Mid-Winder Celebration

After a bit of getting to know our hosts for our house/pet sit, we helped them carry things a few doors down to a party on the shore of the Huon river. This was the annual neighborhood celebration of the winter solstice with food and bonfire.

Driving Across Tasmania

After about an 30 minutes or so after we got of the ferry, the sun began to rise revealing a beautiful land enshrouded by clouds and in the throes of winter. We stopped in Elizabeth Town for breakfast. In the village of Elizabeth Town, there is no town, only a very nice bakery. We had a great brekkie.

To Tasmania!

Finally, after what seems like days on the plane (oh, wait...it was) we arrived in Melbourne. Our friend Campbell picked us up at the airport in our recently repaired ute and we spent the night with him and Janeen. The next day, we headed into the Melbourne to kill some time at the movies (saw My Cousin Rachel...very good; worth a look) and board the Spirit of Tasmania for the 10.5 hour crossing to Devonport, Tasmania.

Back in OZ

This morning we arrived back in OZ to see the sun rise. Winter time and the trees are bare. We've spend most of the day resting, hydrating and repacking all our clothes. You see, we had shifted to our summer-time wardrobe and "stored" our winter duds in one suitcase we never opened in Virginia or Arkansas. Now, we had to flip this and pack away the summer stuff. We are started the shift back to living out of the back of our ute rather than out of three suitcases.

Anyway, here we are. Tomorrow we drive to Melbourne to do a bit of shopping and board the ferry to Tasmania. I really do promise that pictures will resume soon.

LAX

We've made it, finally, to the gate at LAX to catch our flight to Melbourne. The flight from Fayetteville, AR was pleasant enough but the crazies hit when we landed.

American Eagle took us to some place near San Diego  (not literally, it just felt that way) to a small terminal connected to the rest of the US by bus. After waiting for the bus for 10 minutes and then riding for 10 minutes, we arrive at Terminal 5 to collect our bags. No big deal here, they were waiting on us. Funny how our bags made the trip faster than we did.

Our flight information tells us we want terminal B. So I ask where it is. Well, we were at terminal 5, next to that is terminal 4, and after that is terminal B. Perfectly sensible, right? So we walk. it really wasn't far. We get in line to check in at Qantas and all goes smoothly.

Security took a little time, but went about as well as you can imagine in such a large airport. Then we went to look for something to eat. It had been about 10 hours since we ate last. The first place we stopped at had a young woman who just stood at the check out to season her food after taking 10 minutes to buy. WE got pissed and left.

The next place had a shorter line but wasn't any quickly really. We stuck with it this time and got an Umami Burger that was pretty good.

So now we are at the gate and the sky is dimming after sunset. there is every indication that we are on time, but there is no plane at the gate yet. There's time. No worries.

Next report from down under!

Father's Day!

Here is a short video from Seamus with his first gift to his 'Papa' on Father's Day. It is a bit dark, but absolutely perfect. While the str of this production is Seamus, the voice-over is done by Seth who gets the true fatherhood joy of 'post-production' recovery.

Fun on the Road!

Some of you may have heard about the latest adventure: kidney stones!

Leaving Staunton and driving north towards Dulles, we planned to say a couple nights in a hotel so we could have space for organizing. On Sunday night, I starting getting the typical pains from kidney stones. This episode was bad enough to warrant a visit to the emergency room for pain control. We got back to the hotel about 2:00 AM for a bit of sleep before moving to the hotel located at the airport for our final night. The comparison is always made between kidney stones and childbirth. I'm pretty sure this one is at least 6 pounds.

After a couple days sleeping on morphine, I somehow ended up in northwest Arkansas. This morning we went to the a GP to consider getting more pain meds to be sure that I'm not on a 15 hour flight or 12 ferry ride writhing in pain. She recommend that I also get an ultrasound to be sure we know what is going on. Well, what is going on is kidney stones...everywhere. Just got to knock this episode down and make for another 6-8 months and I'll get friendly with a urologist in Seattle and get these things taken care of.

Now I need to just be careful that the airlines don't charge for extra baggage or carrying illegal items on board with me.

The most fun has been explaining to the medical profession that we don't really live anywhere, that we don't have a GP, that the emergency room on Sunday was in a different state and that the next one will be Australia.

Mary Baldwin

Since we've had a good bit of sun here in Staunton, I thought I'd share a walk that Raven and I had the other day. We walked up to the top of Cannon Hill to catch a few rays and see the city clothed in its leafy green splendor.