It is that time of the year again, however this year it nearly didn’t happen. With budget issues, there was no guarantee I would be heading back to the US. I finally got approval last Friday so it was a mad panic booking flights (they were still cheap), accommodation and car rental.
So where am I going. This will be the fourth time attending the International Association of Fire Chiefs Wildland Urban Interface Conference – wow that is a mouthful. And for the fourth time it is in Reno Nevada but has changed locations to the Peppermill Resort.
As well as the conference, I have a pre-conference training course, Initial Attack Incident Commander and then a post conference training course, Blue Card Instructor.
It is not all work and I hope to have a chance to get some geocaching and skiing in on the weekends. 🙂
After rushing to the airport and arriving just in time, we were delayed 45 minutes due to issues in Sydney. We finally got off the ground and after some circle work around Goulburn it was into Sydney only to find that I had just enough time to get to the International terminal for the flight to Los Angeles.
We were loaded onto the big Airbus A380, only to be told that there was a problem with the APU and that our departure was to be delayed. With the power and aircon going off a few times, an hour later we were in the air.
The flight across the Pacific was uneventful but we had a spectacular sunset through the window.
Luckily I had plenty of time to get my connecting flight as there was only one bag on the carousel and eventually found my other bag merrily going around on another one. Through immigration and customs OK and dropped the bags off for the next flight.
This still gave me 6 hours so I grabbed a car and headed out to get some lunch (In-N-Out Burger) and also activate my phone. I finally got the phone activated on an unlimited plan with T-Mobile.
With a couple of hours left, I headed down to the coast to grab a couple of geocaches. It certainly wasn’t beach weather today and I had it all to myself. The weather in LA was cool (around 14C) and foggy. It must have been cold as the locals were wearing jumpers and jackets.
Back to LAX, onto the plane to Reno and 32 hours after leaving home I finally arrived at my destination with a few hour of broken sleep – starting to feel like a zombie.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get into the Peppermill Resort so was staying for a few days at the old hotel, Grand Sierra Resort before moving across. They must have realised that I hadn’t had much sleep because my room ended up being the one right at the end of a mile long corridor.
I got to walk these corridors a couple of times tonight as a supply run from the nearby Walmart was in order. It is always interesting there as you get entertained by the customers and what they are wearing as well as groceries.
There was a little issue for me when I went to use my credit cards they were declined. A call back to Australia to the Commonwealth Bank to be told that I hadn’t notified them I was going overseas. This is a first time for me as normally I get a phone call as soon as I use my card to confirm that I am actually in the US.
It was back down the long corridor, shower and off to bed for some well deserved sleep. 🙂
