We’re back! After three long years we’re finally returned to the USA again to work on our 50 states mega-mission.
The first part of our night-before indulgence stay at the Sydney Rydges Airport was wonderful …. to toast the upcoming trip with some bubbly and watch the evening flights come into the airport from the bar.
However the automated call from American Airlines at 2am wasn’t so enjoyable! Some details from our Qantas booking had not transferred over to the American Airlines flight booking and the call was a reminder to enter the necessary info on their website. I slept badly after that and we started the day at 5.45 am.
Checkin was quick and we were breakfasting in the Qantas lounge by 7am.
Having cashed ina truck load of frequent flyer points almost a year ago we were able to enjoy the luxury of Business class for the flight to LA but the morning departure time always makes it hard to get much sleep on QF11, even with a lay flat seat. I’d also taken Simons suggestion to watch the Chernobyl Mini series on the plane, very gripping and disturbing and definitely not a help for sleeping!
Finally at 6.20 am we landed at a very foggy LA airport to s pleasant surprise. Since our last trip they’ve installed automatic kiosks for part of the immigration process and we were got through in the best time we’ve ever experienced!
We had a couple of hours to kill before our connecting flight to Omaha so we made a beeline for the Qantas Lounge, which I think is much nicer than the Sydney one! I felt so much fresher after a shower!
Our Omaha flight was on a little plane operated by American Eagle for American Airlines and departed from s remote terminal , which meant we had a short bus ride across the airport to get there.
For the first time we were booked on a domestic First Class seat and The front tow of the plane had heaps of legroom. American Airlines gets quite a bit of flak these days but I couldn’t fault the service on our 3 hour flight and my salmon salad for lunch was one of the tastiest meals I’ve had on any flight.
Omaha looked very green as we flew in and it wasn’t long til we’d collected our car and we’re out on the road. We’d booked an SUV but we’ve ended up in a 6 seater people mover, a Dodge Grand Caravan. We’ve certainly got room to spare!
By the time we crossed the river leaving Omaha we’d already added two new states to our tally , Nebraska and Iowa, although we won’t really be doing Nebraska justice until the end of the trip.
An hour easy we stopped briefly at Walmart to stick up on snacks and water for the road , then onward through rolling, green farm country to Winterset, where we’re spending the night at the Cobblestone Inn and Suites. However one quick stop on the way st the Hogback Covered Bridge, Winterset is smack Bang in the middle of Madison County, and the Bridges of Madison County are a popular tourist site ( as well as an award winning film with Kate Hepburn and Henry Fonda!) Edit: the movie actually starred Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, but I’ll leave my mistake in as it highlights my foggy, jet-lagged brain state when I typed this post yesterday 🙂
We finally checked into the hotel at about 6.30pm, it’s been a loong day! Winterset is a tiny town and we were pleased that the hotel had a bar onsite which offered bar meals..we were too tired to head out to look for dinner. BUT… the food was intersting..to say the best! We thought we’d share the Pulled Pork nachos, only to learn that they;d just run out of pulled pork. No probelm we said, we’ll have the regular nachos…which turned out to be Corn Chips coated with warm Cheese Whiz! Not a culinary triumph, but at least the beer was good.
We’re both pretty pooped but looking forward to seeing mre of this lovely green state tomorrow.
That looks revolting, and an insult to cheese everywhere. Also… is that regulation?? I feel like it shouldn’t be that easy for you to enter the cockpit. 😛
I took the ckeckpit shot before we took off. Fortunately they did lock the door before we were in the air