 Today, we arrived in Paris, Texas to attend the Escapees Solar Eclipse 2024 event. If the weather clears on the eclipse day, we should have 4 minutes 20 seconds of darkness.  190 RVs are at the event and it costs $280 per RV for 8 days. This for dry camping only, no electric, no water, no sewer connections. We will see how well our lithium batteries and solar panels work to keep our house 12 volt working.
Friday, the day before the event, we stopped overnight at a full hookup rv park. We charged all our batteries and purged out the holding tanks as much as possible. The fresh tank was topped off along with all our containers. The RV tank holds 55 gallons of water plus we have 2 blue tanks of 6 gallons each and several smaller containers of water. We hope that this will be enough water for the 8 days we will be at Paris Tx. It is possible to refill containers but our hope is to prove to ourselves that we can be self contained for the entire event.
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We have stopped at the Hapgood Park, full hookups, on our way toward Paris TX. This is a park we have stayed at many times. Only $15. We decided to have dinner in town and we were not disappointed. On our way to the Eclipse gathering in Paris Texas, we stopped off and "Mooch docked" with very good friends. Four days of talking and playing cards. Great time!
Next stop Childress for an overnight at their city park. We have stayed there before. Today, we are flying home. We will cross the International Date Line again and I never thought I would cross in my lifetime. We also cross the equator twice on this trip. We were up and heading to the airport for our flight by 7am. International flights require 3 hours pre-flight check-in and security. Our cab was quick to show up and we headed out with lots of traffic. Our fair was $46 but it was on the meter so it was accurate. The Sydney airport is enormous. Where we were dropped off was the far end from where United check-in was so we had a long walk past all the international airlines some of which I did not even recognize. The agents at the United desk helped us through and on we went to security. It went quicker than expected so we got to our gate pretty early. Plenty of time to get something to eat and some coffee. The Australians are very picky about coffee. Even a coffee truck vendor will have a full on espresso machine or they are out of business. They also like it very strong and crazy hot. A large coffee is “Long Black”. Terms like Flat White (coffee with milk/cream...), Long Black (two espressos plus scalding water), double sweet, … Once it arrives be careful or you will burn yourself. I watched lots of planes from every place on the planet. China, Malaysia, Singapore, Qatar, Emirates, Japan, Korean, India,… There are more than 30 different countries airlines that fly out of Sydney. The biggest passenger plane seemed to be Emirates where the plane has two floors. A top floor of 100 seats of 1st and Business class and a lower floor with economy. This is definitely an airport focused on the very wealthy. As we walked to our gate we passed some very interesting shops. The departures board showed flights just about everywhere. Finally, we boarded but only a few minutes late. Our plane is big and a bit cramped for our seats. Interestingly, the plane was far from full. There were at least a dozen people in economy who had 3 seats together to lay down during the flight. Lucky them. We got little or no sleep on the 15 hour flight. It was pretty crazy flight. After flying a couple of hours, we got a hot “dinner” of chicken and rice or pasta with sauce. The after the lights were dimmed and windows darkened. This plane has electronic windows. They can be controlled by the crew or by a button to change the opaqueness of the window. The idea was to get us used to the idea of the change of internal clocks. BTW, it did not work for us but sitting up and not sleeping for that many hours can mess you up. About 8pm, the lights came up a bit and a small sandwich “snack” was passed out. After about 30 minutes, the lights were dimmed again and stayed that way until about 1:30 am our time for breakfast. An omelet and blueberry muffin. Our last food made in Australia. The reason was that we were less than 2 hours from Houston and the time there was 7am. On food from outside the USA. IT IS BETTER. We have found that the food is usually better made and higher quality than what we have in the US. Even a fast food restaurant will be better. People outside the US do not tolerate thrown, sometimes literally, together food. If it does not look like the ad, the company finds out really fast and fixes the problem or closes up. Another thing is that you do not need a chemical degree to read the ingredients on anything from a soft drink to a candy bar. Here we have a long string of chemicals in everything. Outside of the US, they have a simple list that only has the things you expect to find. Look it up sometimes. You will find the ingredients list to be down right simple overseas. We put up with way to much crap in our food. When we arrive, we are EXHAUSTED and our internal clocks are a mess. We left Sydney at 12:45 PM on Feb 14th and arrived in Houston at 9:45 AM on Feb 14th. We time traveled back in time by several hours.  The Houston is under construction and a mess. Very confusing but we made it to Customs and were practically waved through. Then security which also was no problem but a bit slower.
