WELCOME TO MY DAY..

IT IS NICE TO HAVE YOU SHARE IT WITH ME...

And I hope my husband appreciates the fact that I have just rejected a United Airlines Offer of $US300, plus a night and day in one of the Airport Hotels, plus all meals, PLUS the guarantee of a Business Class seat on the same flight tomorrow night, in order to be home in time to work the Easter Saturday morning shift in the pharmacy!!
Something to remember, though, that these direct LA to Melbourne flight CANNOT be fully booked, so that there are always lucrative offers of a "bump-up", in order to take off weight, and ALWAYS empty seats beside one for the long, long night!!
DEFINITELY worth remembering!

I did get to spend some time with Robert Green, but I suspect it was not quality time from his point of view.
He had wanted to sit at a table and drink lots of coffee, and talk about his poems, and poetry in general..had brought me an anthology in which two of his poems had been published.
I was stil uploading files to Geocities when he arrived, so he had to make his own coffee, and then I needed to pack, and I hadn't eaten yet, and it was too late (after midnight) to go out, and there was food to be cleared from the 'frig...and so on.
And I don't think I ever did sit down, all the time he was there..!

But I did manage to get the packing finished, and evene a few hours sleep, and was downstairs in plenty of time for the shuttle , just as the hotel was filling up with sharply creased airpeople congregating for a communications conference. .
And I thought that was really bad timing on my point...having been always a self-avowed "pushover for uniforms"!

And the aiport shuttle took off right on time, the driver's job, as so many such occupations in the United States, being undertaken by an efficient black lady.
My companions were a team of flight attendants, and one of their group, I learned as they waited for her, was definitely in the bad books with ALL of them, having demonstrated a number of much-discussed shortcomings in the past 60 or so hours, her customary lateness being, apparently, a particularly deadly sin!
And I was amused, yet again, by the ease with which some Americans can totally ignore the presence of one not of themselves, and so it was as the "invisible woman" that I awaited the arrival of this Jezebel, who appeared, as it happened, exactly on time!
And who turned out to be an inoffensive young lady, much younger than the others, who defended herself bravely as they continued to attack her, but who was in for a long, hard flight, I could see!

And so we proceeded to New Orleans Airport, which ground setup I have NEVER mastered, but I was okay once I got inside, but happy I had taken the early shuttle, and allowed PLENTY OF TIME, because my ONE suitcase was too heavy for Delta's weight limit, and they said I should have brought TWO suitcases, and made me shed ten pounds one way or another...
Which I managed, but that is another story!

I had asked for a window seat on the New Orleans to Dallas/Fort Worth stretch, knowing that Delta usually flies low, and between clouds. I was anxious to see if I could get further confirmation of the dominance of the area by the mighty Mississippi .......

And was not disappointed..
The Mississippi is BIG, BIG, BIG!!

Gradually, of course, the landscape changed from lush and green to dry and golden..with patches of very intensely cultivated flatland as we flew across Texas....
And if someone can explain to me how the Von-Daniken -type utterly circular fields are achieved, I'd love to know!

And for all my "experienced traveller" mode, there was still a surprise for me as we neared Los Angeles...
I have always travelled to LA in the summer, so have never seen, from the air, Los Angeles ringed by snow..

Almost made the 6 hour stopover in Los Angeles seem worthwhile!

So I shall be home in a little over 15 hours,the flight taking only 14 these days, having rejected that kind United Airlines Offer of another night and day in Los Angeles, the possibility of which I shall DEFINITELY build into my itinerary next time....
NEXT TIME?????

But I'll keep you posted!

Love to everyone over 50,and everyone on our side! -from
..Robin

NEXT BULLETIN STILL ABOUT NEW ORLEANS !!!

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