Raised by a military policeman

Sooooo imagine it is about a week ago----dragon boat races are done, we have packed our bags in preparation for leaving Sydney, the alarm goes off at 3:45 am so we can be ready for our 4:30 am transfer to the Sydney airport, thus beginning the next leg of our adventure--travelling to Ayers Rock.

Our group of six (Rosemary, Jenny, Joann, Jocelyn, Kris and I) travelled with 4 other people to the Sydney airport. As you can imagine we were still half asleep as our drive pulled up in a mini van with a trailer behind for the luggage. We loaded it all up quickly and hopped in ready to go---then it began.

He started fiddling with the spark plugs--apparently the one that controlled the rear brake lights on the trailer had blown and he was trying to fix it. Asking us for various tools, borrowing some from the hotel but to no avail. Finally after we have been anxiously looking at our watches and realizing that our 4:30 departure was creeping ever faster towards 4:45 am --he shut the door on the van and off we went.

From the first block we knew something was up--he raced through one traffic light, braked hard for another and was swerving around a bit. A few people chuckled and made quiet comments which infuriated the driver and he started into a brief tirade of how it wasn't nice to laugh at him, he had already had one heck of a morning--was sent to the wrong hotel to get us and had been stopped by police TWICE!! before getting us!! Oi vey!!

At this point, he told us about the rear lights being out and said if he got stopped by the cops again we wouldn't be able to continue to the airport and he might lose his license. Hmmmmmm


Then the real fun began--just as I thought we were going to get on the highway to continue to the airport--he veered off and began a twisty turvy mad dash through a variety of neighborhoods. Jocelyn innocently said "I don't remember going this way when we arrived." Unable to withhold my annoyance with the driver I sarcastically replied "That is because we are SUPPOSED to be on the highway!!"

The driver was attempting to avoid the cops at all costs. This is where my upbringing really came into play. I watched every sign post, made note of all neighborhood related signage and tried to maintain some sense of direction as we went careening through sleeping neighborhoods. All in an attempt to be able to tell the authorities in case we were dropped off in some dark abandoned warehouse or some other scary place. All sorts of things were running through my brain.

Dad--you would have been so proud of me!!

I was also trying to figure out at what point, I should just yell--pull the van over, we are getting out!! Thankfully, we finally saw a sign for the airport and he indeed had taken us where we wanted to go and we still had 45 minuts before our flight left. Unfortunately, he had taken us to the international terminal and the domestic terminal was a good 5 minutes away.

As you can guess, we made it to our flight in time and got to Ayers Rock ok!

Phew what an adventure in transport!!!