Without putting a glass eye to sleep with the detail, there’s not a lot one could comment on regarding a 16½ non-stop transpacific flight other than nothing happened – thankfully.
We arrived 30
minutes late into Sydney and had to complete a lap or two of Botany Bay due to landing
congestion associated with the Sydney Airport Curfew Act that see’s the skies
of Australia’s most populus
city averaging 1,667 arrivals and 1,322 departure movements each month between
the hours of 6AM to 8AM.
A little
trick I learnt with the introduction of the Australian Border Force ePassport SmartGates
facilities is that it’s actually faster to bypass that system and go through
manual processing as the walk from Gate 9 to Passport Control has 11 kiosks dispensing
the Arrivals receipt for use by the citizens of the following countries – Canada,
China, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Macau, New Zealand, Singapore,
Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
All up it
took the best part of 2 hours to get over to the domestic terminal for my 10AM connecting
1½ hour flight to Brisbane.
With a 2 hour layover, I grabbed some sushi at the airport, ran into an old
work colleague from my days out at the Cannington Mine and landed in Townsville
at around 4:30 PM, about ½ an hour later than the scheduled arrival.
While walking
through the arrivals, I ran into the newly minted member for Herbet, former
work colleague and great bloke – Phil Thompson. After
congratulating him on his election win, we had a good chinwag while waiting on my
bags to hit the carousel downstairs.
I had one of my best mates pick me up from the tin crow depot and after a quick stop for essentials at me ol’ China plates – Dan Murphy’s, I was blowing the froth off a couple of coldies with my neighbour Pete by knock off time of 5PM.
My final day outside
of Australia on this Taco’s
& Toucan’s travels ~ 2019 trip started as per most mornings – up before
4AM, a cup of black coffee and updating the Blog.
The major difference
this morning being the influx of bargain hunters, filling the Cul-De-Sac and adjoining
streets in preparation for the lawn/garage sale that the neighbour in the rental
property across the street was conducting from 8AM. By 7AM we were virtual prisoners
in our own homes as people just parked where ever they found an open patch of
real estate, including across driveways, the middle of the Cul-De-Sac and clearly
marked Fire Lanes.
It was so bad
that I had to back one of my niece’s friend’s car out of the driveway, as it
was that packed in. Luckily for the those inconsiderate attendees, Bek invited
me along to return some gear at the Stonebriar
Centre, about 30 miles (48 kilometres)
away, which considerably reduced the risk of an Australian initiated “mysterious vehicle fires” in the neighbourhood.
While we were
all the way out over in Frisco,
we decided to head over to the Allen Premium Outlets, who
were advertising a Calvin Klein outlet and as they were only 15 minutes away, I
though an update to the undies drawer was in order. If the truth be told, the
only thing “Premium” about the place was the pricing as they looked to be
hitting your wallet harder than an upset tax inspector. The other issue Bek, Myah
and I had was that quite a few of the advertised “anchor tenants” were no longer trading and yup, you guessed it – Calvin
was one of them.
We arrived back
at home around 2 o’clock to find that the neighbours were officially 6 hours
into their lawn/garage sale and the only thing that looks to have diminished is
the vehicle traffic. The other observation being that judging by the state of their
lawn, it looks like they’re collecting more shit than they’re selling.
I headed to DFW
International around 5:30 PM and due to a great run I got there just under ½ an
hour, which was somewhat fortuitous as I wanted to speak to Avis regarding
losing ½ a day with a dead vehicle. In speaking with their site operations
manager, I was able to half the original rental fee and have no fuel charges, which
equates to having the 2020 Dodge Ram Durango GT 4 door 4×2 costing
me a measly $61 USD for the week – score. I was actually just looking for them the
give me a free day for the inconvenience, but as I never enter a negotiation by
making an initial offer, I simply settled with what they felt was fair.
Dinner was in
DFW’s International Terminal D Tex-Mex restaurant Rio Mambo, where the Plato Diana main course of
grilled marinated chicken breast, served on a sizzling bed of mushrooms, onions
and poblano peppers, with Mexican rice and bean soup and two beers lightened my
wallet by $40 USD.
