America 2015: Day One (30 July 2015)

It's a high school prom, it's a Springsteen song, it's a ride in a Chevrolet
It's a man on the moon and fireflies in June and kids sellin' lemonade
It's cities and farms, it's open arms, one nation under God
It's America

                                                                               

       -Rodney Atkins                                              

Thursday 30 August

America! It’s great to be back. It’s been nearly two years – December 22, 2013 – since I was last here, and for the first time ever I’m here in summer, after six trips here during the fall/winter months. It was strange packing back at home and not stuffing a parka, gloves and beanie into my bag. Instead, it’s board shorts and t-shirts in a bag not nearly as heavy as it usually is.

So, this is my seventh trip to America, dating back to 2006, and I can honestly say that despite being in the midst of some pretty serious weather delays over the years, I’ve never been horrendously delayed getting to a destination.

Until now.

After clearing customs and immigration in pretty much record time, we found out that our flight from Los Angeles to Houston was delayed by two hours due to “aircraft maintenance” which meant that we would miss our connecting flight to Kansas City. If the delay had only been a hour, we’d have been fine, but two hours was too much.

So begins the drama: there were only two later flights from Houston to KC tonight, and they were both full, so we were pulled off the flight – and hopefully, so were our bags – and now we’re going to be doing the mother of all red-eye flights tonight and into tomorrow to get to Kansas City at 10:30am.

At 8:00pm tonight we flew from Los Angeles to San Francisco. I’m there now, in the airport, fresh off a nice upgrade to premium economy, waiting through a 2-hour gap before we board a flight that will take us to Chicago, arriving at 6:30am local time tomorrow morning. Then there’s another two-hour layover before the last, short leg of flying into Kansas City.

If everything goes to plan, we’re scheduled to arrive at 10:37am. Based on how things have panned out so far today, I’m not holding my breath. We have eight hours of actual travel time, but with layovers, it’s closer to twelve. All I care about now is getting there, and getting our feet on the ground. Oh, and I’m really hoping our bags get there when we do!

I actually don’t mind the stop-start nature of these flights. In fact, getting off the plane and being able to walk around and get non-airline food is better than enduring one long flight, when you’re crammed in like sardines for fourteen hours, with not much to do.

For anyone wondering, Lauryn, who came down from Canada today, expecting to meet us in Kansas City, is actually now reigning supreme in our hotel tonight, after I had to basically convince the hotel that they should let her check in or she’d be forced to spend the night on the floor of the airport. She messaged me before to say that she was in the hotel – I’ve never been so jealous of anyone! I’d kill for a proper night’s sleep. Not tonight, though.

Thankfully, we were able to check into an airport hotel – the Courtyard Marriott – for a few hours of sleep this afternoon. It really made a difference, and although I could’ve slept much longer, I woke myself up so that, fingers crossed, I’ll get some sleep on the plane(s) overnight so I’m not totally wrecked tomorrow. One thing is for sure, I’ll be enjoying a massive sleep on Friday night! Lucky we don’t have anything planned for Saturday morning.

The flight from Sydney wasn't too bad. I got to watch Grown Ups and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off as well as a handful of episodes of Friends – forgot how funny that show is – in between reading, listening to music and dozing off. The flight, thirteen hours and forty minutes, went by fairly quickly and smoothly. All the troubles started when we got here.

We flew United, which doesn’t give you a mid-morning snack, so it’s a long time to go hungry between lunch (which gets served in the first hour of the flight) and breakfast, served with less than ninety-minutes to go. I had to buy one of those snack boxes, and it wasn't good. Back to Qantas or V Australia next time, I think.

It’s been a very long two days and I’m really looking forward to getting to departing San Francisco – surprise, surprise, we have a minor delay! – landing in Kansas City and doing something other than shuffling through airports!