Here's the next installment. I was unable
to send this, not sure why. Maybe
it was the XXXX Golds...
So, there I was looking at my pile at the
Amtrak station. I gently peeled
the gaff tape off the package and untied the trickline. I pulled
a knife out
of my bag(noone seemed conerned), opened the boxes and examined
the
contents. Now I could honestly tell TSA I knew what was inside.
Nothing was
ticking so I placed the camera back in it's packing and reused
the tape and
tie line. I took the drive unit out of it's box and snuggled
it between some
t-shirts. Down to one box!
The train showed up on time and it was off
to NYC. Made it to Penn Station
on time as well. I packed up and headed for the A train. I will
keep in mind
next time that directiobs ton the A train aren't well signed.
I couldn't
figure out where the platform was until I was at the escalators
in the main
lobby. If I had looked over my shoulder at the first turn I would
have saved
some steps, and sweat.
It wasn't long before the first A train showed
up and it was the one I
needed(Far Rackaway). As promised, the ride was exactly an hour.
It was
about 100m from the A train to the AirTrain( your fare card works
here,
too). It was only $5. If I had really been paying attention,
I could have
saved a few minutes Air Train hopping to terminal 7, but I took
the long way
around(it still only took 20 minutes). I was checked in to my
Qantas flight
and wondering around the British Airways terminal by 4:10.
HITTING THE WALL
There comes a moment(sometines hours) where
you are just on the cusp of
breaking away and you run into that wall that doesn't want to
let you past.
It can be that annoying delay, a technical glitch or those couple
of things
you forgot to do that won't let you go. Sometimes it's all of
those things.
I forgot how inept the BA terminal is in dealing
with people who want to use
the internet. There is a lovely counter that faces the runway,
full of
convenience outlets and data ports advertising compementary internet.
As Lew
Black would say, "Lies, lies, all lies." Well, the
convenience outlets work
and after being robbed for a small bit of CAT 5 cable, I found
out there is
no free lunch(or internet for that matter) at the BA terminal.
There is a
pay version via wireless that is almost as cumbersome as trying
to listen to
my office voice mails via e-mail(I'll demonstrate the method
of wearing my
lapop on my head to listen for you sometime). When, after jumping
through a
number of hoops and passing my credit card number through my
nose, I was
finally able to retrieve some e-mails to be reminded of the few
things left
undone. Then my cell phone began to ring. It still amazes me
how techo
bumbly JFK is. I could barely hear my calls coming in. Maybe
it was just the
din of the terminal or was that just my head thuding against
that invisible
wall?
Then I found out the flight was going to be
90 minutes late. Good thing I
got the unlimited minutes on my internet purchase...
We boarded the flight at 8:45. For a mostly
full 747-400, we were boarded
and rolling rather quickly. I was happy to see that there was
an empty seat
between me and my fellow passenger in the aisle seat. I got the
feeling a
lot of the folks on this flight were only going as far as LAX,
the number of
groans when the pilot announced the flying time caught my by
surprise.
Weenies!
We had to wait 5-6 minutes at the end of the
taxiway to be cleared. I
started counting as soon as the pilot relased the breaks. Rotation
at 32
seconds. We must be light very light or I was counting too slowly.
I made a concerted effort to avoid the in-flight
entertainment system(except
for music). I planned to read or do some writing on my computer.
The bone
head in 49C eliminated the computer choice about 15min. into
the flight when
she put her seat back all the way. I doubt she made it home safe,
I put some
bad mojo on her! I soon started "Goodbye Darkness"
by William
Manchester(thank you Rolly Kidder for the tip! Exellent read.).
It grabbed
my attention for most of the flight.
The LAX leg of the flight went pretty quickly.
I was impressed that they
actaully fed us. Had it been a domestic airlines, they would
have been
hawking food in the aisles or tossing us some tiny bag of pretzels.
We deplaned at LAX and wiated about an hour
to re-board. For some reason
this boarding was painfully slow. It felt like an hour before
we were ready
to go. Not much of a taxi wait this time. Lots of fuel onboard,
though.
