Fire and Ice

I stated in the previous post that the fun begins on Jan. 12. However, we had a little "fun" before actually getting to the Australia part of the trip. Our drive from Pennsylvania to Atlanta was a little precarious. We drove through a blizzard in Virginia, and on icy roads in North Carolina. Then when we got to Atlanta, we watched the forecast for Friday - the day we were supposed to fly out of Atlanta - call for ice and snowy mix. The ice and snow was coming from Dallas - the layover where we were to catch our plane to Sydney. Wow! You'd think once we got to the south, we wouldn't have to worry about cold, snowy, icy weather. NOT SO! I guess to get to summer in Australia you have to go through winter in the southern US.

The "fun" continued: Late Thursday night, we received notice from the airline that our flight on Friday had been cancelled. All flights out of the Atlanta airport were cancelled on Friday. The airline eventually rescheduled our flights for Saturday. They booked us through Los Angeles instead of Dallas. We'll avoid the ice and snow in Dallas, but are we heading into the fires of Los Angeles? 

Our cruise line booked our flight from Atlanta to Sydney and we had booked an additional flight on our own from Sydney to Melbourne, where we are planning to start our Australian adventure. However, since our flight was moved back a day - from Friday to Saturday - we won't arrive in Sydney until Monday (instead of Sunday). Therefore we had to reschedule our flight from Sydney to Melbourne from Sunday to Monday. Since this flight was not a part of the original booking, but something we had scheduled on our own, the airlines did not cover the cost to change the flight. Joe and I were up until 2 in the morning Friday trying to change the necessary flights, cancel hotel rooms, etc. A big disappointment to us is that we were scheduled to attend the Australian Open Tennis Tournament on Monday. Now we'll have to see if we can get tickets for one of the other days. Yeah, this snow and ice is messing up a lot of things. But, truthfully, I can't complain. There are people who are suffering much worse fates right now, especially in the Los Angeles area, than messed up vacation plans. 

So as of now, we are scheduled to leave Atlanta Saturday evening, fly to Los Angeles and then on to Sydney. Once in Sydney, we will catch a flight to Melbourne, check into our hotel, and [probably] collapse for a few hours before beginning our Australian adventure. What a start to a vacation this is! Who ever thought we'd get snowed in here in Atlanta?!

Snow in Atlanta that shut down the airport - no kidding!

The combination of ice in Atlanta and Dallas and fire in Los Angeles reminds me of the Robert Frost poem "Fire and Ice". I'll end this post with a tribute to one of my favorite poets:

Fire and Ice, by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice is also great

And would suffice.

Props to daughter Becca for the Fire and Ice connection/suggestion.