But it was more than that. It was many things all at once. But right then, at the Delta Airlines counter at San Francisco Airport, I didn't have time to think about all that - in fact most of the day I had felt like I'd been in a bit of a daze. I remember a lot about what happened earlier in the day, as we traipsed around San Francisco - but the minute we walk into that airport, my memory seems to fade into a bit of a fog and I remember feeling a bit like that. We had 3 flights to get to Adelaide, all booked through Virgin Australia but the first flight was through Delta Airlines from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I don't remember much about the flight, which is interesting since I always feel like I'm eagle-eyed about flying on a new airline and spotting any differences. I can't remember much about the flight other than being in the aircraft with its blue seats, I don't even remember if there was tea or coffee served or not. I guess I was in a bit of a stress fog, as getting on that next flight was key - which makes me think that perhaps that first flight was running a bit late. But it landed in LAX with time to spare, and in fact despite everyone telling us LAX is a nightmare of an airport, we found our gate with relative ease.
We did have a row of 3 seats to ourselves, and because Virgin Australia seem to be one of the few carriers who configure their 777 economy section in a 3-3-3 layout instead of squeezing in an extra row of seats for the more common 3-4-3 layout. As a result, we had more comfortable seats too - and that extra seat was useful. I sat against the window, Sasha sat in the aisle and we put the spare seat between us. I took another travel drowsy tablet before trying to get to sleep, and it did a reasonable job of giving me a decent sleep on board. I didn't get more than about 6 hours though, and spent the rest of the time watching movies mostly. The food on board was rather good. Of note, we took off on the evening of 29th July, and landed the morning of 31st July. Thanks to the International Date Line, our 30th July lasted no more than a few hours - the shortest day I've ever yet had. Strange to think too that we'd flown over Hawaii, but since it was dark there was nothing to see.
Transiting in Melbourne soon became a nightmare. We landed, and all was well until we went to disembark the aircraft and an announcement came over saying if you are continuing on to a domestic flight, you had to collect your bags and clear customs. Sasha was sure that didn't apply to us, as we'd asked in San Francisco if the bags would go all the way through or did we have to do anything, and they had said all the way through and didn't have to do anything. I had wondered how that might work for customs in Adelaide, but after asking a hostess it was clear - we had to collect our bags, then re-check in for the domestic flight. We only had a 1hr 30min layover between flights, and bag drop closed 30mins before the flight. It might be tight - not exactly the kind of extra stress we needed right now! Not only that, but as we walked up the air bridge off the plane suddenly Sasha wasn't sure if she'd stuck her jacket in her bag or if it was still in the overhead locker. She was 99% sure it was in the locker so I went back, got intercepted by the hostesses and they went to look for it - I couldn't go back on the plane myself. Next thing, Sasha's coming back down yelling out she has her jacket - it was in her bag. Crisis averted, but poor Sasha was frazzled and everything was just too much right now.
We went through the smart gates, then to the bag carousels. For some reason, our bags were among the very last to come out, and time was well and truly ticking. We had to declare one or two small things, and this saw us get shunted into a lane where our bags got x-rayed and then a sniffer dog checked them out. This all cost us precious time, and time was running out. We raced through Melbourne Airport, getting to the Virgin Australia domestic check-in desk with 5 minutes to spare - but we had to join the back of a queue. We got up to the desk just on bag close, but we had just made it. But that was uncomfortably close - if we'd been late through no fault of our own, they would have had to bump us to the next available Adelaide flight - but it would have delayed our arrival in Adelaide by 2-4 hours, really not ideal given the circumstances. But we were okay - frazzled, tired, tetchy, stressed, but okay. I barely remember anything about the flight to Adelaide other than it did the "traditional" flyover of the central city as we came into land, and Sasha's brother Steve was at the gate to meet us when we came off the plane. We were in Adelaide - we'd made it.
We went back to Steve's place, debriefed, had showers and then made our way to the hospital to visit Pam. She was a lot more alert than Steve had told us before we hopped on the flight back, but that's because the drugs which reduce swelling had really kicked in. Pam did not remember me at first, but by the end of the visit did - and even was asking me computer-related questions about her interactive hospital TV! On the whole, she seemed to be doing really well considering and a world away from her Terminal diagnosis. Our day ended by going back to Pam's unit, and being given the keys by Steve. This was to be our home in the short term while Pam was in hospital - at least we didn't have to worry about where to stay and how long for, and we had access to Pam's car too.
But that was it - we'd arrived, and the OE was over. The next chapter in our lives had begun.