Down Under Day 14

I had mixed feelings today, because it was the day we had to leave awesome Australia and return to mediocre America. Australia really has their socio-political sh!t together. They have great infrastructure and a generally post-modern, 21st century society. Deborah and I both want to move here, especially if America continues its anti-intellectual descent into idiocy.

Anyway, we got up about 7 AM. Deborah showered first, and I showered second, during her post-shower ablutions. We took it at a leisurely pace, because we were not getting picked up to go to the airport until 9:30 AM. We went down to the hotel restaurant for our last breakfast in Melbourne (the usual!), before checking out, donating our Myki public transit cards to the hotel for the use of future visitors, and then waiting out front of the hotel for our limo to the airport, who arrived on time.

The trip home to Madison WI met our expectations, given the rigamarole of international travel and the mediocrity of the American air transportation system. We managed to sleep a fair amount on the long overseas leg of the trip, from Melbourne AUS to San Francisco USA. Our seat mate on that flight was agreeable and did not need to get up much to pee. We were given fair to good vegan meals on the flight.

We landed at SFO at about 8:30 AM on Saturday, which was before we left Melbourne (at 1 PM Saturday, Melbourne time), due to the weirdness of the International Date Line (we got an extra Saturday, to make up for the Sunday we lost when going to Down Under...). We made our tightest connection, the flight from San Francisco to Denver, with a few minutes to spare. Even though the Melbourne flight was on time and we had over two hours to make the connection, American customs and immigration slowed us down (because they just don't have their sh!t together...a common theme with American infrastructure in general and transportation infrastructure specifically). But we made it, and that's all that matters.

Returning to the States, I became accutely aware of how much farther along into the 21st century other modern post industrial nations are, compared to the US. When did the US lose its will to live? When did its people decide to capitulate to mediocrity and anti-intellectualism (aka, anti-woke)? When did Americans decide to regress back to the 1950s? I don't know. But what I do know is that America needs to up its game. A lot. Chaos is not a viable sociopolitical vision or goal.

We had a relaxed and unrushed layover in DEN, awaiting our Madison flight, which was on time and smooth. My sister Kate picked us up at the Madison airport, at which point I was thrust fully back into my normal life, as she regaled us with our known (but avoided thinking about much for two weeks) upcoming family obligations.

Overall, a great vacation.

Fin.