Running for my Disney - Finally a TR!

[zanzibar138]

San Antonio - Melbourne

I woke with a heavy heart, knowing that this would be my last day in the US. I had no time to dwell on it with a long drive ahead of me to get to Killeen airport. I checked out and picked up my hire car from a nearby hotel. I made my way to the freeway and drove along there for a while before making an exit towards the Texas hill country.

The hill country was quite similar to the Dandenongs here in Melbourne. A hilly wooded area with quaint little towns. I stopped in one of the little towns called Wimberley and asked at the tourist information centre about nice walks in the area. I was directed to the Blue Hole park. This was a small park built around a swimming hole in the river. It had brand new facilities and looked nicely maintained.







I did see some deer among the woods, but without my good camera I just couldn't get a decent photo.

I decided to skip the walk along the river as I didn't want to risk running late for another flight! It would have been a lovely walk. I'm pretty keen to head back and spend some more time in this area.

I headed back to the freeway. I was keeping an eye out for a lunch stop, but of course since needed one, I couldn't see any suitable fast food joints. Eventually I found a chicken place and pulled off the freeway for it. It was super busy! But in this non-touristy area, I caused quite a stir being Australian! I don't think the staff there had ever met someone from a different country (except maybe Mexico) before!

I hit the road again and eventually hit the boring roads to Killeen, which really was in the middle of nowhere. I drove past the airport, which was on the outskirts of town, to find a petrol station. I found one and went in to prepay, as seems to be the custom in the US, UT made tube mistake of asking for petrol. The poor girl looked at me blankly. I realised my mistake and told her I meant gas. She asked me what I had originally said, and as so excited to learn a new word lol!

I still had plenty of time to spare, so I thought I'd check out the town. There didn't seem to be much interesting there, and I somehow found myself about to enter the military base. I turned around at the first opportunity and headed back to the airport.

To be continued

 

[PrincessInOz]

That's a lovely wooded area you stopped at.

Yes - petrol = gas is a pretty easy mistake to make.

 

[zanzibar138]

Killeen airport was great! About the size of Launceston, but much nicer, newer facilities. There was free wifi and heaps of charging points for devices. There was a football team or something there all trying to get through security at about the same time as me, so unfortunately it did take quite a while. I don't think this would normally be the case.

I was VERY surprised to see a jetbridge out to our little tiny plane (you can just see the tail fin in the picture) lol!



We boarded the plane and I made my way to my exit row single seat.



The flight was about an hour long and one of the best flights I've had. Unfortunately it was cloudy, so I didn't really see much out the window, but some of the cloud formations were pretty cool.



Coming into Dallas, the skies were a little clearer.



Unfortunately with the little plane we weren't really able to get high enough out of the clouds to avoid turbulence, and it was a bit of a bumpy ride most of the way. We only had any major dips etc when we were taking off and landing though. The poor girl across the aisle from me was looking rather green, and as we were landing I saw her boyfriend frantically sifting through the seat pocket. I quickly realised he was looking for a sick bag, and didn't look like he was going to find one, so I passed him mine. Let's just say they got good use out of it... eww!

When we landed, I decided to give her my last little cling koala, hoping it would help her feel better. She was ridiculously excited about it lol! I got thanked about a million times before we left the aircraft.

We exited via a jetbridge again, and I found my way to the next boarding lounge for the flight to LAX.

This was a fairly large plane, with 3 seats on either side of the aisle. I was on the window (I usually get an aisle for anything more than 3 hours, but hadn't realised how long the flight would be because of the time differences!). I had a very nice lady sitting next to me, with a rather surly man on the aisle. The man had a good whinge to the lady about how he had just come off an 11 hour flight from Paris, and still had a 3.5 hour flight to get to LA. I didn't mention to him that I had already had a 1 hour flight, and at LA I would be transferring to a 12 hour flight, then about a 5 hour flight, then another 1 hour flight lol!

The weather was clear and I enjoyed looking out the window for most of my flight.





At LAX I found the Fiji Airways desk fairly easily. I asked if they would be able to transfer my luggage at Fiji, since my next flight was also on Fiji Airways. The problem was, the lady at the check in desk couldn't find my next flight confirmation. She made some calls, and it turned out that they had not been able to charge my credit card for the fare when they had tried a few days prior. Apparently it was all my fault because I had not answered my phone or checked my messages. Have you heard of email? This was a flight that I had booked months in advance. Since it was a Friday night, they were not able to contact the Fiji office for them to try charging my card again, and suggested that I wait until they opened again on Monday. Um, how about no. My flight back to Australia left Fiji on Sunday! The next suggestion was that I could sort it out when I got to Fiji. This would mean I'd have to collect my luggage, go through immigration, make my way back into the terminal and go through the whole departures process. Plus there was no guarantee they would be able to sort it out anyway. Eventually someone clever decided to call Qantas, since that's who I booked through, and the very nice lady there charged my card immediately with no problems.

After that ordeal I was looking forward to a stiff drink in the lounge. However, Fiji's lounge is not licenced yet. I skyped DH to have a vent and felt a bit better. At least I got a welcome cocktail when I finally boarded the plane.



The next couple of flights were fairly uneventful thank goodness! I was pretty pleased when I finally made it home!

 

[zanzibar138]

And that is the end of this TR! Thanks for reading along

 

[PrincessInOz]

WOW! I would have been completely stressed out about not having a complete flight all the way home if I got that situation at the check-in counter. Glad you got it sorted!


Thanks for taking the time to share this trip. I really enjoyed reading all about it.
Here's to the next one! (Safe travels )

 

[zanzibar138]

WOW! I would have been completely stressed out about not having a complete flight all the way home if I got that situation at the check-in counter. Glad you got it sorted!


Thanks for taking the time to share this trip. I really enjoyed reading all about it.
Here's to the next one! (Safe travels )

Oh, I was completely stressed out, believe me! Especially since I was on my own! There were tears. It took nearly an hour for me to sort out at the check-in desk too, so good thing I had plenty of time before my flight.

Glad you enjoyed reading, even though the last few posts were kind of rushed. I'm hoping to finish all my existing TRs before our next trip!

 

[Zosha]

You take such cool trips with all the little detours etc on the way. I can't wait til my kids are grown up (lol) and I have time to explore the US a little more.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

You initially sounded so calm about the drama - I would have been in tears coping by myself so nice to then read I wouldn't be alone. Glad it all got sorted fine. The side trip to San Antonio looked lovely. I do like side trips when travelling! Poor girl on the plane - glad you could help out. There wouldn't have been anything worse than an alternative!

 

[zanzibar138]

You take such cool trips with all the little detours etc on the way. I can't wait til my kids are grown up (lol) and I have time to explore the US a little more.

We like them I love it when we get to re-visit some favourites, but also get to check out some new places at the same time! I especially love finding little gems that no one else has heard of lol!

You initially sounded so calm about the drama - I would have been in tears coping by myself so nice to then read I wouldn't be alone. Glad it all got sorted fine. The side trip to San Antonio looked lovely. I do like side trips when travelling! Poor girl on the plane - glad you could help out. There wouldn't have been anything worse than an alternative!

Oh trust me, I was not calm

I really enjoyed my little solo side trip.