So the adventure begins with an expected 35 hours of planes, trains and automobiles ahead of us.
The first leg was a lift to the train station for an uneventful 3 hour journey to Manchester Airport that had some…Stella moments…The potential travel distraction failed to materialise and even some dodgy points didn’t really hold us up. An eye wateringly expensive cab ride took us to the Holiday Inn Express, then straight to the restaurant from some scran. A couple of pints and a cheeseburger and chips later (well later as it took 45 minutes to arrive) and it was time to retire. We watched a bit of Radarscope and settled down to sleep. Sadly the rather heavy meal too late in the day kept us both sat up on and off until 3:30 am, finally the last of the Gaviscon kicked in and we managed 40 winks.
The alarm sounded at 07:30 and a quick breakfast was declined…neither of us could face it so juice, tea and water had to suffice. An Uber was ordered (more eye watering) and we got to Terminal 2 for our flight. The airport was quiet, no queues at bag drop or security so straight through and by then we were ready for some bacon. The flight was slightly delayed and we settled down for the next 8 hours 45 minutes. Last year’s flight back home with an American carrier was horrendous, sat in front of the family from hell with disinterested cabin crew bordering on rude not helping matters. So a big shout out to the Virgin cabin crew who were efficient, attentive, friendly and smiled as their default position; chalk and cheese. Decent meals and drinks too.
We eventually arrived at Atlanta having made up most of the delay. Immigration was very quiet, so straight through a very grumpy passport control with the usual sniffer dog in attendance. Then on through customs, and then to collect the suitcases from the carousel. One off the really annoying things about travelling to the USA is that you can’t check your bags right through to your destination. Instead you have to collect them at the point of entry, then deposit them at the baggage drop for their onward journey. Thankfully the bags appeared and we dropped them off as required, but like a pair of pillocks we forgot to put the jackets and a newly acquired bottle of Gaviscon in the cases, so when we got to security we had dump that bottle (guzzled some of it like a fine scotch) and carry the jackets through the Atlanta heat. D’oh! Rather comically a guy at security looked at me and said in all seriousness “are you from Gryffindorr”? No the crest on my top was from Middlesbrough Rugby Club…an easy mistake to make…
The 4 hour wait for the connection to Oklahoma City passed quite quickly, the weather that could have delayed our flight stayed well to the west of Oklahoma, indeed it put down a strong tornado which we followed on the RadarScope app. The flight was called and we waited for our “zone 3” to be called…which followed on from a) Passengers requiring assistance b) Active military c) Veterans d) Anyone who has ever watched a Chuck Norris movie e) Diamond encrusted platinum with swords and oak leaves members and so on. We eventually got on a packed plane, and headed off on the 2 hour flight with plenty of turbulence, landed at OKC collected the bags and got an Uber to the hotel, beating the close of check in by 20 minutes. Standard duration journey, 36 hours door to door with a 22 hours “eyes open” last leg, so the comfy bed was more than welcome.
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