Rotation at 45 sec. this time. That's a lot of runway!
Dinner came quickly and I took two Tylenol
PM's for dessert. I was out in
less than 1/2 an hour. For long flights it three things; shoes
off ASAP,
Tylenol PM and one of those neck cushion pilow things. I thought
they looked
queer as hell, but once I tried one I won't leave home without
it. I managed
to get a little better than six hours of sleep!
I finally broke down and watched some inflight
movies. There was a channel
of Australian films, one Aboriginal called "The 10 Canoes".
I wonder if it's
available through Netflix? Pretty soon it was brekkie and then
time for some
more of "Goodbye Darkness." The chapter on the Kokoda
Trail was intense.
I'll re-read it on the flight to Port Moresby.
It wasn't long before the 13hr. 45min flight
came to an end. As I was
de-planing, I thought about how cushy loang distance air travel
was
becoming. On-demand video!?! I took a look in the crew area/galley.
There
were at least half a dozen servers feeding the entertainment
sytem. Wow.
I thougt back to my first cross country flight when my Aunt Mary
Lu took my
father, my brother Tom and I to LA. We were on a 707 back in
69-70?
The "entertainment system was a stethoscope style headphone(hollow
tubes to
a speaker in the armrest). I think there were two or three channels
of music
to choose from. The flight featured one movie. It ran in a loop
thoughout
the cabin. Hopefully, the film didn't break. Ah, the good old
days...
Well, back to today. It was a mob scene in
imigration and customs. It took
about 30 min. to clear immigration, then it was on to customs.
The line
looked worse here. There were lots and lots of people complaining
about
missing their flights. I didn't remember it being this bad the
last time. I
was told the lines were long because of the quaranteen for food.
They tell
you repeatedly to claim if have any food. So, I did. I'm not
sure why, but
it shortened my time in line considerably. "Food?"
You'll need to come this
way. Go in that line." I was pulled out of the big line
and taken to a large
x-ray machine. "And what kind of food do you have?"
I looked that the
chinese famiy in front of me being stripped of all of their dried
goods and
the family next to me having their baby food exaamined, and the
like. "I
just have some granola products and a bunch of teas bags",
I confessed. "Oh,
processed foods, we'll have you through in a jiffy." They
popped my bags
through the machine in no time. I think this saved me at least
20 minutes in
the other line!
I was half asleep enough to miss the sign
for "Domestic Transfer" when I
came out of customs and into the arrivals all. It must be that
looking over
my shoulder thing. Anyway, it was a nice little circle in the
airport to
make since SYD is smart enough to provide baggage carts FOR FREE.
I was
re-checked for my flight to BNE in about 20 minutes. There was
the short bus
ride to the domestic terminal and then I was hanging out, waiting
for the
flight to BNE.
I think this is where I left off previously...
Got into BNE and the first thing I noticed
was the humidity. The airport was
considerably smaller, one main runway that I could see. I headed
for baggage
claim, but I needed two things first. The loo and an ATM. I found
both in
the under-construction food court. The ATM was literally at a
hole in the
wall. It reminded me a bit of the one in the Arcade, given it's
size. There
was a woman in front of me trying to use it. She gave up, "I
just checked my
balance a moment ago, now it won't work!". I thought back
to the USAirways
kiosk at ALB a few weeks earlier and decided to give it a try.
I tried three
swipes, no go. Then I tried a couple of backward swipes, still
no good. As
Tad Townes always used to say when swinging on a nail, "It's
not how you
hold the hammer, it's how you hold your mouth." I made a
face, stuck my
tongue out the corner of my mouth and gave it the ole in out,
in out. It
worked! I held my breath waiting for it to process. Then I remembered
this
little guy probably had to dial a number. A painful blue-faced
moment later
and cha-ching! I was on my way to baggage claim with some Aussie
dollars in
my pocket.
Instead of going for my bags right away I
did a little connointering first.
I pulled out my BNE ground transport info and lined up the Coachtrans
desk.
As soon as I did this, I saw my bags coming round the carousel.
