On 27 Jul 99 at 15:52, Cdr.Jen wrote:
> the heat. Of course here in the Pacific NW, our summer is akin to
> Victor's winter in Oz. But I am not complaining, for if I were,
> you'd correct me.
Jen
Your summer, according to the reports is better than ours. Portland,
Oregon is shown as having temperatures in the low 80's. We are
struggling to reach the low 70's!
Seeing that people are craving input I wondered about doing an
"Impressions of America" report of our trip in May. If you're not
interested hit delete NOW!
We flew out on American Airlines to Chicago. As usual we had a
mixture of staff, most good, but the obligatory "snotty" one. I was
surprised that all the eats & drinks were free as this is not the
case when flying to Europe nor, as we discovered, on internal flights
in the USA. We set off c. 09:30 and, as we were flying west we were
gaining time and so I did not sleep.
We had heard how traumatic it was to get through US Customs and
Immigration and so we were quite apprehensive. I was surprised to
find we were interviewed by a young lady though I got the impression
she was quite a tough cookie. Through nervousness I gave a big grin
as we approached the desk. This was met by raised eyebrows from the
young lady. I had put down the address of our first hosts on the form
and, after asking whether this was family or friends, we were allowed
through with, "Have a good trip". It was almost a disappointment
particularly after the grilling we'd had to endure at Manchester
airport!
We were in Chicago with c. 5hrs to kill. What do we do? Well, we
visited the obvious place first which was quite amusing. I love those
plastic seat covers which you move round by waving your hand in front
of an electric eye. (In case any of you are wondering what on Earth I
am going on about, in the toilets in Chicago airport they have
installed a system where the toilet seat is covered by a plastic
sleeve which moves round when you pass your hand across an electronic
eye. A sign of the times, I suppose.) I really did not fancy just
sitting in the airport for 5 hours and so I managed to persuade my
wife to take a trip into Chicago.
We found the railway station and the automatic ticket machine. I was
surprised that it was such a daunting task to buy a ticket. It wasn't
really the task that was daunting it was just the situation -
disorientation after a long flight, unfamiliarity with surroundings,
having to cope with a strange language <g>. Anyway, I believed I had
understood the instructions and put the money in to buy what was
hopefully a return ticket. (BTW if you have to use these machines at
any time I discovered that the diagram is incorrect. You put your
bills in the other way up!) When the conductress appeared I asked how
long the journey was to Chicago. After some discussion as to where
exactly we wanted to go. She suggested the Illinois State Building,
about a twenty minute ride (which actually turned out to be 40).
After that some kind traveller gave us a bit more of an explanation
warning us that when we got to Chicago there was more than one line
and we had to be careful to get back on the correct one.
To be continued (if requested)....
Regards
Brian Wood,
Information Systems Department, PO Box 88, Manchester, England, M60 1QD.
Tel: +44 (0)161 200 8739
Fax: +44 (0)161 200 3540
_______
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Eat the hay & spit out the sticks! - A#1's mule" RTKB&G4JC!
http://rangernet.org Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
