On To The USA

This morning I got up early and shuffled around the luggage I had as the case felt real heavy when I picked it up. I said goodbye to Janette, then Stewart drove me to Gatwick Airport and on the way Jeanette rang to inform me that Great Britain (remember them, they are four countries) had just overtaken us in the medal count. So they should by the way, they have more than 4 times the population than us.

It is raining here which is a pity after such a sunny day yesterday. Stewart & Jeanette are going to a huge street party in the Mall in London to celebrate the closing ceremony and the fact that London will be hosting the next Olympic Games in 2012. So I hope it fines up for them otherwise the world will see a typical English Summer day when the cross to them from the Olympic Closing Ceremony.

It was great catching up with Stewart and Jeanette and I can’t thank them enough for looking after me for the time I spent with them, showing me around and putting up with me was fantastic of them.

We got to the airport in plenty of time and after saying goodbye to Stewart I went in and got my boarding pass. I got through the baggage check in alright. My swapping of luggage did the trip as I am allowed 23kg on this flight and I had 23.1kg in my suitcase. As for my carry one case and laptop bag I can only guess that there would be at least another 12kg in them, plus the two heavy jackets I am wearing.

I typed the above while waiting in the departure lounge at Gatwick airport and am not going to finish it 48 hours later in my room in Orlando.

I had to wait about 1 and a half hours for the boarding time for the plane and once onboard found that I had three seats to myself on the plane, so my good luck with seating on long flights continues.

The plane flight was quite good and after 7 hours flying we touched down in Orlando. You get off the plane and firstly go through immigration where I handed over my passport and White immigration card (remembering back to the start of the blog I mentioned I had to get a visa for entry into the USA well for the visa waiver program people fill in a green immigration card and I with a visa had to fill in the white one). The immigration official saw the white card and immediately went searching through my passport for the US visa. He looked at it to see it was current and then asked me “why do you need a visa to enter the USA” (at this point I thought I was going to get given a through inquiry) I replied because the lady I had spoken to at the US consulate in Sydney, Australia told me I needed one because of my conviction for a single drink driving offence in 1990.

With that he just stamped my passport and handed it back and said have a great trip in the US. So I thought that was great. Next I had pick up my luggage and then go through the customs section, where the person who’s counter I went to looked at the customs declaration I had filled in and said that he could see I had been to other countries first (Singapore, England & Ireland) and asked how long I had been travelling. I replied that I had been away 4 weeks and then he asked where I was staying in Orlando and how long I was staying here. I gave him the address and said 10 days, he then asked if I was going anywhere else in the USA and I replied Las Vegas and driving 5 days in California before going home to Australia. He handed back my paperwork and said to me “Wow, you are having a great trip. I hope you enjoy your stay”.

With that I was through into the border control and in the USA for the first time. I had to get a light rail train to the main terminal building and then go down to the terminal entry to get the Shuttle to the hotel. With the convention we had a special deal we could use with a shuttle bus service and I found them and climbed aboard the shuttle bus. I was the only person on it when he closed the doors and I thought that it would be a good trip going straight to the hotel.

Unfortunately he went further down the terminal and stopped at another pick up point where 6 more people got on. Finally we were away. But the driver just did a loop of the roadway and came back to where I had boarded and picked up someone else.

We were then on our way and luckily for me I was the first stop, so from the time I landed to the time I got to the hotel was only about 70 minutes.

I checked into the hotel and went to my room which is on the fifth floor of tower block 1 in the resort. The room has a general entry area which is as big as a lounge room with a three seater lounge, a single lounge chair, cable TV, microwave and a fridge. After checking out the main area of the resort I went out the side entry and crossed the 6 lanes of traffic to get to a convenience store called CVS. There I purchased a 24 pack of water, some tubes of Pringles and got a 12 pack of Beer to put in the fridge for my roommate Adam for when he arrives on Tuesday night.

I then went back to the main building where I ran into Ray Everingham, from Melbourne who had just arrived. By the time he got settled it was dinner time and this resort had 5 eating outlets to choose from if you do not want to go outside the resort. We went to the resorts 24 hour deli and chose to have a pizza each. They are a 12 inch pizza and cost 9.99 for the base and then 99 cents for every topping you put on it. So with four toppings it cost me 13.99 for the pizza. For the record it was delicious.

While we were eating them, we met our first fellow beer can collectors who were here for the convention. We chatted with them and during this time in walked in the BCCA president Joe Germino, who I knew because he came to our annual Canathon in Adelaide last January. While we were talking to him another few members walked up and we ended up in one of the bars talking beer collecting for a few hours.

Later that night Barry Rhall and Leanne, who are my good friends from Panania, in Sydney arrived and we had a good catch up on our travels, as they left Sydney the day after I did and had travelled to San Francisco, New York, Niagara Falls and also did a bus tour around North East USA and Canada with 48 other people they only met for the first time when they got on the bus.

By this time it was after midnight, which in fact was 5am in London where I had got up 23 hours before. So it was a good time to get some sleep and I went off to my room and did just that.

Collecting:

Milwalke Best Beer Can - 3 photos of same can
Coke Olympic Cans - Zero & Classic
Pringles Tubes -Regular Size Grab and Go Size