Advertisement
What’s happened to America?
One of my favourite sayings for years are that Americans are the friendliest people on the planet, in thei rown country, but from what I’ve seen to date everyone seems to have lost their manners … plus they’ve all had iPhones surgically implanted at the end of one arm. OK, I exaggerate slightly, but at least 40% of the population seem to now have only one hand, with the other being replaced by and an iphone, with the remaining 60% having some other equivalent piece of technology merging into their body structure. I’m only brave enough to bring my poor little phone out when in the privacy of my own room, and then only if I have the privacy sign up and the curtains pulled shut.
Anyway, it all started well, I bumped into a crowd of Forestry Tasmania guys at Hobart airport which helped pass the time, and the eight hour stopover in Sydney just flew by (not). This was followed by a pleasant enough flight as far as Honolulu, I honestly think in the same plane as I flew out here in 15 years ago as the seats obviously hadn’t been changed in 29 years and it only had three television’s in the entire plane, and the two down the back where I was sitting were so old that the contrast made it unviewable. I gave up watching the first movie and instead chatted with the local Honolulu guy to my right, and a guy who was part of a party of 35 miners on my left.
But then we got to the US border and something changed. Don’ get me wrong, I got through customs fine, other than seemingly upsetting my customs officer by indicating that I wasn’t stopping in Honolulu for a few days. It took him several minutes to get over this, repeatedly questioning me as to why this might be and whether I might want to change my mind, which I admit I had considered earlier when I had been informed by my mining companion that there was a SPAM convention happening there tomorrow - so close and yet so far. Seriously you have no idea how much I would have liked to add a SPAM convention attendance o my travel story repertoire.
My customs officer was also was very concerned that I would be staying the whole 90 days of my visa in the US and urged me to leave earlier in case my flight was delayed and I became on overstayer, I tried to reassure him that I would do no such evil, which he struggled to believe as I was obviously not someone who could be trusted due to my inconceivable decision not to stop in Honolulu for a few days, but then when I mentioned I was heading into Canada for a while he became much happier as he assured me this would reset my 90 days. I briefly tried to convince him that in fact it wouldn’t according to the US visa information website, but quickly realized the futility of this cause, and was actually glad when we once gain returned to that showstopper preventing me getting his magic stamp in my passport - “Why wasn’t I stopping in Honolulu for a few days again?”.
Fortunately he eventually took my fingerprints, attached my visa and I was in.
From there on I have just had a growing unease that perhaps America is falling to bits. All small things ... trouble checking through my luggage, a 10 minute walk to god knows where at the airport following signs to “Mainland USA flights” which instead lead me off into a car park. A 10 minute walk back. A fairly rude information desk officer who told me to catch the lifts upstairs to get my flight, and then a ruder officer when I returned 30 seconds later enquiring what to do when the lifts were broken. Concern when the first ATM machine I tried to use would only let me withdraw $200, and then dismay when the second wouldn’t work at all.
In San Francisco, having been travelling for 31 hours, I finally had to pay someone to help guide me to the courtesy phone where I could ring to arrange for the courtesy bus (as against the courtesy phones for the hotels and the courtesy phones for calls within the airport) to pick me up and take me to my hotel, only to receive nothing like courtesy, when the lady on the other end of the phone put me on hold for 6 minutes before the phone cut out. I’m not sure how but eventually I got to my hotel, and I obviously over-tipped the bus driver as he was the first person who was actually nice to me, and after being given the furthest room from reception (seriously it was a half mile walk) I finally managed to have a shower and crash into bed, to then lie wide awake for the next 5 hours.
Day 2 was not any better than day 1. In fact let me say that the highlight o the day was watching Barak Obama give a speech to a bunch of graduating students on the principals of Democracy which was broadcast on CNN. God he is a good speaker, why are we stuck with Flubberbub Rudd? I tell you I would have been proud to be an American at the end of his speech, I particularly liked one part where he was talking about the information age the graduates were coming out to and he quoted that whilst everyone is and must b entitled to their own opinions, they’re not entitled to their own facts. I liked that.
God ... a family just walked past e with 64 ounce refillable coke bottles in one hand (and the ubiquitous iPhone in the other no doubt texting to each other about the loser with the small cup on the table they just walked past). I wonder how they’ll eat?
Anyway, recharged by the Presidents words I re-emerged into America where his proud citizens explained to me why the free wi-fi didn’t work.
This was followed at the airport by an explanation of why my 62 inch bike bag isn’t 62 inches when a bike is in it, and that yes they could have checked it in if I hadn’t mentioned there was a bike in it, but because there is a bike in the bag, that will be another $50. Although a tad frustrated at this initially, I understood the need for this charge when I saw the baggage handler pull it out of the plane at Las Vegas and perform a throw that would have made an olympic shot put thrower proud. Seriously, he hurled it 10 feet onto the baggage trailer and still managed to land it directly on top of a previous container which had big bright fragile handle with care stickers all over it and which had also been flung onto said trailer from 10 feet away. Go South West Airlines. They’re the cirque de soleil of Las Vegas airport. It was a brilliant performace.
But there I was in Las Vegas. I knew on the bus trip into the strip that I shouldn’t have stopped the night, and no it wasn’t the way that my (now ripped) bike bag was hurled into the back of the bus and then stood on its end by the driver who was too busy putting out his hand for a tip to bother about whether the bike was OK, nor was it the great thud I heard as my bike proceeded to be hurled onto the floor in the trailer when he took off. It was the chatter around me of men and women blinded by the glitz of the strip, the glee with which they embraced the cheapness of it. It made me sad as I hauled my bike and three bags through the Stratospheres casino on my way to my room to see the exploitation of it all, so after a brief foray out for some fresh air, I locked myself into my room and again lay awake until 3am trying to get to sleep, and spending a lot of time wondering what the hell I am doing here.
Two hours the next morning spent sitting in a “new” greyhound station didn’t improve my view of either Las Vegas or the US in general, nor did the abusive tirade the drivers gave each of their passengers as they embarked ... it must be a truly horrible job being a greyhound bus driver, and so they’ve all resorted to intimidating their passengers into submission before they even get on the bus. As our driver said to this one old man who asked for some help putting his bag in the overhead stowaway “Do I look like an airline attendant to you?, you get up and put your own bags in their.”
Though in her defence she was a bit nicer once she had pulled over outside the station for an unscheduled 5 minute smoko to calm her nerves.
So here I am. I’ve made it to St George, Utah, my starting point, I’ve put my bike together, and it all looks OK, I’m still very jet lagged and struggling to get up in the morning and the roads and traffic here are quite intimidating, especially if drivers are all as ‘friendly’ as the people I’ve met to date. The plan today is to cycle the 50 miles out to Zion national park, further than I’d like to go in my first day, but we’ll see how it goes.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 18; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0477s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Duncan M
non-member comment
Airline Baggage Handlers
Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo if you haven't already seen it.