763 kms Today
We had brekkie at the Casino again with the only event being a customer pushing over a counter display by accident and causing an almighty crash of stuff behind the counter.
I took the first stint to Winnemucca and Alan took over to drive to Reno, where we stopped for lunch. The landscape of Nevada is starting grow on me - wide flat valleys with jagged lines of mountains in between; not much sign of habitation or human influence.
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| Animal crossing tunnel under construction on the I-80. |
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| Nevada - Mountains and Plains - no people. |
We tore down the incline from 7,000 ft to less than 1,000 ft at Sacramento passing trucks with their wheels level with our heads. We had to press on to make sure we got to the Sacramento Airport in plenty of time. I had decided to avoid the road works on the I-80 by turning off at Roseville and driving near Joe and Thelma's place to take the back road, like we had done before. Trouble was that there was a faulty set of traffic lights that had banked up the afternoon school run and we were delayed by at least 30 minutes in long queues. We got there in time any way.
We checked our bags through to Sydney and then waited for our flight to LA, which was delayed by 3/4 hour due to congestion at LAX. The passenger sitting beside me had a dog on his lap! The dog was labeled a "Service Dog" and apparently is allowed to help the owner have a calm flight. The owners have to get special permission and the dog has to be suitable, which this one was - very calming! There turned out to be another Service Dog on the flight, a fact we discovered when they had a fight in the lounge.
When we got to LA we discovered that we had left Rafe's map in the hire car! We had dinner in the airport and when we ordered a glass of wine the waitress demanded ID to prove our age! The formalities in LA for departure were pretty much non-existent apart from a quick Passport check. This is so different from departure from Australia. I tried the new E-Ticket entry system at Sydney on arrival but of course it didn't work for me and I had to queue up with the other unfortunates. What with the Census debacle and now this, the Federal Gov doesn't do computer systems very well!
On the flight, Alan had his special big legroom seat, but I was moved to an empty central row of seats by the stewards as they wanted to use my seat at the back. That allowed me to lie fully stretched out and with the help of a couple of sleeping pills I had 7 hours sleep - fantastic. I couldn't say that about the cabin service. The drinks trolley was so slow I had eaten my meal before I got a glass of wine and at breakfast the next morning I was not offered a cup of coffee. When I took the flight to Melbourne, the Qantas cabin staff by contrast seemed positively friendly and helpful.
Morag was not able to come and collect me until 5 pm so I went to the Qantas lounge and tried to use my free pass, but was told it was for outgoing passengers only. The lady repented after a bit of pleading and allowed me in after I had dropped my luggage at a left luggage counter. I had a lovely shower, changed clothes and then ate and drank Qantas' finest until it was time to go out to the pick up point, were my lovely wife soon appeared to whisk me home.
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