It's a long way from Brisbane to Wyoming

We had one last barby on Tuesday night, who knows when we will have the next one.

Wednesday October 25th dawned bright and sunny and we were all up early getting ready for the trip to the airport. Dot and John had arrived from Victoria on Monday and Ken and Marg made a quick trip from Sydney on Tuesday so that they could see us off.
Just prior to leaving for the airport we received our first hint that it wasn't going to be all plain sailing. Gae received a text from Qantas saying our plane had been delayed and would not be departing until 12:00 (45 min delay). Not to be offput we took off in convoy for the airport at our ETD of 8:00 am.
Checking in was no problem and after a coffee we all said our goodbyes at 10:30. As we headed down to customs Ken noticed that we had now been delayed until 2:00pm.




Further announcements while in the Qantas club said we would be delayed until 7:00pm. (Great!!!)
The problems so far were that the first plane coming from Sydney to pick us up had a cracked windscreen and had to turn back. The second one had a faulty fuel pump and they couldn't start one engine. A third plane was dispatched but this one could only take us back to Sydney where we boarded a forth that would take us to Los Angeles.
Very comfortable up in business class but unfortunately the on demand video wasn't working so we couldn't watch the movies we wanted. Also, No Southern !!!
Arrived in LA at 4:00pm instead of the scheduled 7:00 am. Obviously missing all our connecting flights but worse was yet to come.
Gae had a problem with her visa and they wouldn't let her into the US. I was told to collect the luggage while Gae was taken to passport control where she waited for 2 hours to be 'processed'. We could see each other but weren't allowed to sit together.
By this time all the help that was provided because of our delayed flight from Brisbane had gone home so we wandered around LAX for a while until we managed to get some overnight accommodation and rebook our flights from LA to Denver and Gillette.
That was Wednesday.

Up at 5:30am Thursday morning and back to LAX to find our flight to Denver had been cancelled due to mechanical problems. Wait listed on the next flights but because of a blizzard in Denver we may not get on that. We eventually did get on that flight but it was delayed for 1 hour because of the weather. Arrived in Denver to a blanket of snow. Nothing but white as far as we could see. Because of our previous delay we only had a very quick turn around in Denver so had to race to catch the plane to Gillette. Once we had our boarding passes we walked throught the snow to board the plane. This took off about 30 minutes late, pretty good by our standards so far.

On arrival in Gillette we then circled the runway 5 times with crew continually looking at the landing gear. Evidently taxiing through the snow in Denver had caused snow and ice to get up in wheel well and the doors on the wheel well could not open correctly. After 5 circles around the airport the pilot decided it was safe to land and we did. Hooray !!!
As expected though we had no luggage, it was somewhere between LA and Gillette.
At 11:30 pm, after driving out to the airport at Gillette at 10:45 to collect our luggage, we finally went to bed in our townhouse with all our luggage.

It had been a trip from hell !!!!

Our townhouse is really comfortable and we've both had a turn at driving on the wrong side of the road. From where we are living it's possible for Gae to walk to the shops and for me to walk to work (both will depend on the weather).
It's a bit hard to get used to the weather outside vs the heat inside, we always seem to putting on clothes and taking them off.

The last photo is one taken at Humphries Bar and Grill, a bit like Hard Rock with a sporting theme rather than music. It was great to finally sit down an have a nice meal a beer (note the small glass !!) and a Southern.

The Going Away Party

On the 21st of October Tracie and Dave hosted our "We're Off To Cowboy Country" party. Thanks heaps Tracie and Dave.

It's been said in the past that if you wanted to break the drought then let the Lawrence's have a party. True to form after setting up all day, cooling the drinks down with over 100 kgs of crushed ice and having the area look a picture the heaven's opened up and we had the largest single rain storm for many months in Brisbane.

Not that that was going to dampen our spirits and a great time was had by all.

Once again, thanks to;

Tracie and Dave for letting us use their house and the sound and light show,

Jack and Kerry for helping set up,

Jane and Garry for the food they whipped up.

We'll miss you all.

The Going Away Party - 2

More photo's of the party. It was great to see a few work people make it along.

Mike's Sarah show's how it's done on the dance floor.

The Going Away Party - 3

Here's a few more photos from the party.

Motezuma's with the kids.

Continuing on with the countdon to our departure Gae and I took the kids to Montezuma's mexican restaurant for a meal on the Wednesday befoe we were due to leave.
Can't say the meal did a lot for me but everyone else enjoyed theirs.

The Chateau - 12th to 15th October

The countdown to our US trip has started. On October 12th to 15th the Southerners arrived in sunny QLD for four days relaxing around the pool at The Chateau. Unfortunatley all the photo's have been left in Oz, apologies for that but if I get a chance I'll get them sent over and upload them onto the blog.
Mandy, Sime, Tim, Belle, Bully and Karyn all arrived on Thursday afternoon, the fridge was full of VB cans (not that they lasted long), wine, southern (for you know who) and it wasn't long before we were revisiting the good old days 25 years ago. A lot of stories told with only slight exaggeration. Dinner that night was down stairs at The Chateau before it was back up to the units for more "Intelligent Beer".
Friday and Saturday were spent lounging around the pool. Tim, John, Gae and Bully took a jet boat ride up the broadwater in the afternoon, great fun and highly recommend it to any other visitors. Saturday night we ate at Melba's, always popular, very noisy but a great meal. After that we went to the new look 'Howl at the Moon' at Broadbeach. What a disaster that place has turned into. After all the good times we'd had at the Surfers one, we will never go again.
We finished the night at the casino where some tried their luck while others preferred music and dancing.
Sunday morning was a big breakfast an then it was time to say our goodbyes.
Next year we plan to get together in Wyoming !!! or failing that a houseboat down the Murray when the Lawrene's return home.
To everyone ho came up from the south, thanks for a great time (as usual) and we'll miss you all.

See you next year