We started our adventure this morning when we boarded the Qantas A380! The flight was good - I would even say comfortable for the whole 14 hours. The service on board was very good, especially when ice creams were brought around in the dark. Unfortunately things went pear shaped once we landed. There were long queues at passport control and it was very hot. We joined a queue which seemed to move every so often. A lady came and told us to move into a new queue which we did. The new queue hardly moved at all. Robyn approached some staff who didn't really care we had a connecting flight to make. We waited some more with a lot of other frustrated Qantas passengers but as it got to nearly 2hrs still in the queue, I asked a man in uniform if he could get us through quicker. He said he couldn't and several people also expressed their frustration. There certainly weren't enough staff on and there was no sense of urgency. Finally a lady started letting our queue through into another faster moving queue. By the time we got to the baggage claim all the remaining bags had been taken off the carousel and were on the floor. With less than an hour until the next flight, we cleared customs and made our way to the Delta check in. Of course they were in the terminal the furthest away. Thankfully we had left our bags with a baggage check in man so we could do an online check in rather than get in the queue. The was hardly any line for the security check but while Robyn got waved through, I had to stand against a wall with my arms above my head. Maybe I look suspicious-it happened to me in China too! We found the gate and had just enough time to get a drink before boarding. Once on board, we were told the flight was only 1hr 23mins which sounded good. We were leaving the gate right on time but while watching the security video, the engines completely stopped. We stayed where we were for ages while the plane made all kinds of noises. We were sure we were going to have to get off and change planes. There was no announcement by the captain to say what was happening and eventually we started again. We were 20mins late leaving which was a concern as we knew we only had 45mins between landing in Salt Lake City and the third flight. Thankfully all went well and we had about 20mins before boarding the flight for Jackson Hole. We were pretty sick of planes by then but the last flight was only 30mins. Jackson is a tiny little airport and we had to walk across the tarmac. We went to car hire counter where we were served by a girl with no customer service skills. She told us the booking they had started on Monday even though our pre paid voucher said Sunday. She made us pay an extra day and then extra again to have an additional driver. But, we finally got the car and headed for The Rustic Inn. Jackson seems like a lovely little town. The airport was surrounded by mountains - we could see little patches of snow on the tops of some. Our hotel wasn't far away. We have a little log cabin beside a creek for the next 2 nights. Afer freshening up we headed into town for dinner. It was after 8pm and we were hungry. We walked around a bit and settled on
The Merry Piglets Mexican restaurant. We had a delicious meal and a fabulous spicy strawberry jalapenos margharita. It is much cooler in Jackson than I had expected. We will spend tomorrow exploring the town and I expect I will be buying a jumper. We are looking forward to seeing much more of Jackson tomorrow.