6/30/00: Up early 6:00 A.M. readying and off to the airport.  Breakfast – light – through customs, checked baggage…flight left about 10:00 A.M. to LAX.  Arrived in L.A in 13 ½ hours…we did not sleep…a young school band was on flight with us, and the majority of the place was filled with young teens…not much sleep for anyone!  Going through customs in the states turned into a mix-up.  Told we needed a customs broker to handle our customs paperwork.  But if we waited for a broker we would miss our connecting flights…non refundable.  So customs said they would forward the opals to Billings to have them processed there.  We agreed.  Packaged the opals…and waited for our flight to Salt Lake City.  3 hour layover.  1 ½ hr flight to SLC…another good flight.  1 hour layover, and a 1 ½ hr flight to Billings, in a much smaller plane.  Turbulence over SLC both in landing and take off.  Glad to be in Billings…arrived at 4:30 P.M.  Called a cab to take us home.  It was 96 degrees in Billings!  But it was still wonderful to be home.

Friday night Denver called, said our opals were there…they will send them to Billings to go through a customs broker here.

Sunday, Denver called waiting for paperwork, did not send the opals to Billings, and said we needed to secure a broker in Denver.  They faxed us a list of brokers.

Monday, I called a broker and got the paperwork started.  Thursday the opals arrived.

Lesson learned: Post opals directly home through the Australian Post.