The flight data is crazy. Most of the time we were flying at 39,000 feet, outside air was -50 or lower, our ground speed was over 600 mph and we regularly had 100 plus tail winds. As a result we arrived 45 minutes early to Houston. Very little turbulence. Off to our gate to take the last flight of the trip. As we arrived in Amarillo, I looked out the windows and my first thought was “Why do all the roads have really white sand along the sides?” Then I realized that it was snow. Welcome back to winter. We left Australia in the upper 70’s and low 80’s with a warm breeze and arrived with low 50’s and cold winds. James picked us up and we moved everything into the Betty’s car for the two hour drive back to Logan. There were several times I was really having trouble staying awake but we made it. Back in Logan we Un-Winterized (is that a word) the 5th wheel and turned on the heat. It took us about 20 minutes to get everything working. Phyllis cooked a dinner for us and we all headed for bed. Shawna and I were up by 2am. Yep, fully awake. Our internal clocks are going to take a while to reset. Bus tour day. We got breakfast at the small restaurant on the ground floor.  The meeting place was Sydney’s Hyde Park at the Archibald Fountain. It is a very nice fountain. The park is surrounded by the city. Sydney is a city where buildings have multiple basements and subways crisscrossing between them. The park has multiple subways under it running several directions. The guide met our group of about 40 people and we loaded onto the bus. We had a funny and well informed driver. He took us to several great spots to take pictures of the Opera house, bridge, some rock “chair”, a few light houses, the ocean and entrance to Sydney bay, and last Bondi beach. Nice ride. We decided to try the downtown mall for lunch at the food court. Well it is 3 floors up and 2 down from the ground floor. Enormous! With every store for the extremely rich you could imagine. Prada, Rolex, Balenciaga, Versace, GUCCI, … and a lot of really expensive stores that I did not even recognize at all. Those stores had door opener/security people. I doubt we would even be allowed past the door and that does not bother me at all. After lunch, we got back to the ground level and found a cab. It was not a good choice as he immediately tried to rip us off with a ridiculous fair to get back to the hotel. He wanted $60 Australian. We let him know that was more than twice what we had paid on other trips. Then we started back and forth on the price. The lowest he would take was $40 cash. Still more than our most expensive trip but we needed to rest more than having to get another cab and by that time we were in a location that that may have been hard to get. Time to pack for the plane trip and rest for the long day tomorrow.
Today, we go on a cruise of Sydney Harbor. For breakfast, we walked a block down from the hotel where a small food court was found. The only thing open was Maccas. OK McDonalds which even on the commercials they call Maccas. It was not like any McDonalds at home. The food was actually good and the coffee was made by Espresso machine. Did I mention that the Australians and New Zealanders are VERY picky about their coffee. Everywhere coffee is made by espresso machine. Even the food trucks have them. Back to the hotel to meet a cab to downtown. The cab dropped us off near the Opera house where the bay tour will start. Sydney like lots of cities has good and bad areas but touristy areas are usually nice. We were a bit early so we looked into some tourist trap shops along the bay. Took pictures of the Opera house. A truly misnamed ship was in port. Virgin... really. It's an adult only ship that is known for being a very adult party cruise line. We did a bit of shopping in the stores and looked at the Opera house. No tour of it for us today. We did not have the time and tickets were time limited On to our boat. Checked in and got on board for the cruise. There was some confusion on the 3 drinks we paid for in advance to get them for $7 instead of $10 each. The people at the ticket booth had problems looking up our discount so instead of figuring out why they gave us all a free drink wrist band. All drinks including liquor were free for us. That may make this cruise even more interesting. The Opera house is impressive from the bay. Next, we had very nice views of the Opera House and the bridge.  Out and into the bay and we pass the naval base. Some of the old port docks have been converted into apartments. They are extremely expensive and our guide pointed out that one was owned by Russell Crowe and a list of other famous people that I just did not find memorable.  The buildings along the bay are a mixture of very old and new. The city itself is filled with skyscrapers. There are over 5 million people live in Sydney.    Out on the bay, we pasted lots of sailboats and several float planes. There were several super yachts. But those were not the only type of boats on the bay today. There were speed boats, a paddle wheeler, and others, such as a huge houseboat. We turned back around before heading out into the open ocean and passed under the bridge, past the marine museum, bunches of yachts, then back to the dock. Lunch was great. Huge shrimp/prawns,…. We were very well fed.  As we turned back, we passed under the bridge. It is massive. Just past the bridge there is a very old amusement park and a maritime museum. After seeing them, I wish we had more time. Both looked like fun. Most of the ships are fully sea worthy and go out for trips and tours. They have been used in multiple movies and TV shows. We found a cab downtown and headed back to the hotel to rest.
