QF15 BNE to LAX // DAL 940 LAX to TPA // 29-30 May
No matter how well prepared I am, it seems that airports involve some stress. Firstly, my bag was the last one to be fully packed (capturing all the last little bits). This was around Monday lunchtime, and once weighed (with our travel scale) I discovered it was almost 30kg. Eeek! The other bags were all about 20-22kg. We had a generous limit of 32kg on our first flight to LA, but only 22kg on our internal flight to Tampa. Panic! Juggling between suitcases and hand luggage ensued. We were ere worried about the 7.5kg hand luggage limit for Qantas. I got my bag to a more reasonable weight and decided to deal with the internal flight once we had the first flight out of the way. Luckily Americans do not like to travel light. At LA we transferred extras to our hand luggage (the limit was 10kg but not enforced – so many people had double that!) and all our suitcases were under 23kg – just!
Airport drop-off was nice and early (thanks fam!) and we went straight to check-in, nervously as this would be the first time our US visas would be checked. Robin was in charge of the passports and it seemed to be taking sometime. They were having difficulty with one of the visas. Someone else came to assist, then we were sent to another counter. Half an hour had passed. Another 20mins and it appeared to be sorted. We were nervous. Was it going to be Ok when we entered the US?? An hour or so later, after security, Robin and Christopher were called to the gate. Eeek! It seemed the first person who started our check-in had put Robin’s visa against Christoper. Or the other way around. Wow. Five people to sort that out. At least we knew all the visas were in the system and all correct. Whew! Onto the flight.
The flight to LA was approx. 14hrs and overnight. Plenty of entertainment options, we managed to get some sleep, though Claire is not a fan of take-off and landing. We arrived in LA around 6pm in the evening. The kids were fascinated that we’d arrived before we left. Not so thrilled we’d lose the day going back though, ha! The airport shuttle to the hotel Wes entertaining, the back seats almost bottomed out on every sped bump (there were lost). The suspension was super springing so half the passengers were giggling by the time we got to the hotel stop. It didn’t get dark until about 8pm so we’re headed out for some fresh air and walked to get dinner. We were staying very close to the airport so didn’t get to see anything of LA. We’ll have to wait until we travel through. Jet lag woke us all up around 3am so r trying to rest we were all ready for the hotel breakfast when it first opened. Then back to the airport after breakfast and a suitcase-hand luggage juggle. All smooth at the airport this time. The flight to Tampa was around 5hrs. Again we arrived about 6pm and this time picked up a hire car. It was nice having the long days (sunset around 8.30pm) but it was dark by the time we found some dinner and then the hotel. We had booked into the Home2Suites for 10 days so we were able to unpack and settle in a little. This will be our base while we RV and truck shopping.
