintenance to make an assessment. Yikes! The entire plane is silent, not believing our ears. Another ten minutes or so he comes back saying it has a broken part but there is a replacement on the way from the hangar. Should be about 25 minutes from now. Loud groan from the passengers. Twenty minutes passes and he says the part is installed just need to run a diagnostic check before maintenance can sign off. Eventually we get going and are only about an hour late taking off from the scheduled time. Yeesh. Hope the guy who can't drive gets a whoopin' from his boss.

Enough time was shaved off the flight with the strong winds in our favor, so we only ended up being a half hour late getting in. Hop skip and a jump to a gate almost the farthest possible from our arriving gate and we're boarding for Madison.

We land right on time and our beloved aunt Charlene is there waiting for us, our luggage rolls out in a timely manner all intact and away we go, head for home. About 7:15pm we roll in the door. Hallelujah! It is now about 10:15am on Thursday in Mackay - a mere 29 1/4 hours since we left! Can't wait to kick back and take a rest. My tailbone is considering permanent punishment after the treatment I've given it these last 29 hours.

However, the day isn't over yet. Upon further inspection of the house, we realize the bedroom is still completely torn up where a general contractor was supposed to have completed some repairs from a roof leak. Three and a half weeks, and they didn't even finish. Gosh it will feel good to sleep on the living room floor! Story to continue on that some other time....