Splash, dash and ponderings

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I have a new favourite tv show called Man VS Wild.  It’s an English dude called Bear and he gets parachuted into random remote locations and has to find his way out with only a knife as his sole belonging (plus the clothes he is wearing of course.  Where would a naked man keep his knife?….wait, forget I said that, I don’t want to know!)

Got up this morning to rain rain and more rain in NY.  We had four girls crammed into a hotel room, with three of us sleeping in massive king size bed, somehow I ended up with my head on the bedside table for most of the night though.  A king size becomes quite squashy when two of the girls sprawl!  Still, we were all so exhausted that we slept the whole night through (after about 2 hours of chatting though!).

This morning we said goodbye to Christine’s friend Lenny and her sister Caroline, and decided we were going to head to Maine after all, even if we just sat around and weathered out the storm, we were in the mood for crazy adventures.  After a heart stopping cab ride through New York to the airport in which our cabbie avoided 5 accidents in about 100 feet (random cars, obilivious pedestrians, floodwaters etc) we arrived at La Guardia airport to find all flights to Maine cancelled.  After standing in queue pondering our predicament, we announced to the world we were heading to Boston after all by train and Amy thus declared this day to be National Stupid Photos Day and from here we began our “phlog” as we like to call it.  Some highlights which I’ll try to post soon include…..
- My disgustingly greasy cheesy grilled sandwich, complete with stringy cheese the length of a child’s arm.
- Christine being swept away by a hoarde of travellers cramming to get on the Boston bound train
- Various random photos of hideous facial expressions taken in each state we passed through included Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts.  I think I pulled a muscle laughing so hard.  Can you rupture your nose vessells from snorting?
- Suitcase races at Penn Station New York City.

The train ride took about 4 hours, which took us through some lovely countryside which we probably wouldn’t have seen had we flown.  We arrived in Boston at 6pm and met up with Christine’s sister Caroline again and her husband Chris.  Went out to tea at an awesome Italian restaurant called Luigi’s and ate ate ate.  We’re now at Caroline and Chris’ house where will we stay for the next night or two.  Tomorrow we are doing a trolley tour of Boston and will probably continue to add more to our Boston Phlog.  Hopefully I can upload some slides for your continued amusement.  I will try and write more tomorrow.

Mwah from Amnesty

Whoooo boy, this one’s going to be a blog and a half!

After my last instalment of the adventures of Amy in America I heaved my carry on bag onto Flight 96 to Seattle, eagerly anticipated the much awaited reunion with Christine in New York.  I should have checked the date….

A leisurely 90 minutes into the flight and barely one hour from Seattle Flight 96 is greeted by our pilot informing us we have a slight electrical problem and we need to make an emergency landing in Juneau (capital of Alaska) and will be touching down in 45 minutes.  The crew were calm, a little too calm and we all felt like something wasn’t quite right.  Perhaps it was the fact that they too were buckled and prepared for landing 30 minutes before we even descended.  As will approach the tarmac, I admire the pretty lights of Jeneau, flashing red, blue….wait……one fire engine, no make that two!  And a police car….and there’s an ambulance.  There was much clapping and cheering after we safely touched down.  We later found out that they were losing lights all over the cockpit and weren’t sure if the landing gear would work.  Ah, the thrill of flying.

