Almost 17 hours after leaving Brisbane, I’m feet down at
LAX. The Trans-International Dateline Time
Machine has been working—I have arrived one hour earlier than I left, something
that never ceases to amuse me. It was a long 2
flights, but it was comfortable enough to sleep, and I watched a bunch of fun
movies. (See “Seven Psycopaths”!)
I call She Who Is Small But Mighty and discover that I
am…fourth in the world. Groan.
I check into Facebook and discover that I missed third place
by only 0.33 points. Grrrr. Wait. Well,
OK. Fair enough, running over Mark
probably sealed that, and truthfully I owed him third place after that little
fiasco.
Rob picks me up at the airport, and I finally break out my
inflatable roof racks, which I didn’t need in Australia since my boat fit inside the rental car,
and we strap the boat to his car and head to his house, with only one heart
attack moment on the way when the guy in the SUV pulled up beside us on the 405
and pointed frantically at the rack, and we realized that the boat was sort of
loose up there, but I just yanked the straps tighter and we were good.
Home at Rob and Jana’s, and I unpack my wetsuit gear, bag up
my boat and put it back in the rafters of his garage where it will live until my next visit to California, dry and pack my gear (I’m
right up against my weight limit, so it is important to not carry excess water in my luggage in the form of wet gear), and
shower. We go out for a quick dinner,
and then it is back to the airport where I just make my redeye flight back to Philly.
I sleep OK on the plane (exit row seat again, yay!!) and
arrive home at 6AM. Of course, my bag
doesn’t make it, though my paddle does.
US Airways will it home to Wilmington in the evening.
Exit seat. Poor man's first class!
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