Hi Danielle the Nomad Here is your itinerary, approved by the crow flies and geographers alike.
First, you have 1,200 miles (1,930 km) to drive from near Billings Montana to San Francisco, because that city sits almost perfectly on the crow-flies line west. Before you leave Billings, remember to grab some milk from the cows for your coffee. You are going to need it. Expect long highways, big skies, at least one questionable roadside coffee and the creeping realisation that Montana is not messing around when it comes to distance.
Once you reach San Francisco, you have officially intersected the invisible line that only a crow with a globe and a compass would care about. From there, you must board a boat or an airplane and travel 6,700 miles (10,780 km) across the Pacific Ocean to Brisbane Australia. No shortcuts, no tunnels and no asking the pilot if they can just swing by Hawaii for a stretch.
I will be waiting for you at the docks or the airport.
I will recognise you instantly. I will still see snow on your face, in your hair and on your shoulders, carried all the way from your native Alaskan lands of the never-setting sun or eternal darkness, stubbornly refusing to melt even in the Brisbane heat. I will be the one standing there holding a prawn (shrimp) in my hand, ready to throw it straight onto the barbecue the moment you arrive at my place.
After we have had some refreshments and you have recovered from the time travel known as jet lag, if you fly with the crows. I will introduce you to the locals. You will meet saltwater crocodiles, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, eastern brown snakes, funnel-web spiders, great white sharks plus the obligatory redback spider on the toilet seat just to keep things authentic, creatures that all look calm right up until they are not. Do not worry though. Most of them are polite enough if you are, along with plenty of other nasty creatures lurking nearby for character building. By the way, yes, we will sing that song,
Since you are a great travelling nomad I will certainly take you on a great adventure, something we call "walkabout" around Australia and after all that distance, it is only right that your reward is food, a cold drink and the quiet satisfaction of having followed a straight line around a very curved planet.
Even the crow flies would approve of the hospitality that Aussies provide to their American friends.
Best wishes on your travels alwaysOne Aussie Shelia@Northern Star Girl @Sephirah
