From Queens to Queensland

Teacher scientists Justine McClellan and Katelin Corbett left their respective homes on 30 June at 4 pm EDT. Justine was hailing from the mainland north of New York City, from Westchester County, and Katelin from the glacial depositional feature from the last ice age, known as Long Island. The two sallied forth by automobile and arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in Jamaica, Queens, at about 5 pm EDT. They arrived 2 hours prior to departure, to clear security and check baggage.

Flying Qantas Airlines from JFK to Los Angeles, the flight departed on time at about 7 pm EDT. Justine watched "The Kings Speech" and began reading a book on the race to break the 4-minute mile called The Perfect Mile. She thoroughly enjoyed both and took a brief nap during the flight. Katelin mostly slept, catching up on sleep she has sacrificed through weeks of teaching full-time, grading Regents exams, working on her PhD, and moving to a new apartment. The teacher-scientist was exhausted and took the opportunity to recover. Justine took the opportunity to steal some time doing non-scientific reading, a rare change for the always inquiring mind that is usually busy keeping up with the rapid advances in science. They were also fed dinner on the plane and given the finest of Australian wine.

The scientists arrived in the city of Los Angeles safely and had about a 2 hour layover until their midnight flight, that's midnight West Coast time, but 3 am EDT. After take-off they were served dinner and wine (again) and all parties promptly fell asleep. The flight from LA to Brisbane was about 14 hours. They were awoken at various times for snacks, and then breakfast. Justine did more reading and got about 150 pages read. They landed at 6:45 am local time in Brisbane on July 2. They boarded the plane on June 30, flew for 14 hours, and arrived July 2. Somehow a day was lost, much to the bewilderment of Justine.

They had to clear customs and collect their baggage and then take a bus from the international to the domestic terminal for their next flight on JetStar to Townsville. However their flight was not until 4:30 pm, and they were there by 9 am. Much to their consternation they were not even allowed to go through security to sit in the nicer restaurants and cafes. They had to console themselves with sitting by the baggage pick-up. Justine, who in addition to teaching the youth of Bronxville, and saving the Great Barrier Reef, is also training for a marathon in her free time, took the 9.5 hour layover to change in the bathroom and go for a 35 minute run around Brisbane airport. She enjoyed her first taste of the blazing Australian sun. Although Katelin was chilled by the wintery air and huddled with the luggage attempting to keep warm, Justine took respite in the warmth of the sun, amplified by the hole in the ozone. They ate lunch in the form of breakfast, very confused by the changing time zones and dates, and disrupted sleep schedule, unsure of what meal to eat when. Once through security and on to the nicer part of the airport they sampled more Australian wine in the attempts to blend with the locals in the fly-ridden terminal. Then on the plane for a two-hour flight to Townsville.

The young scientists arrived in Townsville around 7:30 pm, and gathered their bags and picked up their rental car. They activated the Australian GPS which Justine wisely packed, and was generously loaned by the much-esteemed Mr. Jay Dubner, the man who makes scientific dreams come true.

Katelin volunteered to drive. There was a brief moment of confusion as they realized that driver is positioned on the right-side of the vehicle, but they quickly over came that. Katelin did a swell job driving on the left-side of the road. Justine assisted by repeating over and over "Keep left!" They made it through various roundabouts without incident and were stopped briefly at a railroad crossing, where they spotted a white owl. The only problem was Katelin kept mixing up the windshield wiper with the turn-signal, and so they wiped their windows at nearly every turn.

Finally they arrived at James Cook University. They eventually found their dorm room and found a note left with keys to welcome them. Of course they were hungry and their cafeteria was closed, so they had to venture out once again to search for food. On their way they spotted their first wallabies, though at first they thought they were kangaroos, being unacquainted with the local fauna. After the wallaby-sighting, they quickly located the Woolworth's on campus. Yes, Woolworth's, the department store that went extinct in America, is alive and well in Australia, but is a grocery store. They loaded up on microwaveable food and cheese and crackers and yoghurt and other provisions and returned to the dorm and heated up their dinners. Finally a shower and some rest.

Justine's stopwatch stopped at 19 hours and 59 minutes, probably because the watch is meant for running and most people don't run for more than 20 hours. They put their total travel time at about 38 hours total from door to door. It was quite the epic adventure. And yet this is only the beginning! A sacrifice, but well worth the cost.