While waiting for Qantas flight QF8 to board, I ran into former Australian Wallabies World Cup winning captain – John Eales, nicknamed “Nobody” as in ‘nobody’s perfect’. We got chatting about next year’s Golden Oldies rugby festival in Denver and he reckons he hasn’t pulled a pair of boots on since he last played for Australia.
I said that doesn’t matter as the Alice Springs Dingoes will find a spot for him on the wing, like we did with Stephen Larkham last year in New Zealand. Our scheduled 10PM departure came and went while I was ensconced in seat 80A due to what the flight deck called an “engineering resolution”. We eventually took to the skies around 10:55 with a promise to arrive at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International at our advertised arrival time of 6:10 AM in two days.
Experience had taught me that this revised ETA would be highly ambitious, due to the log jam of 6AM arrivals.
As with most good things, they generally must eventually come to an end and with me winning only $3 USD out of a potential $655 million USD ($93,834,000.00 AUD) – today marks the penultimate day for the Taco’s & Toucan’s travels ~ 2019 trip.
I spent most
of the morning ensuring all my electrical items were fully discharged and then recharged
to their maximum capacity. As you can well imagine, travelling with two cameras,
an iPad, headphones, laptop, mobile phone and Omni Charge 20+ portable
power pack can take a bit of time to ensure they are fully charged and
functional, as going to use them is not the best time find out there is a
problem with the device or equipment.
Around noon I found myself in the nearby city of Denton, both cancelling my T-Mobile mobile phone contract and procuring a couple of pairs of jeans at Ross – Dress for Less, which has been my go to off-price department store for discount/outlet priced clothing for ages.
Lunch was a
simple “Managers $8.99 Special” at Dickey’s
Barbecue Pit, which consisted of a sliced
BBQ Beef Brisket sandwich with all the fixin’s, waffle fries, a diet Coke
and self-serve soft serve ice cream, which I passed on as I only do real ice
cream. I’m pleased to say the brisket was done to perfection – moist, falling
apart, tender and with a nice bark.
I got back to
the house fairly late in the afternoon to meet up with Mike & Bek, one of their
groomsman – Will, and his wife to head out to Mr Chopsticks pretty ordinary Asian for
dinner and then on to the University of North
Texas (UNT) campus, which I can
now honestly say I’ve attended the same college as my ex-wife Ruth.
We were
actually there for the Astrology departments’ 9PM screening at the 100 seat,
40-foot domed Sky Theatre, that
features the Digistar V planetarium
projection system, presentation of immersive visuals synced to Pink Floyd albums, with tonight’s being The Dark Side of
the Moon.
It was just over ¾’s of an hour in which you could get sensory overload, especially with the at times psychedelic and trippy visuals, but I found it to be a unique and fun experience in which I’d love to return for their screenings of The Wall and Wish You Were Here.
We got home a bit after 10PM which coincided with Qantas opening online check-ins for my 3 flight 26½ hour journey home, that departs around this time, tomorrow night.
Today was
more of a “clean up & consolidation”
day in which I’d sort out all my bags, purchases and travel documentation in
preparation for my homeward journey on Saturday.
Over the years, I have found it best to take the time and make the effort to pull everything apart that you’ve carried or collected on a trip, inventory it and then repack it all neatly and securely, with the aim of minimizing loss or damage.
This
endeavour, including the removal of all clothing tags/labels/pricing and
subsequent refolding took most of the morning to complete.
It was at this time that I felt like I could eat the horse and chase the rider, so a SOS text was sent to Bek to find a decent feed in the local area. Although not quiet local, i.e. 11 kilometres (7 miles) away, Rockfish Seafood Grill was a great feed none the less. I availed myself of the $4.99 a pound Crawfish Boil and it was brilliant.
After lunch I chased up some gear for a mates ¾ Ton Dodge Ram that he sent me literally a shopping list for, which took a few hours.
I tracked down young Mikey to grab all the ingredients required for his proposed dinner menu, as it was his wish to cook for the entire family tonight .
He knocked up pan seared breast of chicken with mashed potatoes and a warm green runner been, bacon, garlic and cherry tomato salad with a chicken broth dressing. Got to say, it was a pretty decent feed and I had a ball being Mikey’s “sous chef”.
Had to laugh though as experience is a pretty good teacher., Mikey learnt a pretty valuable lesson in why you gently place items into hot pans, rather than dropping them from altitude like a B-52 bombing run.
