Day 29 – April 4

Standin’ in the corner
Of Toulouse and Dauphine
Waitin’ on Marie-Ondine
I’m tryin’ to place a tune
Under a Louisiana moonbeam
On the planet of New Orleans
In a bar they call the Saturn
And in her eyes of green
And somethin’ that she said in a dream
Inside of my suit I got my mojo root
And a true love figurine
For the planet of New Orleans – Dire Straits – The Planet of New Orleans

Long Haul Flight

I have been putting off completing the last day’s blog as if not writing it means that I am still in New Orleans.

We are up at 4A.M. for a quick shower before departing for the airport. While the girls were getting ready I went down a few doors to the Quarter Master for a take-out coffee. Bourbon Street is quiet with just a few stragglers heading home and a couple of locals out walking their dogs. Although I did disturb a rather large rat!

Kate ordered us an Uber and I waited outside with our suitcases. A couple of late night punters on their way home stopped across the way from me and proceeded to get into an argument. They are not bums and the guy is pretty well dressed. Both are drunk but not falling over drunk. Our Uber rolled up and then I noticed the drunk guy come over in my direction. Now I wondered what mischief was he up to? He said, ‘Sir, let me help you with those suitcases and he proceeded to load the boot for me.’ Only in New Orleans I guess. He said New Orleans is a great city but he was from Miami and that was a better city. He is obviously more drunk than appears.

We are pretty sure that the three main suitcases will be over the weight limit. Our assumptions are correct. The girls blamed me for the problem as they have shared the books I have purchased in the 3 cases. Can’t figure out why we are overweight as all the books I have purchased could be deemed as ‘light reading.’

There is another long line to get through the security check and we would miss our flight if we lined up. Went and saw one of the officials and they bumped us to the priority line and so we were O.K.

The flight to L.A. was uneventful and I wiled away the time by playing the on-board Trivia Game, recording the two highest points score for the game, do you mind. I played under Kate’s name. She headed the leaders board not long before landing. Most be a lot of dumb-arses on this flight!

Now comes the tricky part of this trip. A 12 – hour stop-over in L.A. We have planned to book in our bags and then do a tour of downtown L.A. Kate tried to use the check-in consul for our Delta flight to Sydney and unfortunately we have had our carrier changed to Virgin Australia. We made it to another terminal to the V.A. desk and found out that it would not be manned/womaned (I know that is not a word, just being politically correct) until 3P.M. The time now is 9 A.M. There is also nowhere to store all our cases. It is no use the three of us babysitting our cases for another 6 hours so I volunteered to stay at the airport while the girls went to Hollywood. Ain’t I nice, but they better bring me back a present.

Surprisingly the time went by quickly and they got back to the airport around 5ish. We went and got a meal and sat around for our flight to leave at 10 P.M. For the first time I can remember I fell asleep. I must have slept for some-time as I remember looking at the time to destination countdown and it was some ten hours. When I awoke it was 4 hours 30? We did have one lot of bad turbulence which Kate said made her leave her seat. It was pretty bad but thankfully did not last long.

We got into Sydney, Friday the 6^th at 6:20 A.M. having left New Orleans, Wednesday 4^th at 6:30 A.M. time zone differences taken into account we have still been on the road for a long time. Problem is now we have another 10 – hour stop-over in Sydney. When I booked the flights O did not realise that it was 10 at night not 10 in the morning for our connection to Melbourne. We had tried to change the time through the Webjet portal however they wanted $200 extra per person. Maybe V.A. themselves would be more reasonable and understanding. Of course not. Silly me, they want $203 per person. What to do as we are all exhausted. Wendy suggested we book into a nearby hotel for the day. Good idea and we got a day room at the Airport Hotel for around $80. Check in at 10 and checkout at 5. We could have a shower and rest.

Back at Sydney airport at 6 P.M. for a feed and another longish wait for the flight. At long last we are heading back to Melbourne. We landed at 11:15 P.M. I will let ya’ll do the math as to how long we have been travelling. We used the new passport recognition consul to get through the otherwise long line to see a Border Protection Officer. Well that is Wendy and I did. When Kate used the face recognition – system she had no luck. She only had her Passport issued last year and the system cannot recognise her face. No I am not making any comments for fear of death.

We are safely home by 1 A.M. Another N.O. trip under the belt. The trip did not go as smooth as other years what with Kate’s banking issues, my new phone being drowned and now useless, the worst storms in living memory for Jazz Fest. I must see to getting a new Gris Gris to ensure more – smoother travels next time around. All in all though it was another great trip. Many thanks to all our wonderful friends in N.O. who always go out of their way to make us feel welcome. Pat and Gentilly Jnr., Stew and Carol, the Iggy’s crew, William and Mickey and the extra friendly citizens of N.O. themselves. See ya’ll next time around.

P.S. Pat said I should keep up with a daily blog. Not sure why as I am a pretty boring guy but I may just do that so as I can have a rant about the things that peeve me and the things that please me.