Leaving on a Jet Plane

All my bags are packed/ I'm ready to go / ...

If only it were that easy to pack the bags, We were definitely ready to go, all that stood between us and leaving was packing.

Leaving Carlsbad early in the morning we headed back to LA to empty out the RV and hand it over the the new owners.

We had done a bit of preparation for the  the week before when we stayed at Octavio's. Octavio has a lovely big double garage but we don't think he would mind us saying that it was just a little bit cluttered. With over 150 kgs of luggage to sort out  + the extra that we were going to ship back we needed a bit of room to sort ourselves out. Before we left for Carlsbad Rob and Fiona spent a day as de-clutterers assisting Octavio to discover the floor of his garage. We sold things on the front lawn, sent things to the second hand shop and filled the amazing number of bins residents of Anaheim are issued with. At the end of this we were able to fit a car in the garage.

Coming back to Octavio's we were very grateful we had done this as we were able to quickly transfer all our things out of Marvey the RV and into the garage. We did one final clean and check before handing her over to the new owners with very mixed feelings. This had been our home for a year and it was not an easy goodbye. 

Last photo

Bye bye Marvey

Then it was onto the packing. We had bikes to clean, shoes to clean, boxes for bikes, boxes for shipping and more stuff than we thought possible. It was a lot of work and reminded us exactly how much work it had been getting over to the US in the first place. 

The day before we flew out Symi and Rob went to Knott's Berry Farm for a day of roller coastering. Fiona, having terrible motion sickness, wisely decided to give it a miss. The pace was frantic, Symi has a knack of getting out of a ride first. In the first hour we rode six roller coasters! The most frightening (read best) was the Xcelerator that went 0-132kph in 2.3 seconds! Then went completely vertical up, then down. Amazing and addictive. All the roller coasters in the park were sampled multiple times with short queues helping to totally wear Symi and Rob out by late afternoon. On the last roller coaster Symi was trying to close her eyes and rest her head against Rob, time to head off! Arriving back at Octavio's Fiona wanted a full report of the day, what she got was a adrenaline depleted and exhausted husband and daughter.

Fairy floss in front of the Xcelertor

Our last day in LA we delivered our shipping to the depot and went out to lunch with Octavio. With an 11pm flight we had a long day to fill. We had an uneventful trip to the airport having allowed lots of time to get there with all our luggage. Fiona had found a way to buy a reasonably priced 30 day pass to the Qantas Club so we made our way there and sat and toasted a successful trip. Only the eight hour wait in Brisbane airport to look forward to!    

The flight was uneventful until Symi woke up and decided she didn't feel well. Fiona found her a sick bag which was not needed and she fell asleep. Hours later after one mouthful of breakfast we were very glad we had found the sick bag! Very glad indeed as a search of all the surrounding seats did not reveal a second one which at one stage we were thinking we would need. Apart from not wanting any more breakfast Symi recovered well from this episode and we were soon on the ground in Brisbane 30' early.

Our charmed trip continued with an uneventful progression through customs (not a given when you have three mountain bikes with you). That achieved we were out ready for our next flight - in 8.5 hours. Rob decided to go and see if we could swap onto the 11am flight that we had been too scared to book on our frequent flyer points in case we missed it. No problems they said. Just pay us $2100 and the seats are yours. Suddenly a long wait in the Qantas Club looked financially appealing.

We went over to the domestic check in desk that was located in the international airport to book in the 2 of our 6 check in pieces of luggage that were not over-sized. There we met the lovely Marji who told us that if we took all our luggage over to the domestic airport on  the bus we might be able to find Garry who might be able to put us on the earlier flight. She could not book in our luggage as it would be for the wrong plane. We were just about to leave her desk when Fiona checked with Symi that she was feeling alright after the trip. As soon as Marji heard that Symi had been sick she was straight on the phone to Garry telling him all about the 'really sick young girl who had been vomiting all the way from LA'! Anyway the phone call worked and we were on the plane for the princely price of $0.00 a great improvement on the previous price.

Check-in was quick and after a quick shower and some breakfast we were on the plane and winging our way towards our final destination of Home Sweet Home.

It was so lovely to see everyone and get back into our house which was in great shape. Symi was beside herself with excitement at seeing all her friends

What a year! It all worked out even better that we hoped. We saw and did amazing things and met wonderful people. 

At the end of such a fantastic year you know you are really lucky when it is so easy to come home to family, friends and a great Perth lifestyle. 

That's it from the Wandering Waller's for now. It may be a bit of a wait until we accrue some holidays and can wander some more.

Thank for reading our blog.