For mind, the best thing about the meal is that in three months Mikey has gone from seemingly only being interested in chicken strips or pizza, to wanting to get in the kitchen, settling on a menu and then getting his hands dirty from prep to plating. I hope he continues with it as he looks to be having fun with it and he’s pretty good at it.
I thought I
get out of the house nice and early to hit the road and sort out a couple of
things with my Ranger ute as well as the Harley and then check out Fort Worth
at my leisure, but as they say in the classics – the best laid plans of mice
and men.
I walk up to the rental car and press the key fob to unlock it – computer says no. I get absolutely nothing, nada, zip, bupkiss, farq all from the vehicle – it was dead as doornail. I use the “safety key” to open the vehicle and find the battery completely dead. I jumped straight on the “dog & bone” to contact Avis for emergency roadside assistance and to arrange for a replacement vehicle for me to collect in nearby Denton.
As you can
imagine, all this takes time and as such I decided to change up my route as it
was 10:40 AM by the time I actually got going. The irony was also not lost on
my that of all the vehicles I’ve been in on the trip so far, including the
busted arse unroadworthy mini-buses, the newest one with the least amount of
mileage was the one I had the most issues with – go figure.
I left the
rental agency, headed north on I-35 East and then dropped down I-35 West for a
straight shot down to the Unites States 15 largest city – Forth Worth, that was
established in 1849 as an army outpost. With clear roads and light traffic, it
took less than 30 minutes to find a parking spot and wander over the iconic 40
hectare (98 acre) Stockyards historic district,
just in time for their daily re-enactment of a cattle drive with some decent
size and well fed longhorn
“hamburgers on the hoof”.
I wandered
around for a bit taking in the historical Western architecture as well as Billy Bob’s Texas, which promotes itself
as “The World’s Largest Honky Tonk,” before settling on a bite to eat
at Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que
located just over Stockyard Boulevard.
For rev-heads like myself, one of the “Sistine Chapels of Speed” would be Summit Racing Equipment’s purpose built 6.5 hectare (16 acre) building which includes a large 3,000 square metre (32,000 square foot) retail superstore in Arlington, that opened in 2017. Whilst I wasn’t able to purchase what I was looking for off the shelf or have it arrived before my departure on Saturday, it was one of the best ways to while away a couple of hours.
A traffic
free ½ hour drive over towards DFW Airport saw me pull into Texas Harley-Davidson to try and sort
out an oil pressure and temperature gauge set up and a better mounting solution
for mounting the amps in the panniers. With what I figured to be well over 300
new and used bikes in inventory, I had a fun time checking out the various
rides to see what either the previous owners or the dealership had done to
them, which gave me a couple of ideas for my ride.
Just in case
you’re wondering, the most expensive bike in the showroom was the 2019
FLHXS Street Glide Special Touring that was customised by the dealer and
could be all yours for a measly $59,999.00 USD ($87,174.00 AUD) plus on road costs.
By now it was
close to 3:30 PM and with dinner engagement booked with a great friend of the family
– Don Eades, for 5 sharp, I decided to take the 121 onto I-35 East to hopefully
beat any traffic. As luck would have it, I was able to sit on 70 mph (113 kph) basically the entire way to
Mike & Bek’s, for the first time ever.
Dinner was a
pretty decent effort with great company and conversation at the Prairie House Restaurant over in Cross Roads about a ½ drive away, made all
the more enjoyable with Bek behind the wheel of Don’s red convertible Mustang
that’s never had the roof raised.
Just for shit’s & giggles on the way home, I purchased a couple of tickets in the $367 million USD Texas Lottery Mega Millions and $288 million USD Powerball draw, just to see if I can keep travelling for a little bit longer.
Whilst it’d be fair to say the day started out less than ideal, it got a whole lot better as it went along and ended brilliantly with friends and family – not a whole lot more you could ask for really.
Today Dallas,
well northern Dallas technically as I’m 58 kilometres (36 miles) from the city centre, awakened to more intermittent torrential
downpours starting around 3:10 AM this morning and lasting until mid-morning.
The rains put
the kibosh on trying to resolve the A/C drain repairs, as there was no way I
was climbing an aluminium ladder in rain storms with the amount of lightening
that was around – no Fro for this Bro!! No real dramas though, I had the hot
water relief valve to sort out.
