I've done so much so far on my Australian adventure. I suppose it is about time I start writing about some of it before I forget any of the fun details.On day one, July 1st, I traveled from Hartford to Orange County. When I showed up at the airport that morning I was faced with something I didn't expect - a HUGE line for security. My mom and sister get into the security line to hold a spot for me while I went up to the Southwest kiosks and checked in and noted I had two bags to check, that went quickly. Next I hopped into the security line while Shannon printed out the seat request cards for my mom, dad, and herself for their "flight to Atlanta" so they could come up to the Southwest gate to say good-bye to me. It was strange to be flying somewhere and to not have to worry about actually having a seat. I got on the plane and sat pretty far back, but I had a window seat so I was happy.When I arrived in Baltimore, Val was waiting for me to deplane at the gate, she wasn't happy I had sat so far back on the plane because it took me quite a while to get off it. We walked to our gate at the other end of the airport together and waited a little while for our flight to Orange County. When we got on the plane, we boarded in zone B so we had to sit fairly far back, but again we had a window seat. Val took the window and got to see the fields and the desert below us as we flew across the country and into Phoenix, Arizona. It was the first time Val had been west of the Mississippi River. When we stopped in Phoenix we moved up to the second row on the plane so we wouldn’t have to wait a long time to get off the plane and into the airport after our next short leg to Orange County.
At the Orange County airport we caught up with Uncle Pat and Connor
-- I never completed this post, but it pretty much tells the beginning part of my trip enough to catch you up to speed with Val's post on her blog about the beginning of the trip, so I invite you to check out her blog at valeriesrhodes.blogspot.com --
