Kitty Hawk First Flight, North Carolina

It's our second last night before flying home and today was an absolutely spectacular high to finish on. My great friends A&PH flew me to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina which is the birthplace of flight. I have had the best'est day and I will remember this forever. It was really cool to fly in, park the plane in the special carpark while we watched all the mortals park their cars. 

On 17 Dec 1903, a cold and windy morning, the Wright brothers achieved the world's first controlled flights. Here at Kitty Hawk  they realised not only their own dream, but also one of humanity's oldest dreams - to fly. 

AH and I had a goal to fly here when we got our pilot licenses. As you know, my journey continues but AH now has his license and today the weather gods were perfect to allow us to fly to Kitty Hawk  This is a must for any pilot and for a couple of Aussies, this is a dream. It was a little over 2 hours each way and we spent about 2 and half hours on the ground looking at the memorial, the boulder stones marking the spots where the Wright Brothers lifted off and landed their first 4 test flights. The visitor centre provided a wonderful history of the Wright Brothers quest to fly. Every part of Kitty Hawk is of historical significance. Part of me thinks I won't sleep tonight from excitement, but we are all exhausted from a big day out. Thank you A&PH, I truly loved today and I'm smiling as I write this blog tonight. There are some more photos at the end.

Aerial View

Memorial Stone

Memorial Stone

Boulder marking the lift off spot

4 stones mark first 4 test flight distances

Wright Flyer replica

Be good you two, look after each other

I also had my birthday this week. It was my last day in the house as the dogs left that day. They were in good spirits unlike me who had tears in my eyes all morning until the driver came. He was lovely and the dogs went into their travel crates well as I gave them a final pat and goodbye. After that I balled my eyes out. The poor driver was telling me he will text and send photos at the airport and all I could do was wave my arms to say ok as I cried and couldn’t speak. He took a photo with me as I hugged the dogs and told them we would see them soon.

I took myself to my beloved Georgetown Cupcakes and hoovered a Salted Caramel beauty and took home 4 for later. It was Deb’s last day at work so she had a lunch and afternoon tea. I made it to the afternoon tea. She was spoilt and thanked with such lovely words and cards. They also chipped in bought her a Go Pro Camera – a nice surprise for her as she had lost her first one on the Alaska cruise last year. She’s made a positive impact at work and everyone was very sad to see her leave. She handed her phone in, put her ‘out of office’ on and fled the building as only Elvis can do better.

Farewell Deb and Merryl

 

Cleaning dog crates, ready for travel

I received texts and photos that the dogs were on the plane to Los Angeles which was a relief and we went to dinner with our good friends A&PH to celebrate everything. We are all going to miss each other so these last weeks and days are wonderful to spend time together. Through the night and this morning, I got updates they had arrived safely in Los Angeles and after their morning walk. It is so reassuring to see they are doing well and we love that they are together the whole way.

Safely in LA

Early morning walk in LA

26 January is Australia Day and Aussies everywhere jump at the chance to celebrate our wonderful country, our island home !! I went to one of the many Aussie Day parties here at a friends house - thanks K&SMc. It was a good chance to say more farewells to friends who have helped make our 50 Shades adventure memorable. There were plenty of pies, sossy rolls, pavlova and lamingtons. And might I say that the lamingtons were made by an American lady - taught by the master herself, Missus Jones. 

On a final note, we bought two of these gorgeous prints from our very talented photographer friend Scott Leggo. The prints are of Canberra, looking up Anzac Parade with old and new Parliament houses in the background. The colours are stunning. We framed them and gave them to a friend - they are now proudly hanging in their lounge room.

Scott now has a gallery in Kingston, Canberra. Please visit his gallery or buy your piece of Australian beauty from his website here:

            Scott Leggo Photography

Thanks Scott, look forward to seeing your gallery soon.

Well, that's it for the final week of chaos. My last blog post will be published on Monday night so be sure to check back and read the last blog on the 50 Shades of DC adventure.

And here are some more of the Kitty Hawk, First Flight photos. 

 

 

Honouring Wilbur and Orville Wright

Removals Week

Night Before

We are now down to the business end of the 50 Shades of DC adventure…removals week. We’ve been packing, organising, sorting and making piles of stuff around the house. The dogs are nervous and know that something is happening. I wish we could tell them. Our removal is over two days. Firstly the rental furniture is collected so that leaves behind just our personal stuff to go the next day in the removal. We also have our baggage that will fly home with us so we are strategically packing those bags with the things we absolutely need immediately at home. Our removal will take 3 months to get home by sea so we can’t afford to have critical items in that shipment. 

Day 1 of 2

Supervisor Macey

Our Street

We’ve had several snow dumps the past week and a bit which have been the heaviest during our time here. It’s been exciting and wonderful to see as snow usually is for Aussies. The dogs love it although we have to limit their walk time in order to protect their little paws. Snow means shoveling and I’ve learnt some important tips and techniques about shoveling and salting. I love seeing people come out when the snow stops to clear their cars, driveways and footpaths. 