They were in
the first dozen pieces, crazy. I loaded up and headed to the
desk. I was
booked on the 2:10 to Roma St. Station which was leaving in 5min
from in
front of Virgin Blue, thank you very much. The fare with return
was $15(that
beats what I'll have to spend on the AirTrain tomorrow and it
gives door to
door service!).
I love Aussie style ground transport. It was
a 14 passenger van with a
trailer pulled behind for the luggage. No screwing around tripping
all over
bags in a mini-bus. We were quickly on our way. I could tell
we were on a
tropical coast, in addition to the heat and humidity all of the
suburban
houses we passed were stilted. It was looking a bit like the
Gulf Coast.
Driving by the Bowl's Club just off Budnee
Street I thought of my father as
I saw a senior league of bowlers. They were a good deal more
formal, all
wearing white uniforms and pith helmets. We were soon skirting
along the
Brisbane River and I was at the train station in less than 30
minutes.
I soon found out my connoitering skills were
a little lacking and had to
catch the train one station to Central. It was a sweaty pump
up the hill to
the Novotel and I was quickly checked in. My doucments from Adventure
Travel
were waiting for me as promised(Maria was happy to receive that
e-mail). I
made it to room 1209 and plopped down, in the dark. It took me
a while to
figure out the "green" room thing. You have to shove
your room card in a
holder by the door. That enables you to energize all of the
switches(including the A/C, unfortunately). Once I had the lights
on I think
I gave it, oh about 3 minutes before I resued that first XXXX
Gold from the
mini fridge. Tasty! Then it was shower and clothes washing time(I
was amazed
how fast my shirts dried overnight!). I did some e-mails and
decided it was
for nap time about 5pm. I figured I'd get an hour or two and
then find
dinner. The next time I looked at the clock it was a little after
3am. I got
up and did some more online stuff and got another hour of sleep
around 5. I
was back up and out the door for a walkabout just after 8.
I started my walk over at Riverside. It's
a lovely walk with lots of people
eating pricey brekkies along the way.
I took the River Walk to the Botanical
Gardens where I made a turn towards the University end of the
Gardens where
there was a bridal shower going on picnic style on the grass.
Then I headed
over to the Queen Street Mall and made my way to the City Hall
building. I
had to wait outside with the girl scout group for the doors to
open at 10am.
It was in the door and the lift to the 3rd floor and then to
the tower lift
to the 10th floor. I rode up with the girls, they were too cute.
We all got a kick out of seeing the clock
works as we passed it on the 8th floor(the
elevator walls were only screened). I spent about 10min at the
top of the
tower to get a lay of the land.
Did a lot of strolling around Queen Street, etc.
A very retail Saturday crowd. This photo was taken at the corner of Albert and Queen Sts.
Wlaking down Queen Street I stopped into the
lobby of Hoyt's Movie Theatre. I can see why they were keen to
keep it. Made it over to the Treasury House(now a casino). Found
a map of
Kavieng and surrounds at the World Wide Maps and Guides, great
find. It's no
longer on Gerge Street by the way, it's in the ANZAC Arcade.
Did some lunch
in a food court and then walked over the Victoria Bridge to the
Museum.
The exhibit of artifacts from Papua New Guinea
wasn't there anymore, but there
were some intersting aircraft and sailing exhibits along with
an extensive
Aboriginal display on level 4. Then I headed back to Queen St.
for a couple
more items. There was time for a quick nap at 4 and then I took
a train for
a quick hop up to Brunswick Street where I weaved amoungst a
lot of partying
folks as I tried to find dinner in Chinatown. I did, it was quite
unimpressive, but I was one of the last in before closing at
10.
So, I'm back in the room. It's a little before
1. I'm going to re-arrange my
baggage to put as much weight as I can in my carry on. The next
trick is
getting by the weight restrictions. I guess we'll wait and see
how that
works out...
If you're heading to Brisbane here are a couple
of links to check out:
http://www.wilmap.com.au/qldmaps/brisbanetc.html
http://www.geocities.com/johninoze/Brisbane.html