Well what happened, we departed Australia as planned albeit under a cloud of ill health. Just weeks prior to departing Yogi had developed a complication from his successful Lapband operation (he has lost 40 kilos to date). We thought all would be well to start the trip with Yogi recovering slowly over the coming weeks, this unfortunately did not happen.
We took off for the USA and had an uneventful 36 hours travel, Qantas to Tokyo, what a fantastic airport at Tokyo, very flash compared with little old Perth. Tokyo to Dallas on American Airlines, the flight was good, a little cramped due to the plane being fully booked. Dallas airport was absolutely HUGE !!! we had to move between terminals on the sky train, it was also quite busy, our first taste of the USA on this trip.
By now Yogi was suffering and not traveling too well, couldn't eat properly and was slightly dehydrated. We changed planes and departed for Orlando, Florida.
Orlando was nice, the temperature was pretty much as we had left behind in Perth although with a little more humidity, again another massive airport to navigate. We were met by our limo driver holding the little sign with our name on it, just like n the movies. A thirty minute drive had us arriving at our hotel, the Seralago Suites.
Comfortable, clean and very welcoming, the rooms are little dated but all was good we had arrived and weren't in too bad a shape after the long trip.
First on the agenda was a little nap our time zone was a full 12 hours out, 4:00pm local time was for us 4:00am! After a nap we headed of to find food, not that Yogi was up for much. We had a million choices, it was over the top, I counted at last 10 signs offing all you can eat buffet's for $10 or less ($3.99 for breakfast) many fast food joints and a few chain type restaurants. Our hotel was located on a section of the Interstate highway, a huge 8 lane road system. We located a small supermarket in the next block and bought some yoghurt and a few snacks. With such overwhelming choices Chris settled on KFC, at least we new what we would be getting. The menu was similar to what we were used to but with the obvious local influences like corn bread and scones as side dishes, I should note that the promo for the month was a "sandwich" made from 2 slabs of KFC with bacon and cheese in the center the strange thing was there was no bread! the slabs of chicken were the bread!!! When we ordered the 3 piece dinner we got offered a choice of dark or white meat, nice touch, and the coleslaw and mash potato were to die for not the re hydrated powdered slop we get here in Australia. Of course the portion size was enormous. I reckon in Australia KFC only use size 6 chickens, the drumsticks are as small as wing bits, in the US they use real size chickens!!
Unfortunately Yogi could only manage a little yoghurt and some potato and gravy. Chris made up for though and washed it all down with a couple of beers.
The next morning saw us attempt to get up, heavily jet lagged and feeling like we where drunk we attempted breakfast in the cafe at the hotel. What a disgusting offering, everything was deep fried and yellow coloured, doughnuts, hash browns, even the bacon was deep fried and looked like a a crisp brown wafer of rind. Nothing fresh at all even the cereal on offer was highly sugared and multi coloured. Don't mention the coffee!!!!!Chris was not happy!!
We decided to find a supermarket and stock up on some healthy choices, the 1km walk to the store nearly killed Yogi so it was back to bed for the day. No food and drink was staying down and he had massive abdominal pains.
The next day saw us off to Disneyworld, we headed for the Epcot park on the shuttle and monorail, it was very exciting, Chris was first in line to buy her Mickey Mouse ears, she had a set from the last trip to Disneyland and this was high on her agenda. We manged to have a few rides before Yogi was in no shape to continue, back to the hotel and bed rest. Our Disney world adventure lasted three and a half hours.
It was obvious we could not continue on the holiday something was very wrong with Yogi's health and the expected slow recovery was not going to happen we decided to try one more day then head for home and medical treatment. Unknown at the time was the lap band had moved and was chocking off his esophagus causing massive abdominal pain and not allowing him to swallow food, drinks would stay down for a short while then everything would vomit up leaving him dehydrated.
We booked return flights via New York and Dubai on Emirates, they were great and very comfortable to fly with. We had to detour over Europe due to the Volcanic dust which added an extra 2 hours to the already 25hrs flight. The trip for Yogi was spent doubled over in pain doped up on paracetamol. Around the world in 5 days. We joked that at least we got to fly over the Mediterranean instead of cruising though it.
We landed in Perth and were met by Chelsee and Rikki, today was our 29th wedding anniversary, one that Yogi will never forget. Yogi was taken straight to the hospital Emergency department and was given morphine for the pain, fortunately a good doctor assessed him and the problem with the lap band was diagnosed immediately.
Yogi spent the next 4 days in hospital undergoing surgery to reattach his lap band. We are now recovering at home and plan to start the trip again in a few weeks.
