30hours!

Hey Y'all,

Living in Australia means that travelling anywhere means one word - EPIC. 30hours of travel it took to get from Adelaide to the USA and it was a long and arduous trip - but non the less part of the job and I am pretty much so used to it now that I hardly ever get that cranky - unless you're name is Scott Sunderland (one of my team mates who at times infuriates me)!

Our first trip was from Adelaide to Auckland and because we had 40pieces of luggage between 13people we had to be at the airport a lot earlier to make sure we got it all on properly! As you can in the picture below we had a lot of stuff!

Check in was actually really quite effortless and we didn't get stuck with too much excess so thank you Air NZ! The trip to NZ was pretty easy, I slept for half of it and watched a few movies which was good. It was a nice new airplane to so that was cool...it even had an I-pod charger where the TV is in the back of the seats which is a lifesaver because I have my I-pod on 24/7 when I am travelling.

We had a pretty long wait in Auckland airport, so we decided we might indulge ourselves in a little massage. Unfortunately there was only one guy working so it was first in best dressed and out mechanic Stu got in there first for a full body massage...I was kind of glad not to get one after I saw how this guy massaged!

Our trip from Auckland to Los Angeles was a nice 11.5hour trip and I think its worth mentioning here that on both flights so far I have been seated next to the one person I cant seem to escape...Dan! Dan Ellis is one of the guy sprinters, with whom I live with...seriously what is with that?! Ha-ha! The trip wasn't too bad and I slept for maybe 4hours of it - a restless sleep mind you but sleep!

When we arrived in LA we were hit with our first feeling of warm weather for some time! OH YEAH! I have been to a few airports in the past and I have to say there are none worse than LA airport. After clearing customs, where you have to give you're fingerprints and have a mugshot taken (I am not joking) we had to pick all of our equipment up and we thought we just had to take it to a conveyor belt past the guys who check you're bags if you have anything to claim...well we were able to drop off our personal luggage but the bikes on the other hand, because they are over sized, we had to take to terminal 3. We were in Terminal 1. How do you get to terminal 3? Ha-ha...we certainly didn't know how...

Ok...leaving terminal 1...where do we go?...

Through the car park?....

Yep pretty sure we cant go this way...And yep pretty sure this walkway was not built for AIS cyclists with huge bike boxes! ha ha...Ok and yep the check is in upstairs so onto the lift we go!!

Finally we had dropped off our of our stuff and now it was a mad rush to try and get to our connecting flight to our connection on time...we didn't have long! Unlike Australian domestic terminals its not as simple as going through the security checkpoint...you had to have you're ticket checked first (to make sure you were flying - so no family can go in or anything) then you have to take you're shoes and coat off as well as take out all toiletries and computers! Far out! When we all finally made it through we were highly disappointed to see that our connecting flight was delayed!

The last trip was pretty good...I was KO'd the whole way from the moment we took off to the moment we landed which was awesome because it was pretty quick for me!

The airport we arrived in would have to be one the most amazing airports I have ever seen! For a mostly domestic airport its absolutely huge! The roof of the main terminal is made our of sails, so that its energy efficient...I tried to get a decent photo from the outside but it was way too dark to see.

The problem with that airport is that its so big that there are three levels that you can pick up and drop off at. The trolleys cost 4dollars each and were designed to carry bike gear so we couldn't use the trolleys. Luckily (we thought) our baggage carousel was near the pick up zone we we carried all our stuff outside and waited for Gary and Tammie (my coach and head sport scientist) to get the cars. 30minutes later and no sign of them we realised that we weren't so lucky as we were at the 'corporate' pick up zone which meant we had to carry all the luggage (again!) up to the level above us to get it onto the truck. By this stage there were a few cranky people and a few fights happened. Which luckily were sorted.

Midnight and at the wrong pick up zone...damn!

Onto the truck the gear goes.

Another hour and a bit drive and finally we arrived our hotel at 1.30am! 30hours later! We had quick showers and hopped into bed all very tired and glad to be here.

This morning I woke up to the sound of the boys enjoying a spot of basketball before heading to the cafeteria for breaky. We even have a pool outside our building and everything is pretty amazing.

Alex Bird enjoying some basketball with the boys...

I hope everyone back home in Oz are enjoying the cold! I might head down for a swim because I am so hot! Ha ha!

Take care all and until next time...

Karls

P.s. This a note to my mother and father...I have already copped crap about the spelling of my name by one of the coaches here at that training centre...he says I am the girl they will remember as having two A's in her name! Ha-ha...great! Love you!