I said goodbye to the fam bam and got dropped at the bus terminal at nearly 10 pm.
It was frigid inside the terminal because the doors kept sliding open to let passengers in.
I had just perfected a self heating system for my arms using a double hoodie technique when the apologetic security man turfed us all out for the night.
Like: for the night!! Outside into the Canberra cold without my winter jacket! With my bus due to leave at midnight!
I felt a little panicky because it was just me and an inebriated man outside in the pavement.
I began jogging on the spot, wondering if I should walk to McDonalds to wait when a mum and her son showed up. Friendly and chatty, and on their way to Disney!!!
I was quietly horrified at their lack of planning; they knew zilch about how to get the most out of their time at Disney, just planned on arriving and hoping for the best
For 11 at night though, the conversation was becoming a little too perky for my exhausted introvert. I feigned some yawns and retreated to a bench.
I boarded the bus, driven by an old fella ( fiesty to the brink of rude) and was grateful to have a spare seat beside me.
I was dead to the world the entire way.
Sleep was impossible once we reached the airport at 3:15. I couldn’t access the more comfortable main lounge areas for 4 hours, having to loiter around for luggage check-in to open.
Being first in line to check luggage earned me my own personal assistant to do the process for me. The attendant did it all, printed out both my boarding passes and my luggage stickers.
I didn’t have to take any liquids etc out of my bag during the security check. That was a change!
I had been worried about my American Airlines flights. They were consistently the cheapest tickets, so I assumed they must be one of those airlines where you have to buy your food. And all the reviews I read of about cheapfaresnow, the site where I booked the flights said that this site was a scam site. I worried my seat wouldn’t exist.
The worry was all for naught.
On board the plane we were greeted with a hot refresher towel and a menu for 3 meal services! And this was just for us in economy!
I had a window seat that I didn’t have to pay the 89 US dollars for, so that felt like a massive win.
A little girl sat next to me so I had lots of space. Her mum had the aisle seat.
The dad and brother sat across from us and they interacted and watched tv; but the little girl and her mum- they didn’t speak to each other at all.
No entertainment, just sleeping or sitting and looking into space. Mum slept most of the time and that’s when the girl got a bit wriggly.
She and I watched one and a half Disney movies with her sharing my headphones, but when I was going to sleep and left her both earpieces, her mum paused the movie and the little girl resumed staring into space. For a 13 1/2 hour trip….
Sleep was a sporadic event for me but not elusive. I did get snatches of it.
And now I sit and wait with my red swollen feet out of my shoes in the LAX airport for the next leg To Seattle!
Dory the Explorer 