Nate
Today, and the two days connected without any sleep, was (were) the big day(s). It felt like one giant day, yet it was June 27th, the 28th (for a couple hours, and therefore aptly named day zero), and the eternal morning of the 29th. It should really be named day 1...day 1...day 1. We all slept fine our last night in Red Deer, all four of us. June 25th I managed to actually bring myself to see a doctor and get some antibiotics, as I thought I had a sore throat, but I guess I have bronchitis/pre-pneumonia. I guess I should have gone to a doctor earlier. As a result, last night was my first night where I wasn't hacking up a lung in about a week. I needed that sleep as I knew I won't be able to sleep until I see a bed again, which won't be in a plane or an airport.
The day itself was quite something. As we pulled out of the driveway, Duane mentioned that he used to always start his stopwatch when he flew long flights, so I took his advice. As the Linklaters were driving us to the airport, and Jamie looks at her phone to learn our flight (with United) was delayed by about three hours. This was at about Airdrie. Too late for us to change any plans for the 27th. When we got to the United desk in the international section of the airport, they said they could get us on a Air Canada flight that would put us through Vancouver. Elly was a little disappointed, as she really wanted to fly to San Francisco, but I saw that the one that flies out of Vancouver was a 777: at least if we are flying for 15 hours, it is on a relatively new model of plane.
Our flight from Vancouver to Sydney, a fifteen hour flight, as a whole seemed to go quickly. Blake watched movies, fell asleep when the sun seemed to go down, and then watched more movies. Jamie played a bunch of touch screen games intermittently between all of her power naps. I was very envious every time she seemed to be well asleep. I decided to play a game on Blake's 3DS until the battery died, and that got me to about Fiji. I wanted to read, but the problem was the whole plane seemed to be asleep, and so it would have been unethical to turn on a light. Elly was the navigator. She fell asleep a couple times, but then she kept looking at the GPS map with the expected times of arrival. It was her favorite part of the flight.
We had a small 40-minute Dash 8 flight from Sydney to Canberra, but then we certainly arrived into an airport that took concern of when this national capital could be like--it was filled with glass and marble, and honestly reminded me of the Fort McMurray airport. It felt good to be here. We were coming down an escalator, myself with one eye beginning to fall asleep, and Jamie spotted our one of our partners with whom we are exchanging with. My brain was so tired I could barely recognize my kids.
It felt great to arrive here, and everyone who can sleep on planes felt fine. I'd already had my second wind, and was staying awake on about my fifth wind. Now we have a good dozen months before we will be flying 15-hour flights again.
