Leaving Leeds/ Arriving in Boston/New York/New Jersey

Woke up at 5am, had a shower and had left Ian’s by 5.40. It was sooo foggy over the Pennines; eerily it cleared up instantly as we reached the other side of the Pennines to reveal a beautiful morning in Manchester. The roads were clear and we reached terminal 3 without a hitch.

Problems began when I stepped foot inside Terminal 3. I was flying out with American Airlines, during the checking in process I was grilled by a US Marshall type person woman/thing. I’d managed to forget to print out my return flight confirmation email from FlyGlobeSpan (damn me doing everything through STATravel except that one flight!).

I asked to use the internet to print it off… “We’re sorry sir, this terminal isn’t connected yet, there isn’t a single place in here you can get on the internet” I suggested showing them the email on my phone using the WAP on it, but the marshal’s boss said it had to be printed (why the hell that is the case, I have no idea, it’s not like printing a fake e-ticket would be the hardest challenge!) In the end I managed to get them to call FlyGlobeSpan’s desk in the different terminal and get them to fax it over *Phew*.

Went and had an English breakfast and a mooch around the shops before heading to the gate. Whilst eating it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn’t got my confirmation email for the travel insurance I thought I’d booked. I went online got their number and gave them a ring to find I didn’t have any travel insurance at all. Lucky I remembered before I few else that could have caused problems had I broken a bone during the trip or ended up in hospital!!

When I arrived at the gate I was happy to find my earlier assumption that it was a co-share flight was correct, British Airways somehow shared this flight with American Airlines. The in flight entertainment was a bit poor, though the Rob Downy Junior space film where he builds his own rocket was pretty cool.

Landed at ~11.45am and cleared customs at Boston’s Logan airport really easily (though the retinal scanners and fingerprinting was scary). Managed to confuse the customs guy when I said I was travelling alone across the states for four weeks (well I was alone in that I didn’t know the other people on my trek yet!) I sat and watched aeroplanes take off and land for quite a while.

My USA sim card seems to be able to ring and receive phone calls fine but sending and receiving texts is a nightmare and doesn’t seem to work. My flight for JFK was supposed to leave at 15.45 so I had a long time to kill waiting around. I really wish I had been able to go and look around Boston as it looks a nice city.

On the flight over I met a guy called Mr.Cotton from South Caroline but who was originally from Liverpool. He was working at Myrtle Beach as head lifeguard or something. We kept each other company until his flight at Boston left. My flight was delayed until 16.00 then managed to take even longer to fly out due to missing a departure window or something.

The flight was short with some pretty violent turbulence and the air conditioning was knackered and it ended up snowing on us for the short but frosty journey! When we landed we were delayed further still by taking a while to get parked up. I eventually got to baggage claims at 18.00 and called the shuttle company to come pick me up.

I got collected by the shuttle driver at 18.30, he was a Rastafarian dude with a bright blue Yankees cap on and was very excited by my name “Mr. Speak, haha Mr. Speak, I like your name!”. He decided to overfill the bus and then we got stuck in traffic which made for a lovely journey across Manhattan! He managed to forget about dropping me at the PORT Authority and thus I got to drive around Manhattan for a couple hours longer than I had intended to.

I got talking to a guy called Matt (I think) from Chicago who was like 29, studying his Masters in Architecture even though he had two young kids. He was doing a summer placement in New York whilst his wife and kids stayed in Wyoming with her Mum, which I thought was very bizarre extreme to get a job! Had a cool chat about politics and places to see in the states. The crazy taxi driver decided to tell me all about how I should pray everynight that I wake up because Bush and the Powers That Be could nuke the world during our sleep…

I arrived at the PORT Authority about 21.15 and found my bus fairly easily. Nearly missed the hotel as I wasn’t used to the driver calling out the stop name and you having to yell “Yeah that’s me!” I got into the hotel at 21.30 and had a shower then went to reception to call Ally and let her know I arrived OK as she had waited at the Port Authority at about 15.00 expecting me to be in NYC by then, though I was two or three states away in Boston, MA! She was asleep and I managed to wake her room mate up when I rang her too, oops. She came and gave me a hug and then went back to bed.

Went to a nearby pizza place called ‘Uno Pizzeria’ which was nice except the stupid waiter who grumbled when I left him a 17% tip because the idiot had never seen dollar coins before (which were dispensed to me by the ticket machine in the PORT Authority).

I got back to the hotel and met Chris from Kendal and slept.