Day 1 Sydney - Hartford

I had finished packing the previous night so I was able to do a load of washing and wash the dishes before it was time to leave for the airport.

I had packed my large suitcase, plus my carry on case which is similar to a pilot’s case with an extendable handle and wheels. I am also carrying my laptop bag which I can secure to the top of the pilot’s case for easy transport when I am wheeling my luggage.

This year I am also taking a parcel of posters and a metal sign that I need to post to another collector who last year gave me some wonderful Guinness posters from the Caribbean. He had taken them off power poles whilst on a holiday years ago. I had been slack in arranging my side of the deal and when I got it all together it was a large parcel that would have cost $140 to post to the USA. As it was only a flat pack parcel I thought I could get it onto the plane and then post it whilst in the USA.

My luggage and the parcel only came to a combined weight of 20.2kg so I knew I was o.k. to travel with them both.

We have a shuttle bus that I had rung a few days earlier to arrange a return trip to the airport. They pick up from your home and drop you back there after the trip. It is $110 return door to door which is a lot cheaper than two taxi trips.

I was the only person on the shuttle and it was an easy trip although it was peak hour in the morning when I was going to the airport.

At the airport I placed the parcel of posters into a Qantas plastic bag and lined up behind only one other person to get my boarding pass and check my luggage. The parcel of posters needed to be taken to the oversizes luggage check in which is at the far end of the terminal and I helped the porter tape it up and process it.

It was a quick trip through customs clearance and then I was up to the Qantas Lounge to hand in my day pass. There are two lounges, one for first class and the business class lounge that I was able to enter. I headed straight for the end of the lounge where there is a row of computers for everyone to use. I checked my emails and was not happy to see that the email I had sent from home before I left had not been sent.

I had sent an email to my friends in my address book that I was off overseas and gave them the address of this blog site so they could follow my travels if they were interested. As I was checking from my online host account I was unable to access it to try to resend it. So I will only be able to tell people about it after I return home. At least then they will be able to skip over the boring bits!!

After checking some web sites I was able to try out the food and beverages that were on offer. It was a brunch style set up at the time I was there so it was a selection of hot and cold side dishes and I added a couple of small bottles of water and sat down with the paper to enjoy the food. I then spent some time looking at the computer again before sitting for a while in the lounge and then it was time to board the flight.

When I booked my flights, Qantas has a service that for $20 you can pre book the seats you want on the plane. I was able to get a seat that I have had before. It is right at the back of the plane where the fuselage starts narrowing down. Instead of three seats on either side of the plane there is only two and the window seat has extra room where the third seat would have been. It allows you to stretch out a bit. I was on the right side of the plane. There are I think five rows of this set up.

The trick is to try to get the second of these rows. The front row still has three seats in front of it so you do get the space to the right but you do not get any extra leg room. The second row has approx. Two foot of room to the window to the right of it and you also get all the leg room to the right of the seat in front of you where the third seat would have been. You can also stand up in this area (although you are stooped over) to stretch your legs without having to disturb the person sitting next to you.

This was a bonus as the person I was sitting next to spent most of the 12 hour flight asleep. I got out twice to use the amenities but was also able to stand in that space to the right of my seat to stretch whenever I wanted to.

The normal airline food was on offer for both meals but the thing I liked was they came around twice during the flight and offered slices of pizza and twice more with a choice of ice cream or fruit.

During the flight I watched the new Aussie movie The Sapphires. It was a good film and also the American Reunion that is another sequel to American Pie movie. I was also able to get plenty of sleep, so arrived in Los Angeles pretty refreshed.

We landed just after 9.00am Friday morning LA time and there was no other planes landing at that time so it was a quick trip through immigration. Once again I was asked plenty of questions as to why I had a US visa and was not using the Visa waiver program. It was no hassle though and it was not long before I had my luggage but then had to wait about 15 minutes more for the over sized parcel to come out for pick up.

Another line up for custom clearance and I then had the long walk from Tom Bradley Terminal up to Terminal 1 where South West flies from. Luckily it was only 59 degrees and overcast so it was not to hot a walk. After I checked in for the flights I had two hours forty minutes before the flight, so I set about setting up my USA sim card in my phone.

Every year I get a sim card from Telestial.com which I have found to suit my needs. The card comes with both a US and a UK phone number so you can use it in either area. The card can be refilled with money and I have found that if there is any money left on the card when you come home it is held by the company and can be added to the new card next year.

I then got some food and sat at the gate lounge and waited for the boarding time. I sat reading a book I bought in Sydney at the airport. It is called - QF32. It is written by Richard De Crespigny who is the Qantas pilot who flew QF32 that left Singapore heading to Sydney that had an engine explode after it took off from Singapore. He and his crew managed to get the plane back to Singapore and land it without mishap. I am sure it will be an interesting read.

After getting onto the South West plane and getting set to take off we had an interesting event take place. We backed away from the ramp and someone on the plane complained that there was a kid with a balloon from Disneyland on the plane. He was worried that the balloon would break and it would damage the plane. The hostess said it would not be a problem by he was not satisfied and asked to speak to someone higher up the food chain.

Well they took the plane back to the terminal and then an engineer had to come onto the plane and tell the man it was O.K. and it would not damage the plane.

By the time all this happened it was nearly an hour late leaving. The connecting plane at Chicago had to wait 25 minutes for us. Got death stares from everyone on that plane as we got on. There were no problems with the second plane though it was late arriving in Hartford.

As it was 12.30am and there was no other people getting off planes it was quick to get the luggage and I phoned the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel I was booked into and their shuttle bus came and picked me up. I am staying with the same hotel group as I stayed at last year when I got off the plane at midnight in Covington Kentucky. I have found them to be a great hotel, with free WiFi and the best hotel beds I have ever slept in. The room was exactly the same design as last years as well. They also have 12 noon check out, which is really good as it was 2am by the time I had done some emails home and text my family that I had got to the other end of the days travel.

The time from leaving Sydney to getting to Hartford was 26 hours.