With the
amount of renovations, repairs and re-work I’ve completed over the years, as
well as the advice and assistance I’ve provided my mates with their new builds,
it comes as no surprise to me that the “quality”
of “workmanship” is solely reliant on
builders enforcing the sub-contractors race to the cheapest and quickest
solution for most works undertaken. This is especially prevalent with the
so-called hidden trades of plumbing, electrical, heating & cooling.
The legacy of
this was borne out at Mike & Bek’s place with me having to cut the hot
water system drain pipe to be able to remove the Temperature
and Pressure (T&P) Relief Valve.
A simple two dollar PVC
barrel union was all it would have taken. So instead of it being a simple 5-minute
and $16.22 for the valve, it would have cost at least an hours labour for a plumber,
plus their callout fee, plus parts.
No matter for
me, not that I make things ½ pregnant with any of my house repairs or projects,
it took me a couple of hours to not only replace the valve, but also to plumb
it correctly so that it’s a 5-minute job should it need replacing in the
future. Most of the time was spent acquiring the parts required for the job, if
the truth be told.
Lunch was a pretty ordinary affair at El Fenix, which hopefully does not rise from the ashes, should it burn down. The Lunch Menu offering of a Chicken Chipotle Enchilada and a Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada for $8.99 could best be described as baby or retirement centre “food”.
The afternoon was spent trying to track down some door sill protectors for my Ford Ranger, as well as sourcing a better solution for the mounting of the Boom Audio amps in the panniers of my Harley, than the double-sided tape the manufacturer ships the bike with, which is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.
By some stroke of Unicorn fairy dust, I also managed to update my corporate wardrobe and replacement bed linen before someone fronted me and demanded my “Man Card” back for crimes against Manderstanding and Metro-sexuality.
Today’s plan would be to resolve an air conditioner system condensation drain issue and to update my wardrobe for a quarter of the price that I could for in Australia.
At Mike & Bek’s, they have a second storey attic mounted A/C system in which both the system condensate and drain pans are plumbed to simply drop out of the soffit, some 7 metres (20 feet) in the air and land on the back patio. While checking out what I need to complete the task, I also noticed the hot water blow off valve had a slight leak as well. In trying to reseat the valve, the leak became worse, facilitating the need to replace the valve.
I jumped online to search for a decent Outlet mall in the area and came up with Grand Prairie Premium Outlets, about ¾ of an hour’s drive away. When pulling up, I saw that the AMC – Dine In Theatre had John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum playing, so I thought what the heck ….. why not avail myself of a real comfy reclining leather lounge chair with in-seat sub-woofer, wicked next-gen Dolby audio and in-theatre dining service – can you say “Man Spa” time???
With the movie complete, I spent a couple of hours doing a lap of “retail therapy” in which I first located a roll around duffel bag and then filled with whatever caught my eye. I got quite a few funny looks when asking the shop staff to just throw the stuff in the duffel bag and off I’d go. I will say that the sheila at Nike got a little ticked off as I set off the security alarm and it took her 15 minutes to locate the one item she missed taking the tag off.
As luck would have it, the shit house installers of the A/C system appear related to those who installed the hot water system, as they did not use a barrel joint to allow the disconnecting of the drain line, which will require another trip to the plumbers in the morning.
I knocked up a quick dinner consisting of the four left over pork fillets from Saturday night, $11.65 worth of stir fry veg and a couple of packets of KA•ME Hokkien noodles, that comfortably fed 5 adults.
I reckon it must have went OK as Bek rewarded me by forcing me to not only make, but also partake in another round of fresh French Vanilla ice cream topped with frozen peanut M&M’s.
Here we are
on another slack attack Sunday, the 10th one of the trip so far, and
I really had no wish to do anything at all.
The day
started with updating the blog with the couple of days I lost in transit from
Costa Rica to the United States. I also had a bit of laundry to freshen up my
socks & jocks supply to last me the next week while I’m here.
While I was
in the laundry, I thought I’d help out by throwing on 3 large loads for Bek who
was working today, then get them dried, folded, stack & packed so that she
can hopefully put her feet up when she gets home.
