"Welcome to America..."

So here we are... the reason this blog was created, the year of saving and expectations finished and the adventure begins. What an adventure the first day was, I can tell you! Bearing in mind, I have never traveled long haul before, the furthest I have been on a plane was to Ibiza, a 1 hour flight in a WWII bomber, or at least, it felt like that! Before that, a plane to Germany when i was knee high to a grass hopper.
The taxi turns up at 8am after I was awake from 6am. I was on skype with my friend Debbie right up to the moment I had to leave the house, so I'm sure she heard the excitement and apprehension in my voice. The traffic wasnt too bad, we made good time to Heathrow and after I was dropped off I checked my baggage and sat out site chain smoking till my head was a little light. With sufficient nicotine coursing through my veins I sought out the assistance desk. They were very helpful, sat me in a chair and wheeled me right through to security. That was pretty painless, although i do love setting those metal detectors off and then explaining "oh yeh, that'll be because I'm half man half machine, sent from the future too...." "Just outstretch your arms sir and let us pat you down!" "Oh, yes..of course, sorry." After which I was sat in departures and an hour later, wheeled onto my plane.

The flight was hardly booked, so although I booked an isle seat, I managed to get a window seat and spread out over both, which was nice. The flight was 7 and a half hours and it wasnt until i got over Canada did I find the 'moving map' of the flight. So I could watch my progress over the northern states. It was great, this time of year I could see snow and even sea ice forming at river mouths. Small towns (or so they seemed, they were probably huge cities from that height mind you) and rivers, roads and mountains all laid out below. I was transfixed to the window, pressing my nose tip up against it like a kid looking through a window into a Toy store. I'm sure it was obvious I'd never done this trip before. Overall the flight wasnt too bad, apart from chewing nicotine gum vigorously every couple of hours, I really didnt have that much trouble.

We landed in JFK slightly early and was met off the plane by a porter with a chair. He was great. The first American I held a conversation with and he whisked me right through to baggage claim, re checked it for me and then on to Immigration. I have heard s many horror stories about this part and was worried that my forms were not filled in correctly. As it happened, there was hardly even a que, he looked at me, my passport, then me, my passport again, asked for my finger prints, smiled and welcomed me to America. Ha! they never suspect the disabled guy! my evil plan is coming to fruition mwhahaha! :p
The porter, who's name I forget but, for all intense and purposes, we'll call him.... Daryl, then took me outside and let me have some time to smoke again. We sat in the cold, watching yellow taxis come and go while, once more, i replenished my nicotine levels.

 

 (working out how to rotate pics on a Mac so bear with the skewed angles for now lol) 

We then went through security for the internal flight. That was interesting; i was asked to practically get undressed, wanting my coat, boots, belt all off and then once more went through the metal detector.."I'm half man half... oookay, i'll just stand here yes?" I was patted down, Vigorously! by a plastic gloved security officer. I'll admit, seeing hm put those plastic gloves on made me.... a little nervous to say the least! Luckily, they are not THAT paranoid! However, his gloves were swabbed and I was made to show my artificial leg, which was also swabbed and checked by some form of snifferdog in a metal box type machine. Security is tight, even for internal flights, it seems.

I was then left in gate 25 awaiting the connection to Albany. Here is where my luck...ran out!

Things were going so well, everything on time, everything like clockwork, until the connection. First of all, we were waiting on the air hostess and the flight crew to arrive from a previously delayed flight. Then once they arrived, they informed us the plane had too much fuel. Something to do with the shortness of the connecting flight and weight limits on landing and too much fuel made the plane too heavy.  So they had to change planes, this plane didnt have enough fuel, so needed a top up. The ground crew, once again, put too much fuel on it. It was eye roll after eye roll. Although when they asked if there were 4 volunteers who'd be happy to take a flight tomorrow, to help save weight, I think they crew got the idea when the whole plane out right laughed at them. "I fear thats a no!" So the fuel truck returned to suck out some fuel. I thought "Gimme a length of hose and a mint, I'll get out an help!" By this time I had been up 20 hours and just wanted to get to Albany. Finally we started taxiing, only to hear because of our initial delay, the taxi que was larger than expected and we'd be sat waiting for a further half an hour. To make matters even worse, some old woman had sat next to me, in a seat previously booked by a very attractive young lady and when i though my luck had changed, it turned out they decided to just swap seats and save getting up. She turned out to be most chatty with the person next to her and i was left grumbling at a sleeping old lady, who had stolen the seat of a potential date while i was in Albany. Hey! I know what our thinking but who knows eh? *laughs*

Eventually the plane took off and we were in the air only about 20 mins before we landed in Albany. Where I waited for the other passengers to get off, got another chair and was wheeled, alongside another wheelchair passenger to the arrivals lounge. I was looking around, looking for Sam, who I had hoped had remembered to pick me up, but I saw no one. Until... From behind the corner, a crazy lady in a bright red jacket seemed to jump out, pointed at me and screamed "AHHH!" and i thought to myself "Oh there she is". Of course that is my interpretation of events, others may remember it differently.

It was awesome. Seeing Sam and hearing the voice I had spoken to so many times but now finally able to put little facial quirks, body language and other such actions to her words. We hurried to the car as it was raining and we jibber jabbered the whole time. It was dark and wet so I didnt get to see much of suburban America. We got back to her house and I gave her the gift I had been working on; 5 witch elves.....

For those who dont know, Me, Sam and a few other friends, play an online game called Warhammer, which is based upon a British firm's table top war strategy game. I purchased these models and hand painted them myself. Each one is only about an inch and half high and takes between 3-5 hours to paint. We both have Witch Elf characters in the game and named them accordingly, also naming one Diehealer, for Debbie's Witch Elf. Sam really seemed to like her gift, as I had hoped she would. 

After jumping on skype to say hello to Debbie, we called it a night, I had been up over 24 hours and I needed sleep; my first night in the United States!

Sorry I didnt update my blog yesterday, but I really was tired. This week, I'm looking forward to some suburban American life, things the average tourist wouldnt see and of course, I'll report upon as much as I can...or dare! *chuckles*

As an FYI, my American phone sim card doesnt seem to be working, so thats a task to try to sort out in the next few days.