Aaaaaaahhhhhhh! Finding Nemo is one of our favorite cartoon movies.    Arrived early in the morning and grabbed a quick breakfast. Not much but getting the bags to the cruise terminal and grabbing a cab. I think we were overcharged but it was still only about $24 for our trip to the hotel. Of course, we arrived to early to check in. They have a nice lobby and restaurant on site so no problem relaxing till we can get our room. The "Pantry" had a good selection with a few surprises like cocktails and wine. There was a microwave to warm up food as well. We will try the restaurant at our first chance.      The Veriu Green Square Hotel rooms were very nice. They had coffee maker, kettle for tea, and a small refrigerator. Which was great since we had leftovers from lunch to store.     We got our reservations for tomorrow. We will be doing both a Sydney Harbor Discovery Lunch Cruise and a Bus Tour of the city. For a late lunch, we decided to walk a couple of blocks to a Brazilian Flame BBQ. As soon as we arrived, it was obvious that this was not the restaurant we expected but a 'Tucker' or 'walk-up' for 'take away' with a few tables. Seems I am taking on a bit of Ozzie slang. It was very popular with the locals.   If you get a chance watch a bit of Aussie TV. The commercials are very different. February is "Feb". McDonalds is 'Maccas'. There was one commercial on regular TV not a cable channel that was so "interesting" that I don't even feel comfortable describe it here. So…. In the afternoon not far from the hotel, we joined locals at a corner shop that sells takeaway food, we had great BBQ. When our order was ready, I grabbed the paper bag of food and it was great and good quality. Or in Aussie slang: In the arvo not back of bourke to the hotel, we join battlers at the milk bar for a beaut of a barbie. Grabbed the tucker and had a sit it was bonzer and not a bit bodgy. Ok I got a bit carried away with to many slang terms at one time but we did hear A LOT of slang while we were there. Back to the hotel to rest. Later we had leftovers from lunch for our dinner. The BBQ really gives you your money's worth. Tomorrow is our cruise of the bay. It should be great.
Tomorrow, we will wake up at the Sidney Harbor in Australia. This is our last full day of the cruise and it is a sea day.  Relaxing and playing cards most of the day.
 Docked by 8am and we have a 6 hour excursion to the Healsville Wildlife Sanctuary. It was well out in the countryside.   The first animal was also very unusual. The Echidnas which reminds me a of a porcupine. Koalas were next. WOW! On to the Kangaroos. Lots of walking.  So many animals, plants, and even Dingos. And of course the Platypus. Quite a few reptiles. So many birds. We had a nice time at the Sanctuary. Back in the city, we had some interesting views from the bus.  One was a fast food store called Hungry Jack's. The company could not get a license to use the name Burger King because a Australian restaurant already had that name licensed and would not sell it.  On our return to the ship, the bus took a short detour to take us along the Melbourne grand prix 2024 track. These are races on city streets that are currently being converted by adding barriers along the sides of the road and seating. We drove over the finish/start line and past the pits. The race will be in March and our driver says it always causes a lot of disruption and traffic issues. Tonight we had an unusual and great meal. From the appetizer to desert, it was great. 
Very nice day with calm seas.
We relaxed and played cards.
The sand light box artist was great.
At the end of the day, Betty headed back to her cabin for the night.
We went to different venues for entertainment. The band at the Rolling Stone Lounge was great as always. We then decided to check out the late night Comedian. He was good but crude. No way I am posting any clips from his performance here.
Walked out on deck to see the southern cross.
I took several pictures and this is the best one not bad considering all the deck lights. 
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