I gathered up
the rest of the “Christner crew” and
headed over to the Brisket Brew for
a feed. Have to say that for a joint whose name is the business; their brisket
burger was a dry argument that was also oily from them heating up the meat on
the griddle.
In an
interesting twist, it seems the final episode of Game of Thrones has caused
some angst over here in the United States of A Miracle. The media is all abuzz
with reports of professional support networks, including councillors and
medical professionals, being available for those who may requiring them due to
the shows closing.
Dr Fitz
prescribes taking two teaspoons of concrete and harden the farq up!!!
For dinner Mike knocked up his CrawdadÉtouffée for dinner, while my contribution to the meal was fresh French Vanilla ice cream topped with frozen peanut M&M’s.
BTW – we managed to survive the evening without viewing Game of Thrones or requiring professional medical assistance.
Need to give
myself an uppercut for agreeing to a 6:15AM flight, but as I’m often heard to
say – shit happens.
I was up at
2:30AM to shower, read the online papers and sort all the fiddly stuff out that’s
associated with international travel. To say I was a bit anxious about this
particular leg of the trip, considering my last landing in the U.S., would be a
huge understatement. I have no control over US Immigration, so I wasn’t sure
why I was worrying about it so much.
I was in the hotel lobby at 3:15 to cancel the 3AM wakeup call that didn’t eventuate, which fortuitously corresponded with my transfer driver lobbing up. I reckon he must have been on a promise with the missus, as he was consistently punching 120 kph (75 mph) on 80 kph (50 mph) posted roads. No matter for me as I was glad to beat most of the queues with checking in.
Checking in also
marked a milestone with all my travel. It was the first time that I would be Skiplagging.
What is this you ask? When booking this flight, it was $859 USD one way direct
to Dallas, but when making booking with the continuing flight to Los Angeles,
it was $229 USD in total + $41 for seat selection + $30 for one checked bag.
I know for
certain that all incoming US international flights have to pass Immigration and
Customs on first port of call, this case it being Dallas, I’ll simply collect
my bag from the carousal and head to the rental car agency and “forgetting” to
catch the continuing flight, hence the term Skiplagging.
American
Airlines flight 2436 departed on time at 6:15AM and was scheduled as a 4½ hour
flight, but once airborne the Captain announced that he was pedalling a bit
harder in trying to beat a weather front in to Dallas and we should arrive ½ an
hour earlier, which true to his word, we did.
With a fair
amount of trepidation, I hit the Immigration Visa Waiver station, grabbed my
perceived lottery receipt and fronted Officer Perez in lane 1. “What’s your purpose
here sir – business or pleasure?” Visiting family, I respond. He swipes my
passport – “Enjoy your stay sir”.
Fair dinkum, 6 1/2 minutes from de-planing to collecting my
bag and clearing Customs – it’s amazing to see what happens when you don’t have
a big X on you visa waiver receipt.
I head out into torrential rains that followed me all the way up to where I’m staying and as freeway visibility and speeds had reduced to non-existent, I pulled over at an Arby’s to grab a quick bite to eat.
Whilst waiting for my order, some fella with grandma’s nasty tablecloth for a shirt, blue jeans and high heel cowboy boots waltzes in with a six shooter and a Bowie knife strapped to his hip and announces loudly “Break time is over, you have an important customer here now.” I’m like … WTF.
I’ll give the server her dues as she greets him cordially, adding “How are you sir?” He comes back with “I woke up this morning as an American and that’s all anyone could ever wish to be!” I’m like ….. DILLIGAF tosser. Never in all my years in the U.S. had I heard such shit and judging on how some of the other customers visible cringed at the statement – neither had they as well.
I collect my meal, but am missing a cup for my post mix drink.
I ask the server for a cup, to which she responds “Why?” Yeah, I know, I can’t
help myself sometimes and respond with “it makes the transportation of liquids,
especially hot ones, convenient.”
I get to Mike & Bek’s fanging for a beer and after a quick run down to the shop for a grocery run, I have that well in hand. Young Mikey gets the evening meal going and with assistance from all the family, is able knock up a pretty good garlic & lime marinated pork loin fillets with green leaf salad with toasted pine nuts, mango, and Spanish onions dressed with a lemon/lime, honey and mango juice vinaigrette.
