4:00 am:   Starting the second (of three) scheduled legs to this journey. We board the Qantas 747 and settle in for the nine-and-a-half hour flight to Sydney. This time we only have four seats to share, but still have lots of room compared to any of my previous trips downunder. With Tom's size that's a major blessing.

9:00 pm:   As soon as we're airborne it's time to re-set our watches to Australian time. Boom.... We jump ahead 17 hours in an instant. By the time dinner is served and the first movie starts we've almost dispensed with Thursday. Meanwhile, our bodies still think it's late Wednesday night. Welcome to Jet-Lag City boys. And we're still more than 12 hours from our destination, plus another two hours from the Brisbane airport to the hotel at Surfers Paradise.

3:00 am:   We're six hours out of Honolulu, have crossed the International Date Line and almost everyone's asleep in the darkened cabin of the plane. While I'm physically 5000 miles southwest of Vancouver at this point, my mind shifts to a funeral chapel in Coquitlam, BC, where a memorial service is in progress.

My drag racing mentor, Bill Phillips, is being remembered and euologized by his many friends from the racing community and I can't help but wish I was there to pay my respects. But I know I couldn't have stayed for the service and at this point can only shed a quiet tear in the darkness for an old friend. May godspeed, Bill. We'll miss you and never forget you. And thanks for all the great memories.