Off to Guadalcanal!

On August 4th we departed for Guadalcanal. Seriously, the World War II Museum people are outstanding. Our schedule had us off to the races early in the morning. Baggage had to be out in the hallway at 8:15 am. Breakfast was available starting at 6:30 am. Departure for the airport was 9:45 am. Our flight departure was scheduled for 2:35 pm.

At this point let me pause and tell you a little about our traveling companions. There are a total of 23 travelers: 6 women and 17 men. All of them serious seasoned travelers. Not all, but several were a bunch of whinny babies because we were leaving for the airport so early. There wasn’t enough time to do anything in Brisbane, the hotel wanted us out of our rooms, and we had to wait somewhere. Getting 23 mostly senior citizens organized and to the right place at the right time is definitely a challenge. We arrived safely at the airport, did the baggage scrum at the bus, entered the terminal and wouldn’t you know it, they weren’t checking in our flight for another hour. MUTNEY!! Demand that we be checked in! No way Jose! : 11:30 am and not a moment sooner. Boo hoo!

Everyone scattered after check-in and reassembled at the gate at the scheduled boarding time But the Brisbane airport wasn’t through with us yet. They switched our gate! How dare they? No big deal, it was only to the next gate and we all survived.

We thought we were so fortunate to have the aisle and window seat with the middle seat open until little, let’s call him Johnny, sat with his mommy and daddy in the row behind us. Things were wonderful until mommy, seated behind Cory, put down her tray table and little Johnny commenced slamming his toy truck on the tray table and against the seat back. Luckily Cory was able to move to the center seat. Little Johnny did not take this lightly so he moved to daddy’s lap behind Jim and continued slamming his toy truck onto the tray table and against the seat back until Cory moved back to her aisle seat and Jim moved to the middle seat. Apparently little Johnny passed out from exhaustion after giving up on his harassment of us.

Overall it was almost a good flight. Unlike airlines in the US, we had a nice hot meal in coach: wine and beer included. We had a pretty smooth ride and prepared for landing. So we’re gliding down, seeing lights on the ground then WOOSH we’re zooming up into the blackened sky at an extremely steep angle with the pedal to the metal. TAKE THAT LITTLE JOHNNY!!! The captain told us there was a problem with the weather and he decided to take a pass. I think there was a problem in the back of the plane with 150 people, including little Johnny, with crap in their pants. It was the scariest flying moment of our lives. We reviewed our seating relative to the emergency exits and hoped for the best. Fortunately the second time was a charm.

Customs went smoothly and when we left the airport we were greeted by local women and Miss Tourism. They presented us with beautiful hand made leis of local flowers attached to braided leaves. Their welcoming smiles were so friendly and warm. We finally got to the hotel in time for a late dinner. We are now safely on Guadalcanal!