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Published: October 4th 2011
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Yesterday (Sunday) was another travel day.
Trevor and I returned the rental car at 9am and taxied back to the hotel and we all packed up and headed to the airport ready for 1235 departure for Phoenix and then onto
Washington DC.
Nothing much to say about the flights except the temperature in Phoenix when we arrived was just over 100 degrees F, thank goodness we stayed in the terminal!!!
It was a 4 hour plus flight from Phoenix to DC and we arived there at Reagan National airport at 10pm DC time.
Both Joy and I agreed that this flight was the worst we had ever been on. It was a Boeing 757 and we were seated in row 7, just forward of the main door but hard against the front toilet bulkhead. Of course our seats wouldn't recline and the leg room was very in adequate, to put it mildly. To add to the discomfort everytime anyone entered or left the toilet the door slammed very loudly and shook our seats so any real sleep/dozing was virtally impossible. However we continue to look at all the air travel as a means to an end so we just have
to accept what we get. However a word of warnning for ay travellers to the USA who fly internally - check with your travel agent about checking luggage. US Airways charge $25US per bag and of course our bags were too big to take onto the plane and no matter how I argued about being on a 'round the world ticket' and being able to have one bag checked, they wouldn't listen and claimed our travel agent had made a mistake in booking. Anyway we just coughed up the $50 and got on the plane.
Flight was totally uneventful although we could see a lot of the US countryside beneath us as we flew and saw some interesting sights as we crossed the plains. Many, many acres of green circles on the ground that showed where they irrigate crops using circular irrigators and the crops only grow where the water goes. It looks really weird from the air, a bit like the alien circles in the movies!!!
We arrived in DC on time and to temperature of just under 50 deg. F, a huge change from where we had come from.
Our host, Ted Pearce was waiting for us at
the airport and it was really great to catch up with him again 20 years. Ted was a Rotary exchange student who stayed with us in 1991 and while we had maintained some correspondence with him over the years, we had not seen him since. He also was really pleased to catch up again. WE set off for his home in Annapolis, which I think is north of the DC city, and a drive of about 40 minutes in a very large Toyota V8 SUV that you could hold a football game in!!
Ted, his wife Nicki and their 2 daughters live in a lovely neighbourhood almost on the edge of the rural area and the houses are all what I would describe as typical New England 2 story bungalows.
We all sat and chatted well into the morning catching up on 20 years.
Another late night but we managed to sleep in until 8am and after showering, shaving and breakfast Ted drove us into DC and we took in the 'Mall' area opposite the White House. This area houses the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, all of the recent War Memorials (WW2, Korean and Vietnam) and also the Capitol building. We walked the whole Mall and took in all the sights, Memorials and many other buildings and ended up at the Capitol where Ted had pulled in some favours and got us a 'private' tour of the Capitol building. This is the seat of Government for the USA and serves the same function as our Parliament BUilding in Wellington - except it is much older and much bigger.
It was a fascinating 2 hours with the senior tour guide who was able to show us some places not generally open to the public, like the 'Sergeant at Arms ' office, the person in charge of the law enforcement services for the Capitol Building.
We walked back to the car park in front of the White House about 4.30pm and headed home again to meet Nicki and the girls which was just great.
A magnificent bbq steak dinner with potatoes and salad followed and more catch up chat with a bit of Yankees baseball live and some NFL football live. Ted's like me and likes to flick the channels to follow the live sport!!!!
It's now 1030pm and we are heading to bed as we may have an early start in the morning to go with Ted to his older daughter's school and then it's off to the city again to take in more of the sights. Unfortunately the tour of the White House that Ted had organised has been cancelled at the last minute due Mrs. Obama deciding to host a last minute function at the WH so everything else has been shut down. Ted works in the White House in a security type role and he is not very happy at all about this turn of events. However as he said it is a bit hard to argue with Mrs. President, So we will be taking in the White House from the outside tomorrow along with a lot of other things, no doubt.
That's the last 2 days up to date. I've tried to include some photos so hopefully they come out.
Bye from us! Still feels like we've been away for weeks and it's only a few days. Hopefully we can keep up the pace!!!
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Ryan Kitto
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Glad to be able to keep up to date via this website. Sounds like so much fun already, besides the flights obviously. But with all that travel you have to expect some crap. Please say hi to Ted for me, and tell him sorry for being such an annoying kid when he was in NZ. Glad you guys are having fun and once again embarking on such a journey. Look forward to your next update. PS: your right pokie machines are over rated. But glad you gave it a go. Love from Me, Miri and kids