Airlie Beach, Whitsunday, Qld, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The trip to Los Angeles (QANTAS) was enjoyable but it was a long trip. Our flight departed at 11am and was approximately 13 hours. We dozed but didn’t sleep so were really tired when we arrived. The first connecting flight which was to Dallas left four hours after we arrived in LA and following that, there was another connecting flight from Dallas to Fort Lauderdale. We were warned that customs could be quite horrendous. As it happens, on arriving in LA, we first went through a passport check at which time, after some discussion, our passports were stamped with a one year visa. It seems that, even though we had a five year visa approved, we could only have our passport stamped from time to time, with a one year maximum. So be it! We will deal with the next stage when it happens. We then made our way through many buildings and many queues to the next terminal, where we were pulled aside for a full luggage and body search. As tickets for flights are issued, the computer selects people at random, and our tickets had been targeted!! It wasn’t as bad as we expected and the body search consisted of a “feeling down’’ and the luggage search was just checking for drug powder residue with a wet wipe.
The second stage of our trip to Dallas was a three hour flight. As you can imagine, we were getting more tired and more weary. The Dallas airport was amazing, with skyrails connecting each terminal. We had a half hour before we connected to the last of our flights to Fort Lauderdale which was a two and a half hour flight. So total flying hours and the connection time was approximately 27 hours!!
On arriving, (11pm US time) we had a few drinks, something basic to eat and then crashed. I have experienced jet lag before but not with this difference in the time zone. We were fourteen hours behind Queensland time and eight days later, we were still trying to adjust!!
