1995/11 Australia trip - Flight home |
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This was far from a quiet site, squeezed between gas station, main road, and train tracks, but we zonked out immediately, and the trains woke us up early enough on Thursday to start our clean up. By this time we’d got the technique down pat, so we had it cleaned up, our suitcases loaded, and gas and petrol filled in no time. We had blazing sunshine for our trip in rush hour traffic around Botany Bay to the NQ depot. This was where we’d collected the first camper a month earlier, so we had no trouble finding it.
They were pleased with our clean up so we collected our deposit and took a taxi to the airport. We called Karen to confirm that all was OK and she was really surprised that we were getting on the plane on her Wednesday evening 24 hours before she was due to collect us, but that’s how long it takes!
All three flights were less crowded on the way back, which was just as well, as the quantity of carry-ons was getting embarrassing as well as crippling. As well as the extra suitcase, we also had a poster tube, a didgeridoo, and half a gallon of Bundy rum. Our usual customs formula worked well - declare enough stuff that you owe some money, but not enough that it’s worth their paperwork to collect it!
We managed to get an earlier flight out of San Francisco so that we wouldn’t have to sprint between gates in Chicago, and we rolled in to Minneapolis just about on time. Karen was there to pick us up and whisk us off to the White Bear Sports Center where the rest of the family was watching Michael’s hockey game, and then on to Perkins to get us used to American food again.
The house and cars were still there and all kids and pets seemed to be OK. The snow started a few hours later, so I got used to winter driving in a hurry. By mid-afternoon we had a full scale blizzard, with wind-chill of -40 or so. Welcome back to Minnesota!