Oh..my..god..America is a big country!

I only really realised that driving from Florida to Georgia yesterday. Printing out the directions was when it first hit me because usually when you're driving in the UK it will tell you to go along the road for 10 miles, turn left, turn right, continue for 5 miles etc...The directions for this trip said "Turn left, turn right, then continue on the road for 300 miles"!!!! It took 7 hours in all - probably not much for the average American but most Brits would be planning for weeks for a journey that long. In fact, you could probably drive the whole length of the UK in that time!  

Anyway, I've made it to the US! It has been quite an eventful trip so far - I got to the airport to be informed that the flight was overbooked and there was no more room on the plane. The options were to wait for the next flight out (which was also very overbooked so the chances of getting on that weren't great) or to be driven to a different airport and take a flight via New York. Not the kind of news you want to hear. I decided the New York flight was the safer option because that would at least guarantee I would arrive that day. The pain was slightly eased by the compensation they offered (EU rules mean everyone gets 600Euros as standard) and they also upgraded me to premium economy.

I have only ever flown cheapest economy before so that was quite a treat. I don't know why proper cutlery, a pillow, a blanket and a pair of socks is taken for granted in normal life but suddenly seems pure luxury when you're on a plane. When they offered me a free welcome champagne as I got on I nearly fainted. I'm not sure I could cope with what it must be like in first class!

So all went great to New York. Then the luck started to run out again as they announced that the connecting plane was on the runway but had no crew - which was obivously not good news. In the end I had to wait about 5 hours in NY, then endured a 2 hour flight where the air temperature seemed to be stuck on sub zero, and finally arrived in Orlando about 2am (I was going via Orlando to visit some friends before heading to Georgia). 

Then came the challenge of the rental car. Now, I am aware that when travelling as a tourist it is normal to lose about 75% of your IQ, so I was not surprised when I couldnt work out any way to unlock the doors, wind down the windows, or use the sat nav. Once I'd figured a way into the car I managed to programme the sat nav to simulate the journey instead of direct it. That basically meant I was driving in a completely random direction thinking I was following the line on the sat nav screen but the machine was not taking any notice of where the car was going. After realising this fact 30 minutes into what was meant to be a 15 minute journey, I sorted it out and got to the hotel. But the fun wasn't over then, oh no. The hotel had no record of the reservation. When that was finally sorted by about 3:30am I got to bed and then was kindly given 2 (unrequested) wake up calls at 5:30am.

Still, I figured by the next morning that any trip that starts like that has only one way to go - UP! So here I am in the hotel in Georgia and very much looking forward to starting recording with Shawn tomorrow.  

After planning the trip for the last few months I can't believe it's now all come together and I'm starting recording tomorrow morning. Very exciting!

So I'd better get an early night. Just one more thing though - since I'm n the US I feel I should wish everyone else here a happy (belated) 4th of July!

Callaghan
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