Safely Home in Aus

Home with Friends Amongst the Gum Trees
Heather & I with our Rav4
Sugarcane Field
Caloundra QLD
Yamba NSW

We have been home 11 days now, and this is my first chance to update the blog! Our days have been filled with catching up with family & friends and taking care of a few administrative things including regular health checks, collecting our car from a friend who lives 5 hrs up north, etc etc. Out of 11 days, we have been home for dinner for only 2 nights. Busy, busy...

Our flight home was the best ever - I mentioned previously that our bags were checked through from Kansas City to Dallas Fort Worth to Los Angeles and onto Brisbane which was wonderful. Because we stayed within the internal airport security, we did an initial security check at Kansas City and didn't do another one for the rest of the trip. Our 14 hr flight from LAX left on time and was smooth & comfortable, and allowed Murray to catch up on the latest movies. It was exciting to see my youngest sister and eldest brother waiting in the crowd as we exited customs.

The weather has been perfect spring weather - nice cool nights and warm, sunny days. We caught a train up north to collect our car, and I caught up with my dear friend Heather - we are both nurses and joined the Air Force on the same day over 20 years ago - she is out now too and works in a hospital in Bundaberg. The 4.5 hr train trip from Brisbane to Bundaberg allowed us to sit back in comfort and check out the aussie countryside - mostly nice and green, but it got drier the further north we got. I have to say it was nice to see the familiar gum trees (eucalypts) along the way. Once we picked up our car, the drive back to the Gold Coast allowed us to note the difference in crops...in USA we were seeing corn, hay and soya beans, and here we were seeing sugarcane, avocadoes, olives, paw paws and mangoes. This state also grows ginger, macadamias and pineapple, but we didn't see those on the route we took. During the trip back we caught up with friends Barb & Bruce who are also just back from a 6 month RV trip around the USA, and another friend from our Air Force days who we had lost touch with for many years.

Tomorrow we move into our 1 bedroom cottage in the seaside town of Ballina, which is 1.5 hrs south of the Gold Coast where we are living at the moment. It will be nice to settle in and kick back for a few weeks, before I commence one month of Air Force reserve work at Canungra, which is 20 mins from the Gold Coast. I will live in the Officers' Mess for the duration.