Going North For New Years

I am not sure why, but my family has a tradition of going North at least once every Winter. Why? No idea. It seem to make sense for us to travel South to visit relatives, or at least encourage relatives North of us to come South, but something draws us up well past the snow line into the, "Oh Gawd! It's cold up here," tundra zone. Of course, in my case it is my, "play with the Grandkids in the snow like I'm five," moment. This year, Connie wisely secured a hotel room away from the Grandkids with easy access to a hot tub. This minimizes the, "what was I thinking," and, "I am DEFINITELY not 18 anymore (ow)," moments to a minimum before drifting off to sleep at night -- crippled this time by a two-hour snowball fight followed by four hours of sledding. It would have been more, but Zoe wisely remembered her evening curfew and they were all too tired after dinner to go outside and play in the dark. Connie spent the day inside assembling a Lego Hogwarts with Nikki. Pictures tomorrow (maybe). :)

Home!

My Mom and Dad met us at the Madison Truax Airport (MSN) and drove us home to the Badger blowout of Nebraska on the radio. The heat has been turned on, pizza has been ordered, and the kids have been called. It took us 31.5 hours to get there. It took us 26 hours to get home and it was December 1, 2012 at every stop. End of adventure! 'Till January in Florida if not sooner! -Rob and Connie :)

Only a Little Left in Minneapolis

Waiting for the last leg to start at gate C22 of Hubert Humphry International in Minneapolis (MSP), Connie and I have no legs after 23 hours of running through airports, security screenings, and being packed like sardines in various aluminum tubes called airplanes. We were fortunate at LAX -- only a couple flights of stairs and a short walk between security and our gate.

Of course, I got put through the wringer again at security. The lady running the scanner decided to see if she could shake me by changing up the body scanner procedures and yelling at me when I did not move fast enough. Shoes on, shoes OFF, no metal in the pockets became nothing in the pockets. She actually put her hand on her gun when she saw I had left a dirty hankerchief in one. They then proceeded to inspect my wallet, removing every item and tried to crowd me out of observing their actions! Once it was clear I had nothing, they let me pass with that "we know we just picked on the wrong person but we'll catch you next time" attitude that lets you know they messed up going overboard on the wrong person. Oh well! Connie had been collecting my stuff and we rapidly recombobulated before enjoying some McDonalds.

The flight from LAX to MSP was fairly smooth, but we hobbled off the plane, worn from the journey, to discover we were at the end of terminal F and our next flight was in terminal C. My legs buckled. That journey is a good fraction of a mile. Someone at Delta deserves a Christmas present from us, however, as they had one of those electric golf carts waiting for us. We rode in luxury. Now we have an hour's wait plus one more in the air and we are back in Madison!

Back In America Again! (Well LAX anyway)

Our plane just landed at LAX after almost 14 hours in the air. There were a few rough spots, but Virgin Australia is a class outfit with lots of room, service, and entertainment. We only had to wait a few minutes on the runway for a bunch of AA planes to take off and for a plane to be towed off a gate. We are here five hours before we left Sydney. Nothing like getting a second Saturday -- retired or not! :D. Unfortunately, we will be respending that time winding our way through customs and navigating the LAX labyrinth. More soon. :)