Day 14 - Las Vegas, NEVADA to Queens, NEW YORK

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Today is Wednesday and alarm was set for 6.15am but we woke up early anyway. We were on track by doing the online check out from Paris Hotel to save some extra time and we were out the front of the Hotel by 7.00am as planned to get a Taxi. The weather was a bit different this morning as a thunderstorm has arrived with a bit of rain and lots of lightning (not ideal for flying on a plane).

Our Taxi ride to the airport was smooth and took about 15-20 minutes Our driver has been living in Las Vegas since 1972 and in his words “bigger is not always better”. We had a few final views of the strip and saw the new massive sphere building that will be an exciting new Las Vegas addition when it opens next year with a U2 concert (wouldn’t that be an amazing experience to attend ?). We had a flat fee of $25- and he dropped us off right outside the Jet Blue Terminal. We went straight to the Jet Blue counter to check in our bags around 7.20am but no-one was there. Fancy me being too early for our 10.00 am flight !.

The staff arrived after about 20 minutes and we soon had our bags tagged and checked in. When we checked in for our flights online last night I elected to pay the optional $20- to use speed pass system through security which is the section used by airline crew but did not need it as there were only 4 people in line in front of us and we then took the tram shuttle to Terminal D and were at the boarding gate before 8.00.

Inside the terminal we saw a diner to grab some breakfast and surprisingly they only had a couple of items to choose from so we both ordered the cheese, bacon and scrambled egg muffins and shared a coffee for $32- (not cheap !). Whilst I’m on the subject of costs the prices for drinks in Las Vegas is out of control. A bottle of Corona was generally $11- plus tax or around $20- in AUD currency. No wonder so many people would go the pharmacy and buy a drink and consume it walking down the strip (which I’m told is totally legal).

It’s been a mixed bag so far with prices generally on this trip as some things look OK and others you just shake your head in disbelief like deodorant where they don’t have too many options for aerosol spray (lots of roll-on supplies). It has been AUD $20- to buy a very small deodorant that would cost $4- tops at home. Here at the airport shop they are charging $7.99 for a yoghurt plus tax ! But other things are not too bad including petrol (gas).

Thankfully by boarding time at 9.45 the thunderstorm and lighting had moved on. We have never used Jet Blue before. We were seated at 9.50 and we are in seats 21A-B and first observation is really good with heaps of leg room, special pouch for storing your water bottle and free wi fi and live TV entertainment for our 5 hour flight. This Airbus aircraft has 28 rows (3 x 3 seating configuration) so not too big and appears to be reasonably full. It was 26 degrees on departure and might be the last day I’m seen wearing shorts for a couple of weeks as it looks to be a bit cooler on the East Coast where we are due to land at 5.55pm local time at JFK Airport in Queens (just before sunset). Hence today is purely a commuting day and we will collect our hire car from Avis on arrival and stay near the airport tonight before starting road trip # 2 tomorrow.

Lots of planes were backed up on the runway due to the electrical storm so we did not actually take off until 11am and I started watching a movie known as 18 1/2 which started out real good but took some weird twists. It is a 1970s-era Watergate conspiracy thriller/dark comedy about a woman in the Nixon White House who tries to leak the 18 1/2 minute tape to a reporter. My rating - 2 stars. The only real good thing about this movie is that we have both decided to use alias names of Ruth and Archie for the remainder of this trip when appropriate to conceal our true identities.

Drink service arrived and Kerry chose the Ginger Ale and I had the Sierra Mist (aka Lemonade). Both had 74% sugar on the can label (ughhh !). My 2nd movie was called The Phantom Of The Open. It tells the heartwarming true story of Maurice Flitcroft, a dreamer and unrelenting optimist. This humble crane operator from Barrow-in-Furness, England managed to gain entry to The British Open Golf Championship qualifying in 1976, despite never playing a round of golf before. He shot the worst round in Open history and drew the ire of the golfing elite, but became a folk hero in the process and, more importantly, showed his family the importance of pursuing your dreams. This movie is one of those really uplifting movies that make you appreciate what’s important in life. Golf !!

Kerry said we just flew straight over the top of the windy city of Chicago so we gave a wave to our friends Michelle and Dave down there somewhere. I then watched some live TV with CNN coverage of the impact of Hurricane Ian as it is hitting Florida. The pilot caught up some time on the flight and we touched down at 6.30 pm local time (we lost 3 hours in time difference). As all “swiftie’s” would sing - “Welcome to New York” (State # 5 on this trip).

It took a bit of effort to find our way to the rental car facility which included a train ride so it was quite a fair way from the airport terminal but no-one in front of us when got to the Avis counter but unfortunately as per Phoenix the same story with no hire car ready for us so I was asked if we would accept an upgrade to G Level again and I said OK as long as it’s not an SUV as they are too hard to park, stay in the right lanes for a foreigner and consume too much Gas. However despite this they gave me an SUV and whilst it looked nice it was too big so I went back and asked for a sedan but they hannone available so we had to wait about 20 minutes for the car to be washed and cleaned etc and eventually we have the Silver Chrysler 300S a little bigger that the Lexus i300 but still a sporty old car with V8 power. Only a very short drive of less than 2 miles to our Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, and we checked in and had dinner onsite. Kerry had a caesar salad and I had a burger and fries and it was nothing flash but we paid for the convenience here.

Tomorrow we start road trip # 2 which will see us venture towards the New England region.

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Photos

Virginia plates this time around.
Definitely a car for “Lovers” and got Luke’s new nickname name on the plates !