And so we return to 2011.  Saturday October 1st is the last day to get our day jobs organized and the house pets ready for our 3 week absence. It has been long hours on little sleep with lots of coffee but we are as ready as we are going to be.

The morning started at first light, heading out to the Applegate Valley to pick up 3 ton of alfalfa for our pet horses, Cassie and Bubba.  Handling 3-wire, 120# bales, is a good way to start the day.  The dozen or so Koi fish will be fine though they think they are always under fed even when we are home.  Blackie and Hector, our cats have a month supply of their favorite canned food.  Though Hector is not sure how he is going to work the can opener while we are gone.

The bags are packed, just 1 ½ pounds short of our maximum 200 pounds allowed.  We brought enough for 16 people to camp in the Outback including the kitchen sink, stove, tables and toilet. It looks like a lot of gear but is less than two years ago when we weren’t sure what to expect and the team was on a tight budget.

This flying still is amazing to me. I understand the engineering of wing lift and engine trust but when you look at a 747 and think about how something this big gets off the ground… 

We walk into a metal tube that weighs 50 tons and in a short time; walk out on the other side of the earth.  Now it only took 25000 gallons crude oil to get us here but that’s another story. I guess the world is not that big after all.   

We arrived in Adelaide on time with all luggage present and accounted for.