The trip

I think first of all, we need to thank all of those who helped us leave.  To Amanda, Louise and Raeleigh, for helping to clean our house; to Jeanette and Dan, Becky and Eng, Tania, and Stacy and Liam for providing such delicious dinners, to Karen and Mike for all the short notice requests, to Viv for driving us to the airport and then finally, to my parents who went way beyond the call of duty in keeping kids calm and happy, helping wherever needed and driving us to the airport.

  The trip to the airport was the calm before the storm. Having made it that far, we were then told without our flight details to Tenerife, we wouldn't be going anywhere. Having queued for half an hour at this point and with the clock ticking, we were unable to access the email from our phones as it was already filed. Fortunately, the QANTAS ticketing supervisor went up to see British Airways as Mick knew the approximate dates and flights.  She returned 15 harrowing minutes later - felt like hours to us in heart attack mode - with said details.  There is a lesson here - QANTAS won't let you fly to the USA if you are not a citizen without flight details out of the USA in hand.  They are fined $5000 per passenger who does not have the information and people have been returned home. Luckily not us!

  By the time we got through customs, we had less then an hour before takeoff.  We barely had time to get lunch, cancel Internet and as we were boarding, Mick was still cancelling his mobile phone. It was a crazy start to the trip.

  Take off was uneventful and the flight was long but fine.  Mark slept really well; Harry did okay, naturally charming the lady next to him and Jack kicked Mick all night so that they both remained awake. 

  The arrival queues at Dallas airport were long and slow. Harry started sobbing and wanting to go home as did I when Jack and Mark began fighting. Eventually we made it outside with less than 30 minutes before the shuttle driver -  Tex - found us. At this point, I was incredibly glad we were on the last part of our journey and thankful for the invention of the iPod touch and in plane USB chargers.

  Outside the airport it was about 30-35 degrees and stinking hot. Harry slept all the way to Garden Valley, Texas as Mick kept the boys awake church spotting. There were heaps by the highway to keep them busy.

  We finally arrived at Mercy Ships at about 6pm local time.  We still had 6 hours of the 13th June to go! ( we had worked out we had already lived through 40 odd hours of this date!)

  Dinner time in the Anchorage cafe as the boys had eaten next to nothing on the plane and a swim - then finally blissful sleep.....

More to come soon.