I love America..........but I hate the process of getting there. After a very traumatic trip to Gatwick airport a few weeks ago which nearly resulted in a missed flight, we allowed plenty of time and the whole trip was uneventful and stress free. Martin loves flying, loves the movies and the whole experience. I, on the other hand, loathe it, stuck in one seat for nearly 11 hours, automatically eating whatever is put in front of me and desperately holding out for as long as possible before making the inevitable trip to the loo.
As usual on arrival in America I was diverted to the secondary immigration check so Martin went to get our bags whilst I sat in the holding room with some other, mostly dubious looking characters, waiting for my turn to be quizzed. Fortunately the delay was not too long, the immigration officer confirmed that the problem was due to my passport having been stolen in 2010, despite this being the 3rd trip to the US since then......
Eventually we reached the front of the car rental queue and left the airport......our body clocks were now on 4am and I had definitely had enough travelling for one day but we still had to find our way to the apartment in Long Beach.....all I can say is that it's a good job Martin has a better sense of direction than me. Tired and disorientated I would never have found the way, plus the number we had for our host went straight to voice mail so we weren't even sure we would be able to get in when we got there.
What a relief to find Lloyd and his partner Bill waiting to greet us, the apartment was as we expected and more.....some provisions were kindly provided and we were able to have a snack and a drink before getting some much needed sleep.
Total trip time door to door.............20.5 hours.
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