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My computer is telling me it's 7.45pm at home which I think means it has only been about 47 hours since I flew out of Sydney. So let's start there.
I flew with VAustralia from Sydney to LA, it's about 14 hours and we left Sydney a little late due to paperwork issues, apparently US Immigration Officials can be a little anal about paperwork, this was drilled into us 13 hours later - but I'll get to that.
The flight was great, the Boeing 777 is a 3 - 3 configuration as I had a window seat. Thankfully there was only 2 of us to the 3 seats so we had the greatest luxury in economy class room to move. I tried really hard to sleep and think I managed a couple of hours of real sleep interspersed with dozing so on the whole the 14 hours passed well. We arrived in LA 1/2 late but no big deal as I had a scheduled 6 hours layover.
On approach to LA they handed out the immigration forms to us and drilled us that it must be perfect no error at all, "don't cross anything out ask for a new form", so anyway between my two forms I had what I thought were two very minor typos that I had been able to fix. I asked a hostie to check them out and he said one was fine but the other needed redoing but they had run out of forms so I would need to find one on the ground.
THE V crew were very good and really did focus on trying to let everyone sleep as long as possible.
So I've heard all these horror stories about US Immigration, up to 3 hours to clear, humorless people showing no initiative. Well my experience was great, there were plenty of people pointing us to the shorter queues, everybody was quick and efficient. I had cleared immigration, collected my bag, cleared customs and then dropped my bag back on the transit belt all within 1/2 of landing, it doesn't get much better than that.
Next trick was to get the US sim card I had bought on ebay working and call home to tell Kim I had arrived safely. It took me 1/2 an hour, I would go through the automated activation process up to 3/4 of the way and then the system would direct me to the "next available operator", I would then try to explain my problem and they would put me back to the automated system. It was like an endless roundabout. Eventually I spoke to someone and begged her no matter what not to transfer me but stuck with me til it worked, 2 mins later I was fully sorted although I think she set my default language to Spanish not English because I cant work out the menu options to add the other $10 credit I have.
This sim card is from Tuyo mobile which offers really cheap calls in and around the US . The best thing is you are able to select your local area and get a local cell number (In the US the mobiles have an area code prefix same as the homes and businesses for the area, not like our ones that mobile is mobile nation wide) So now I have a Tallahassee local cell number.
My first impression of LAX was what I had heard, desolation, initially it did remind me again of Sydney airport 20 years ago. That is until I found the upstairs in the Tom Bradley International terminal, this is really modern and in the final stages of a major upgrade. 1/2 a dozen places to eat, a few shops and room to sit around and free wifi. So I was able to check messages and a few other things.
It was about this time my trusty new laptop started having a heart attack, the wifi seemed to put it in a endless loop of boot, fail reboot. The only way I could stop it was to turn the wifi off but that also meant I couldn't look up the issue easily on the net. I was able to do a system restore from a week earlier but I'm still not sure if it was the restore that fixed things or that something in the airport wifi was causing the problem.
I had Mexican for dinner was quite good. I have vowed that while in the US I will not eat things I can get at home especially junk food, why eat McDonalds here when I can try Wendys or something else so Mexican it was. I tried to walk about as much as possible , after 14 hours on my butt I needed it.
Next stop Fort Lauderdale, well the Delta flight was at 100% capacity. It was a little different, the crew asked for our help in ensuring the flight left on time, asked us to sit down. My experience in Australia and with the asian airlines I have flown, the crew tell you what to do and you do it. There is no negotiation, if you don't like it you can be escorted off the plane. It seemed to be all about winning our help.
So the plane is chock block full, again 3-3 configuration with me on the window, I'm a windows all the way type of person. When I board there are already two people in my section, so they get up I climb in and they sit down. Well the bloke next to me is a big boy, not fat actually mostly muscle, but he is overflowing into my seat and that is the way it stays. Thankfully it's only a bit over 4 hours of flight and after trying to sleep for about an hour I give up and watch a movie "Dukes of Hazard" perfect no brainer movie for when your brain isn't sure what day or time it is.
After arriving in Fort Lauderdale I have only 45 minutes til my next flight so I took the time to call Kim using the free wifi in the airport on Skype from my iPhone. It was crystal clear, we could have been in the next room and what's more totally free. The flight up to Tallahassee is in a little tiny plane about the size of a corporate jet and I think I actually slept for most of the hour we were in the air, about bloody time.
Tallahassee airport is a nice little regional airport and I only waited about 10 mins for my luggage to come through with the 2 other people who had checked luggage and then I finally meet Jane Barron. Jane is one of the key organisers at Red Hills and although we've only been emailing I feel like I know her already.
So after a nice drive back to Jane's house in her pickup truck I get to have shower (how good is that after over 30 hours of movement) and sit down for a good hot breakfast. Now house really is the right way to describe Jane's place, it is an old plantation house with a lot of history and is nestled on only 200 of the original 10000 acres. The driveways, I've been on two so far and not sure if there are more are over 1/2 a km long.
So now I'm ready to rock and roll I am issued keys to my very own pick up and I'm dropped in the deep end. We head out to Red Hills, I'm driving on the wrong side of the road, in a massive pick up and I have been to bed in over 40 hours. Red Hills Horse Trials is set in a beautiful public park and on some adjacent private land, it is undulating and quite wooded. The undulations sort of remind me of SIEC but as open as SIEC is, Red Hills is the complete opposite.
I spent most of the day working with Hugh Lochore who is the Course Designer, I even learnt how to dress an Aintree fence, I wont try to explain but will upload a photo after I take some, left my camera behind yesterday.
So after we all finished up at about 6.30pm we went to a local restaurant, I cant remember what is was called something fish, I will check it out today, The food was great, the BANG BANG SHRIMP was awesome fried shrimp (prawns for us Aussies) in a light batter and a chili mayonaise sauce, yummy. I also had a sirloin steak with crab cake. really good and I tried a local beer also I cant remember the name but was a great beer with flavour. Great service and overall a really nice night with great company. After dinner the four of us going back to Jane's each hopped into our own pick ups and drove home. Was pretty tough after nearly 60 hours without a bed.
I came home and crashed and slept really well til about 2am, now I'm not sure if I'm out of wack with the times or I'm fully acclimatised and just doing my usual thing of waking up early. It's nearly 5am I'm gonna try sleeping again, I have been chating to mum on the FB chat for the last few mins. good night all.
