It took 4 hours from home to the departure gate at LAX, with equal time on the shuttle to SFO and the actual flight to LAX. GO HSR!!!!
My baggage got here, but the TSA-special lock on one of my bags is missing.
No note in the bag, but since this happened to me once before, and I put my name on the lock this time, I'm going to complain.
I had to run all my bags through an x-ray machine upon arrival, for NZ Customs, but nothing was remarked. Since I have a transceiver, amplifier, two power supplies, and 6 telescoping fiberglass antenna poles in there, I expected something.
I picked up my post restante mail- the first time I've used that facility since I was a teenager blowing my paper route money on electronic parts, getting them sent to general delivery so my parents wouldn't know.
But the slightly embarrassing bit- I'm in a 4 person room at the YHA hostel here, and there are three young men from Saudi Arabia in here, too. I came back to the room to find them doing their prayers, and facing the wrong way, by about 90 degrees. They were clearly facing NE (I have a compass and a GPS). I'm going to talk to them when they get back about what they think would have been the polite thing to do, and subtly see if I can interest them in navigation instruction.
