The very first time I flew from the US to Australia with my wife, we decided to save some money and skip out on the direct flight. Instead of LAX to Brisbane to Townsville, we were scheduled for LAX, Tokyo, Singapore, Brisbane, Townsville. Total travel time ended up at 42hrs. Due to the huge time zone change, we decided to use a combination of sleeping pills and caffeine so we would only sleep during Australian nights. Game plan is to stay up for the first leg, then pop a couple sleeping pills for leg two.

Our tickets said we would be on the same plane for both of these legs, and for some reason, we thought that meant we wouldn't have to get off the plane. Wrong. Just before landing in Tokyo we initiate operation sleepy time, only to discover everyone has to get off the plane, go through security, and then get back on the same plane. Now at the best of times, my wife is a ... we'll say 'stressful' flyer. She doesn't adapt well on the fly, and given the choice, would make us show up six hours early for every flight. So she is not thrilled. She also doesn't do well understanding accents, so doubly not thrilled. And fun fact: these sleeping pills hit me hard. Like real hard. So I'm pretty much useless. We stumble through security and once my butt hits a chair, that's it. Lights out.

So here we are, in a foreign airport, not entirely sure where we're supposed to be, and I've taken the express train to la la land. My wife at this point, is having a panic attack. Shes terrified that she might fall asleep and then we'll miss our flight, and all our stuff will be stolen on top of that. Apparently, she keeps trying to wake me up, but despite some pretty good shaking and even a slug to the arm, I'm having none of it. Best I can manage is a few seconds of wakefulness and some mumbled assurance that we'll be fine. Thankfully, someone finally notices things aren't going well for us, and they shepherd us to the correct gate. We end up getting to our final destination without further trouble, but I assure you, all our subsequent flights have been direct!