Here I go again on my own.

Good day people of the internet.

I have decided to go to visit America again.  It's not a road trip this time. I am writing to you from Omaha, Nebraska where I will be staying for the next few days.  This first post will be about the trip here from Aberdeen.

It all began at 3am after a terrible pre-travel night's sleep where I tossed and turned and worried about whether or not I had packed my toothbrush and, probably more irrationally, whether US Customs would confiscate something I would later need and have to spend large amounts of money replacing.

I got up, got in the car and drove to Aberdeen. I parked my car near my work and took a Taxi to the airport. I checked in, got on the plane and we took off.  Flights from Aberdeen land at Terminal 5 and my connecting flight for Chicago took off from Terminal 3.  I've not knowingly been to Terminal 3 before, and I wanted to take the magical underground train however it was not to be...

I was ushered towards the bus. Before even getting on the bus I was quizzed on why I wanted to go to the US.  Questions about the address I would be staying at, what my job title was, what my last job title was, what my boss's name was, what his job title was, what school I went to, what school my friend in America went to. The answers I gave must have been correct (or at least convincing enough) and they let me on the bus.

On a bus

 

On a plane

Aircraft entertainment wireless seemed to think we were doing 58mph while stationary at the gate.

 

Greenland is pretty at this time of year.

These place names made me laugh as the look like my toddler typed them in his never-ending efforts to communicate with people when he encounters any sort of keyboard whatsoever.

$3200 is a lot, but it's also a strange amount to cap the fine at.  Nevertheless I did not tamper.

The bus took me to terminal 3, and I found the gate that I required and a lady from Accra asked me if I knew where the plane to Chicago was leaving from.  She told me that she had missed a connection already due to a delay on her incoming flight. I said I was going to Chicago and she said she would follow me. We didn't chat much but I gave her wee smile and a nod whenever I saw her over the next part of the trip.

We boarded and set off on time but we went a different way to America because of bad weather.  This meant we flew over the middle of Greenland instead of just fondling the tip. The longer route meant we arrived in Chicago about half an hour later than planned.  This meant that Accra lady missed another connection to St Louis.

In Chicago, and indeed I believe in America, you have to change terminals again when you arrive internationally.  This wouldn't have been so bad, but you have to arrive, go through immigration (who were much more pleased to see me than the last time I came to this country, perhaps because I live near Norway) collect your bag off the airline and then immediately give it back to them so they can put it on the next plane.  You and the bag effectively leave the restricted zone so you have to check your bag in again and then go back through security. It must have been near the end of a shift because the Security people were treating everyone as if searching them and examining their bags was a massive inconvenience.

I got to the next plane in good time, sat around for half an hour at the gate and then boarded for Omaha. 

Almost no sooner had we all sat down and strapped in, but the pilots came over the tannoy to announce that the plane was broken, that it would take at least an hour to fix, and that that if we could all kindly get off that'd be great.  We all got off and sat around for a bit.  Then there was an announcement that they had found us another plane and to go to a different gate. There were quite a lot of people waiting to get on this plane which was originally supposed to be going somewhere else. The waiting passengers were effectively told to get lost until they worked out what plane they were getting on. I would have felt bad but I had been on the go for 20 hours by now so I didn't.

Once we boarded we flew to Omaha without incident.  Smiling Blair picked me up and whisked me away to his house.

I went to bed soon after, having been up for 25 hours by now.