It was now 7pm, and my flight to New York was departing in another state in two hours, there was no way I was going to make it but I comforted myself with the knowledge that I would have a free hotel in Seattle and possible a little time to see some sights which would be a bonus.  If the plane wasn’t able to be fixed they would try and get us on a new flight that left at 9pm to Seattle, but there were only 50 seats.  I was person 51.  I kid you not, I was at the front of the queue when they closed the doors.  I was being allocated a seat on the 10:30pm flight which the remaining 150 odd passengers would also be catching.  I’ll have a 7am flight out to NY and arrive at 3pm, just enough time to make it to the broadway show with my friends.  So I tucked my Aussie sense of adventure under my arm and plonked myself at the one and only bar in the airport (actually, for miles around!) and proceeded to get to know my fellow stranded travellers.  There were so many of us we just nicknamed each other so I promptly got labelled Miss Australia and spent the next hour swapping travel tales with fellow Budweiser drinkers.  10:30pm FINALLY rolled around and just as we are about to board there is one last announcement…..flight cancelled due to crew rest.  After waiting another 90 minutes to be found a hotel and have my flight rebooked, in between frantic texting to Christine letting her know all the changes going on, I finally get to the front of the queue and talk to the booking agent.  My new flight goes something like this…
Depart 10:30am from Juneau to Seattle.  What should be a straight 2 hour flight becomes an epic journey stopping at Sitka and Ketchikan and arriving in Seattle at 4:15pm.  Flight to NY leaves at 11pm, arriving SUNDAY morning at 7am, missing my broadway show.  So yeah, stayed the night at a hotel in Juneau (picture random fishing town on a snowy mountainside).

I had 6 hours to kill in Seattle so I jumped on a bus downtown and checked out the sights, I LOVED it!  Buskers everywhere, cool buildings, funky shops and I even went up the space needle and got random tourists to take my photo.

Finally landed in New York this morning and met up with Christine.  We had quite the loud happy reunion in our hotel foyer, it was kind of funny, I think we scared some people.  We did a tour of the NBC studios this morning at Rockefellar Plaza, the highlight of my trip so far.  I went right into the studio where Saturday Night Live was filmed, soooooooo much fun!  Much smaller than it looks on tv.  My friend Christine got to be a newsreader in a test studio too which was hiliarious, she totally dove into the role.  I still managed to see my broadway show, I got new tickets for half price today and saw The Producers.  I LOVED it, our hotel is right around the corner from Times Square and the broadway district, its kind of like living in a movie, a little surreal.

The weather here is crazy at the moment, NY had a record 6 inches of rain today, we were all like drowned rats.  We’re probably going to skip our trip to Maine and stay in New York another day or two to make up for my lost time.  Then we may catch a train to Boston for a couple of days before flying to Detroit.    Anyway, it’s nearly 10pm, and I have blueberry pie waiting for me back at our room (unless the girls have already eaten it….)

Miss you all!
Love Amnesty

That is exactly how long I have on this whizbang airport internet computer complete with metal, yes metal, keyboard.  I must be driving the people in the departure lounge nuts with my sonic speed typing skills.

So it’s 3:50pm in the afternoon in snowy Anchorage as I wait for my overnight flight to New York via Seattle.  I plan to spend most of the flight sleeping but I probably in reality should spend the whole flight running up and down the aisles to work off the mountain of food that I have been fed by the Murray family this week, far out, it was enough to feed an African nation (somewhere like Swaziland though, and not as big as Ghana for sure…)

11 minutes left…

Yesterday we spent the afternoon out at Chris’ parent’s house.  They have a dog called Grace who was anything but.  I honesty thought they had a pet black wolf.  Seriously, I’ve seen Shetland ponies smaller than this dog.  Didn’t seem to bother Leora though, who was not threatened at all by this creature who could squash her with a carefully placed paw.  She ran around with that thing till the cows came home (or should that be bison?….).  Chris taught me how to ride a four wheeler and then set me free onto the back roads of Kasilof to explore cross country to my hearts delight.  I slid through slush and conquered canyons (okay, maybe ditches, but they were BIG ditches!) and thanks to a carefully placed camera in a tree and the wonders of autotimers, even managed to take some pics of Bad Biker Amy and her four wheeler.  I had so much fun that Chris came out in search for me, wondering if perhaps I had fallen prey to a psycho moose or a rabid bison.  I didn’t realise how cold it was out there until I had to talk to someone and found I couldn’t move my lips or remove my helmet with frozen fingers.  Therefore our conversation went something like….

Chris: Havin’ fun?
Me: Ah hammin agwea tah!  I SOOOOO mah fuh! Bah I ka gh mah hehwe ooo..

Get the picture?

Anyway, I’ll write more soon, I’ll be in New York for the next couple of days so I’m sure I’ll have lots more to say then, especially of my adventures with Christine,woot!

Love and Kisses

Amnesty