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Ok, the long awaited update. I flew Brisbane to Seoul to LA to Nashville. Speaking airport codes, I flew from BNE with a final destination of BNA.
The flights were decent. The food was difficult to navigate with the whole new batch of dietary restrictions, but I coped. We got rushed through Seoul as they were an hour late departing Brisbane, and there were 25 people on our flight who need to be on a flight to Vancouver that was supposed to leave 10 minutes after we landed. It was just as well, as I only 30 minutes until my flight took off after I had been through security etc.
When I landed at LAX, I already I had a tight turn around to get through customs and check in for my domestic. So instead of milling like sheep at the bottom of the escalator, I grabbed my carry on, hoiked up the long skirt and dashed up the stairs - yeah physical exertion people, watch out you might increase your heart rate! As I neared the top of the stairs I noticed a lady from the airline standing next to some A4 signs sticky taped to the wall next to the doorway. I thought it slightly amazing that someone else was in LAX with the same last name as me. And then I realised it was my name, as I don't think there would be too many Alina Van Harns wandering about LAX on that particular day. My smugness from taking off up the stairs faded as I realised I was puffing a bit as I tried to tell the lady that the sign was my name, thankfully the pointing and gesturing got the message across. She hand me a brochure size piece of paper that was bright orange. The words 'express check out' sunk into my mind as she was telling me that I must keep this piece of paper in my hand at all times and ensure it is visibile. She impressed upon me that which I already knew - I had to be fast, to be able to make my connecting domestic flight. 'Go through here, and head for aisle 9. Keep your orange ticket visible and you must be fast, please hurry.' I nodded and headed off through the doors, took a look at the escalators down and the new flock of sheep waiting to step on and ride down, and again, turned for the stairs.
I was nearing the bottom of the stairs, my orange ticket in hand, held up at chest height, and I heard a man down on the floor I was heading to call out 'We have an orange ticket! We have an orange ticket!' Next thing I knew, I was converged upon by people taking my carry on and rushing me towards the customs area, asking me if I have filled in my form etc. I was led up to the front of the queue and handed over to a Customs Official to ask me those questions with their steely eyedness in place. When they saw I had listed meat products as something I was bringing in, their eyes narrowed and I think they were gearing up to be mean. They asked, 'Beef jerky?' And I replied, 'No, kangaroo, emu and crocodile.' The guy looked at me and gave me one of those smiles that said smart ass. And he repeated 'So it's beef?' And again I said, 'No, it's kangaroo, emu and crocodile. Would you like to see it?' He looked at me in disbelief and then asked, 'Where did you buy it from?' Acceptance and a tick and stamp all followed my response that they were purchased from Brisbane International Airport duty free.
During my customs clearance process, the systems failed and they had to hold me until they quickly instructed staff how to use the old system. It looked DOS or linux based and I quietly chuckled to myself as they stared at the screen trying to work out how to tab through or use the commands. Once they had put a 'hard C' against my name and had taken my fingerprints and I'm sure a godawful looking photo, I was put into the hands of another orange ticket baby sitter, dragged off to collect my luggage and then escorted through to another checkpoint and then to someone else who gave me another set of instructions. Once I finally left Terminal 3, I was out on the foot path and I was bereft. I had to 'stay on the right hand side, do not cross the road. Walk along to Terminal 5, staying on the right hand side and go into Terminal 5. You will need to check in for your domestic flight at Terminal 5, that is on the right hand side.' The magic of the orange ticket was finished.
A part of the Terminal 3 process was rechecking my luggage that had made it from Australia, to Korea and landed in USA at LAX with me. Both in good condition. I handed them over in Terminal 3 to be rechecked and loaded to my Delta flight. The was the last I saw of my hot pink suitcase for a couple of days. Somehow they loaded one suitcase on the plane for Nashville and the other onto a plane to Atlanta. I arrived in Nashville with one suitcase, the one with the Christmas presents in it. My clothes and toiletries etc were all in Atlanta. Suffice it to say, after a couple of days the suitcase is back with me and I am happy to have it back. And no I did not go on a shopping spree whilst I had the excuse. Though I have seen a lot that has tempted me.
Saturday was such a mild day temperature wise. Turns out it was perfect weather for tornadoes and the klaxons filled the night with their impending doom and I was terrified. Give me a cyclone, some flash flooding, regular flooding, bush fire, sand storm...those I can handle. Tornadoes are not something I am familiar with, except the devastation that I have seen on the news and via Hollywood. Thankfully the accompanying storm is all we were hit with and all was well with the rising of the sun.
Sunday saw us hitting the road to Georgia to pick up Barret, Scott's son. Bit of a loooooong drive. After we got the munchkin, we headed across town to catch up with some friends we hadn't seen in the longest time, Wade and Vonceil. Mr Wade cooked us up a fabulous meal. Barret concluded it was 'the best dinner ever!' We then had a very long drive back to Tennessee. And today was a day full of pretty much nothing except sleeping and eating.
I'm going to sign off now, as we are all about to watch Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief.
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