Monday, June 26th 2006
Going Home06/26/2006 04:18 PM Location : UA 116 Seat 14A
Alarms went off early on Monday morning in Melbourne so that we could begin our trek back to Chicago. We were expected to gather at Box Hill Corps at 7:00 am to begin our journey that would conclude at O'Hare Airport more than 27 hours later. All were present and accounted for at the appointed time. For one last ride we boarded our coach driven by Rob Beasy and headed to the Melbourne Airport. Once there we got our equipment checked in and had one last cup of coffee/tea with our liaison Alan Collett and our truck driver Shaun Maxfield. We then proceeded through Immigration and security before board United 840.
Bob was to meet his wife in Sydney early Monday morning but she was delayed 24 hours due to a flight cancellation. We also said good-bye to Mike who is travelling to Ukraine to meet his brother for the next 8 weeks of mission work.
The flight from Melbourne stops briefly in Sydney. Even though they told us we had to get off the plane because there was a change, about an hour later we reboarded the exact same plane that had been cleaned and loaded with pillows and blankets. This 747 would be our home for just over 15 hours in flight to Los Angeles. Some (most?) were able to sleep, some read, some watched movies, some ate and some worked puzzles. The flight was uneventful but never did settle down for prolonged periods of time the way the flight over did. I suspect that part of that is because we were leaving mid-day rather than late at night. We arrived at LAX at about 10:20 am and proceeded through Immigration and Customs. We then rechecked our bags and equipment and prepared to board UA 116 to Chicago. We were scheduled to leave LA at 1:10 but in reality we took off about 1:45 pm. We're due into Chicago by 7:30 pm. There are still a few bandsmen who plan to see their doctors upon their return.
This will likely be my last posting about our Australia tour and since our season is basically over until the fall it's not likely the blog will have much activity until September. So, I'd like to summarize a bit about the tour with the following statistics:
More than 19,000 miles flown per bandsman for a total of more than 684,000 air miles.
A couple of thousand miles traveled by coach
14 concerts/worship services over 9 days
Nearly, 4,500 people in attendance at concerts/worship services
11 performances each of "Alexander, etc..." and "Toccata in D Minor"
Choral Benediction sung 15 times
New friends made.... countless
We have much to be grateful for as we fly over the Nevada desert heading toward home. It was truly a visit of a lifetime, even for those of us who have been on tours before.
A big thank you goes to all of you who have supported us with your prayers and support during our time away.
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