I spent the past week or so getting the car serviced and ready for sale to our friends here. I did have a minor meltdown over 2 more tyres that needed replacement. Without going into detail, I had to change 2 tyres making this tyres 6 and 7 during our time here. Unbelievable !! But to break my patience even more, I had actually changed one tyre unnecessarily…Toyota had rotated the tyres last week and it wasn’t well communicated so I replaced a perfectly good tyre for nothing, thinking it was the leaking tyre that Toyota had found. Anyway, long sad story but after a heated discussion with Toyota, they compensated me for the ‘miscommunication’. 

To further add to my frustrations, there was some drama with the dogs pet transport company but, to cut a long story short, it’s all ok now. There are a few people in the process and it’s like herding cats. I am completely honest when I say that I don’t care about anything getting home except the dogs. They are the only precious cargo we need to get home and safely. We will both not be happy until they are at least in Melbourne quarantine (for 10 days) and then home with us. 

But there has been some good news. I have a car sorted at home. My good mate Aussie Bob has been car hunting and after a few contenders, we finally found one and have made a deposit. They seller will hold the car until we get home and we’ll collect it straight away. It’s on older Subaru Forester but it’s within my budget and hopefully be good to me like all our other subarus.

One week to go, see you soon.

Snow Dump

The first snow of the year and it's a big one. It's still snowing now in the day and there will more heavy snow tonight. We were unable to go out and meet our friends A&PH for lunch so they went exploring the city and took some fantastic photos while we took the dogs for a run in the snow. 

My favourite photo is the one next below with Macey and Cricket running off into the sunset !!

 

 

Do any of you remember this bridge near us?

And here's a selection of our friends photos including Arlington cemetery, the White House, the Washington Monument and the Russian Embassy. 

 

 

 

 

Russian Embassy with their Xmas Decorations still up

And a couple more of us.....

2 weeks to departure...see you soon.

Welcome to 2019

It’s well and truly into 2019 and I’ve not posted my Xmas pics. We spent 4 days over Xmas at Shenandoah Nat Park in a lovely cosy cabin. We took the dogs and our good friends A&PH joined us also. The weather was good, fine, very cold but no snow. The cabin was wonderful and we enjoyed relaxing, eating, playing mahjong (chinese marjong) and doing a bit of hiking. I checked out the hot tub out back which was fabulous. I took everything with me but the kitchen sink. We cooked a lamb and chicken and enjoyed all the trimmings including a Xmas pudding and custard and I made an apple pie. It was Xmas as usual and we were fat, dumb and happy by the evening. Santa found us as always and even the dogs were given a present from A&PH. 

 

The days between Xmas and New Year were quiet for us. We saw a few movies and started the pack up process. The dogs had their 3^rdappointment to get bloodtests and more tick/flea treatment. They have one to go which is a simple paperwork filling exercise. 

We are now 3 weeks from departure and 2 weeks from removals. We thought the removal home would be easier (which it really is) but I find myself procrastinating and not enjoying the process at all. I guess nobody enjoys moving house. The challenge this time is to pack our essential ‘everythings’ into 3 suitcases each and leave the rest to go home via sea removal (3 months). So we’ve got to think of our personal documents, my chef school bits and pieces, work clothes, dog leads etc as we don’t want to buy things at home just for those few months gap. We have plenty of stuff at home in storage but not all the stuff that you need day to day. So the house is currently deconstructed with piles of stuff everywhere in preparation for the removalists. I’ve been emptying the cupboards of food and giving away things as best I can.

Well I've got two weeks to finish the removal prep and Deb is madly trying to finish up as much as she can at work. I've organised all the utility disconnections here and connections at home so it's been a double whammy of tasks. My good mate Aussie Bob is also car hunting for us so with some luck, we will have a car (which will be my little run-about) ready when get home. 

And to finish on an absolute high note, I've just got a text from my great mate who was learning to fly with me, he passed his license test today and is now a Private Pilot. We started this journey together a year ago and while I had to stop in Nov (to finish in Aust) he continued and passed today. I am so bloody relieved, happy, thrilled and proud of him for achieving this goal. He got me into flying and he's always wanted to fly so we both have had a fabulous year learning to fly. I look forward to giving him a huge hug and hopefully, we can enjoy a flight or two together before I leave. Congratulations AH !! Totally awesome achievement.

Well that's it for now. Only a short post and possibly the last before the big move. I'm sure the next few weeks will be a circuit of farewells and last minute things to see/eat/do before leaving. For me, it's about eating as many Georgetown Cupcakes and mexican food as I can. So happy new year to everyone. We are both looking forward to coming home very much and will feel much better when we're back in our house with the dogs and surrounded by boxes again. See you all soon.

And that pics below are of Macey with her Xmas present and a photo to show that some traditions will always survive. The great Mintie wrapper tearing challenge.