Arrival in the promised land

Sometime during the night we crossed the equator and into the southern hemisphere (I for the first time).  After a pretty decent (at least by airplane coach standards!) night and temporarily "losing" one day of our lives (Dec 29 just didn't exist), we arrived in Auckland to a beautiful sunrise through some clouds/fog.

Auckland, NZ

As the plane touched down, they played a song called "Strolling in a summer wonderland," set to an obviously recognizable tune.  It was almost as if they were taunting those of us with deficient sun tans!  In the terminal, the first thing we saw was a Burger King with a cricket match on the tele and we knew we weren't in Kansas anymore.
I have to say that the Kiwis run a pretty decent airline and also appear to have a real sense of humor.  The safety video on the plane was more like a series of comedy sketches than a serious safety presentation.  Upon arrival in Auckland (after Susan had to go though "special" pat-down-type screening for the THIRD time on the trip), we checked the departure board to locate our gate, only to find our flight status listed with the simple command "relax."  They don't post gate info until about an hour before departure -- perhaps to keep you in the shopping area a bit longer?  In any case, I don't think you'd ever see the word "relax" posted anywhere in a US airport.
While everything has gone pretty smoothly, it's good to have only about four more hours to Melbourne where we can recover and relax a bit before the rest of the adventure.

(Later today)  After 35 or so hours, we arrived in Melbourne about 15 minutes late and passed smoothly through immigration without any human contact--the passport was scanned and then facial recognition software compared our picture with the passport data,  David and Beth were on hand to collect us and keep us active and awake so we'll get back on schedule a bit faster.  I've already made two directional errors which I need to work on correcting.  First, I misjudged the direction the plane was landing because I forgot the midday sun is to our NORTH, not the south(fortunately, it does still rise to the east and set to the west).  Secondly, I looked right first before stepping off a curb but fortunately there were no cars coming.  I hope some of these errors will correct themselves before I start driving on the left!

On the way!

This will serve as the first post on the trip and also as a test to see if the technology is working.  (Actually, more to see if the operator is working!)
Leg 1 is completed and we were on-time into Minneapolis, but about a 2-hour delay to San Francisco--happy to have a 6-hour cushion at SFO.  ...Only about 32 more hours to go! Thanks to Anna and Abe for the lift to Madison.

Here we are getting ready to leave home with all our bags--should be the last snow we see for while!  (Well, we SEE snow in MSP, but don't have to go out in it.)
All was well in Madison except after Susan requested a pat-down instead of the scanner, she had a 15-minute security ordeal before finally being passed--completely went through all her bags and patted her down twice--I'm not sure what profile she fits, but apparently I don't!  (It reminds me again how easy it was to take the train to CA last spring.)  One real positive so far is that we are 4 hours into the trip and have not discovered anything (at least yet) that we forgot.  Leaving home for two months at a time is a new experience for us.
Well, enough for now--I'll go back to reading my Bill Bryson book 'In a Sunburned Country."  So far it is his usual, interesting, amusing take on the land down under.

T-minus two weeks

Only about 2 weeks to go until we leave for Australia!  Flights are booked, cars hired, new passport arrived, International Drivers Permit obtained (required for car hire according to the web site), waterproof camera case bought (hopefully to be useful at the Great Barrier Reef), travel insurance purchased...  We are in the process of packing and making sure that we have everything organized.  We've never left for 2 full months before--especially in winter--so there are a lot of things to take care of besides holding the mail and cancelling the paper.  One thing we've never had to do before is draining pipes and setting up temperature-controlled backup heat in case the furnace should fail (especially with our recent weather!).  The dog is already safely in Ashland with Emily and the house plants have designated spots to overwinter.
We've also been purchasing technology that we've never had before such as a Kindle Fire with a foldable, bluetooth keyboard.  (I'm typing this post on the Kindle/keyboard combination to make sure I can use them--it works, but a bit awkward compared with a normal keyboard.)  We also bought an unlocked GSM phone so we can have basic cell service overseas--our cell is Verizon, which is incompatible abroad.
School and Christmas preps are unfortunately interfering with travel planning, but I have downloaded a number of maps/guides that can be carried along on the Kindle.  We may have to do a lot of "just-in-time" planning on this trip!  We are also counting heavily on the Aussie "rellies" to guide us along!  Ready or not, we'll be departing on 28 Dec and in Australia before New Years.
I'll try to keep posting during our travels and include some photos--whenever we have Wifi.