Oz...Here I Come!

Tomorrow morning at 4:30am...I start my 2-day trip from Colorado Springs to Noosa, Australia! It starts with a 4:45am shuttle ride to the COS airport...a 6:15am flight to SFO...a 3.5 hour layover in San Francisco...11:30am departure from SFO to Tokyo...we arrive in Japan at 3:30pm (on Thursday)....a 6 hour layover in the Tokyo airport...then a 9:30pm departure on Qantas to Brisbane, Australia...arriving in Australia at 7:10am on FRIDAY...lastly, a 1 hour shuttle service from the airport to the Sun Seeker Apartments which will be 'home' for the next 6 weeks!
I'll be in the air above LOTS of Pacific Ocean for the next two days! The first long flight, from SFO to Tokyo, I HAVE to stay awake as much as possible. But for the Tokyo to Brisbane flight, I have to SLEEP as much as possible so that I'm able to stay awake for the entire Friday after I arrive!
Since a lot of the USA Triathlon team has already departed and will be in Noosa before I get there...I'm going to recruit my friends to help me stay awake...games, tours, exercise, etc...anything that will keep my eyes open until about 8pm!
Speaking of sleeping at 8pm...that will be the typical 'bed-time' for everyone. Shocking, I know! But it is VERY VERY VERY warm in Australia right now. So our coach has us training from 5-9am and late afternoon to stay out of the brutal heat. If we're going to be up at 4am to prepare for training...I will definitely be going to sleep around 8pm...party central, I know:)!
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So I took a break from writing this blog to take my friend Haven to the airport. He was suposed to leave for Australia on the 4:59pm flight out of COS. I dropped him off around 3:55pm and headed home to finish packing and go for a jog. Well, I didn't even make it into my room before my phone rang...it was Haven. I answered it with a joke: "So, what did you forget?"
Of course he wasn't kidding when he said that he forgot his PAPER TICKET and they would not let him get on the plane!!!!! So, I turned around, walked 10 steps back to my car and went back to the airport to pick up a VERY frustrated friend.
So he's sitting on the computer next to me and he just bought a new ticket to Australia, same exact itinerary, but 2 days later...and I can't believe that he actually paid LESS than he did 1 month ago! Now, instead of getting to Noosa one day before me, he gets there one day afterwards.
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This has reminded me to go upstairs to my room and physically CHECK to make sure that ALL my paper tickets are PACKED! My round-trip ticket from COS to Tokyo is an e-ticket...but the next leg of the trip, from Tokyo to Brisbane on Qantas, is a paper ticket. And...8 hours ago, a FedEx package arrived at the OTC with my paper ticket for the Ishigaki, Japan trip in April. I'm going to staple those packets of paper to my stomach and then I'll know for a FACT, I HAVE my tickets! Haven...thanks for the 'heads up'!!!!!!