17-19 April 2016: Sand in my eyes

Woohoo! It was fly out time!! Today was the day we actually boarded the plane! We were up early because I have a fear of being late. I wanted to make sure that everything was packed and strapped so that the whole thing would go smoothly today. About 10 seconds after the alarm went off there was nothing left to do but sit back and relax until we drove to the airport.

Jax, being the ever amazing host, insisted on dropping us off at the airport. She has been simply amazing this week and we can't thank her enough. So thanks so much Jax!

After we checked our baggage through it was time to tackle immigration and customs. Always an exciting thing on its own. We were quite loaded down with carry on bags as we had decided to take our helmets and riding boots on the plane with us. Everything went quite smoothly, even though I did get frustrated through customs. Some of these customs staff have a knack of making people feel like a criminal and it made my blood boil.

After I finished my little seethe Chantelle and I grabbed a coffee and before we knew it our plane was boarding. Here we go! Guess who we saw waiting at the gate.

It was a long but not too terrible 12 hours and 40 minute flight to Los Angeles. The plane was comfy, had decent tucker and plenty of movies to watch.

I didn’t get any sleep and was feeling decidedly cranky at the other end. My eyes felt like I had a bucket of sand poured into each one and I resolved to try to sleep in LAX. WRONG! I just couldn’t sleep as my body clock was saying ‘go to bed’ but my brain was saying ‘but it's daylight still’. Oh jet lag my old friend! How I have missed you!!

From there we had a short 3 hourish flight through to Vancouver and our hotel. I had plans to get there and just crash into bed. As we flew along the scenery below us changed to some stunning mountains covered in snow! The Rockies!!!!!!!!

Vancouver airport was a breeze and we were quickly bundled into a taxi and on our way to a nice bed. But we had one hurdle to jump through first. The taxi driver didn’t want to do a U-turn to drop us off in front of the hotel. Instead dumping us with all our gear on the wrong side of a 6 lane highway, with all our gear, in peak hour traffic, with no option but to walk 2 blocks one way to cross at some lights and then two blocks back down the other side to the hotel. I wasn’t too happy and tried to get him to drop us out out the front of the hotel, but he wouldn’t. Oh well! First world problems!

Finally we made it to our room. Hot, tired, and cranky. Only one thing for it now. Beer and bed! Luckily there was a pub just up the road and we bought a jug, pitcher, of lager for $13!!! Plus we were given free meal tickets! That made us feel much better, and with full tums and quenched thirsts we hit the sack. 

Tomorrow will be a big day of clearing customs for the bikes.