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and last updated April 7th., 2000.
WELCOME TO MY DAY..
IT IS NICE TO HAVE YOU SHARE IT WITH ME...
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NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, US OF A !!,
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Well, I DID make it to the US of A, folks, and have not (quite) disappeared in the Everglades, though I note this page has taken record hits this week, as y'all tried to sticky-beak into what I AM doing!!
I left Oz early on Wednesday 5th April , without sleeping...
So, instead, I wrote an email to my future host in New Orleans, herein to be known only as The Professor , and repacked my suitcase, taking out the recommended one third, (which included my travelling towel, all shorts and my tennis shoes) ..
And it turned out the plane was to be only one third filled, with a spare seat beside every passenger, and the flight being managed by United Airlines, so much more lenient re cabin baggage than Air New Zealand,with whom I had booked, and I could have taken much more luggage, they told me..
I had planned to rise at 4.15am to catch the 6.10 Gull shuttle to Tullamarine, but somehow the husband managed to set the alarm for 3.15am., after which there didn't seem much point going back to to bed..
And left on time in the dark, and in the rain..the first worthwhile rain for 2 years, and it was comforting to be seated high in the relative safety of the airline shuttle-bus as hapless city commuters skidded and struck in the unaccustomed wet conditions..
and they also said we would arrive in Los Angeles rather earlier than expected, which meant that I MIGHT be able to avoid the 6 hour stopover at LA International, which Robert, my travel-guru, had deemed unavoidable, given the usual delays at Customs and Immigration....
What was happening was not just the AACRAO Conference (College Registrars and Admission Officers), with which I would be associated, but the rather bigger Computer Associates convention, so big that, with all rooms booked in the city and surrounds, the organizers had chartered two ocean-going cruisers and had those moored in the harbour as extra beds...
I always know I am in America (or Holland) when someone yells at me as though I am a moron...
All of which I heard about since the other passengers were mostly CA staff heading across to take part in the pre-conference university session, and in thirteen and a half hours one can learn a lot about someone else's business!
And, since I seemed to be one of the few on board who had been to New Orleans before, I was sort of in demand as an in-flight pre-tour guide!!
In America they just KEEP yelling, louder each time, until you do what they want!
So though I knew I would NEED my luggage if I wanted to get an earlier Delta Flight to New Orleans, and had planned to keep it with me after Customs, and trundle it around to the Delta terminal, I only protested a few times as the determined black lady stamped her feet and advised:
So Ma'am slunk apologetically over to Conveyor Belt 2, and surrendered her suitcase and computer software bag and chained herself to her computer lest they demand that, too, and decided to make the best of the now almost 7 hour stopover.....
A shower, I decided, perhaps get my hair trimmed at the airport hair salon, buy a pen, since all mine had somehow been left behind, and browse the shops in a leisurely fashion....
To begin with, LA International does not provide showers for International commuters, let alone leisurely cublcles with towels and soap for hire, as In Auckland, where we USED to stop!..
And LA International does not have a retail concourse allowing one to browse all the shops in a nice, civilized manner. Instead, each airline has its own little empire, whose shops one can only access via the security hand-luggage check..and since each retail center is some distance apart from its neighbours, I did a lot of walking, rather more than the travel guides suggest one should, and ended up very hot and sweaty, and, remember, it was still not yet 8am!
And finally I decided that, even though it was HOURS too early to check in for the Delta flight at 1.15 pm, I might as well see if they would let me do so, and I would just kind of hibernate in their departure lounges for the next 4 hours...
And I had nice people to talk to on both the Dallas flight and the New Orleans leg, though I ran out of steam suddenly somewhere before Dallas and was beginning to want, very much, to sleep!
And the horror that all travellers dread, I guess, came to pass when it seemed, in the middle of the night in a fully booked city, that I had NO booking...!
Nor, it seems, do LA travellers need to WRITE in the old way, for though one could buy computer parts aplenty, one could NOT buy a pen!
Well, not easily, though I was eventually directed to a shop way down the road at the United Airlines terminal, which did, indeed, have pens for sale, though at $US14.99 plus tax I felt I was going to have to write something very erudite indeed!
So this sophisticated lady no doubt shocked someone by stripping off at the basins in one of the rather less- than- state- of the- art ablutions blocks, and washing herself down with towelling paper..
I also took off the tunic/camisole I had under my shirt and washed that, too..and hung it on my computer wheelie-case to dry, and flew it kind of like a protesting flag as I walked up and down, and up and down...
And, as for getting my hair trimmed, well, those of you who know LA International rather better than I did, will still be laughing at THAT idea!
(I DID get it cut in New Orleans, but THAT is another story!)
And the sweet lady said, with some surprise:
"Why ma'am, if you had come right here WITH YOUR LUGGAGE , we would have put you on standby for an earlier flight and had you in New Orleans almost by now..this is surely NO PLACE to be waitin'!"
And then she said she would have given me a pen, too, since they always have plenty.........SOB!!
So I settled into the Delta block, and tried to do crosswords in the magazine I had brought from home, but none of the coffee places seemed to have enough light, so I finally settled for just sitting in the sun, watching so many planes leaving and landing . But about the time I felt I couldn't stay awake one minute longer, I remembered I had an AT&T card unused from the previous trip, the intricacies of whose dialling I had been unable to master, and whose small print I had been unable to read...
But this time it was all easy, and I even manage to reach the near-unreachable Art Greer, my phone-twice-a-year friend in San Diego, who was actually at his desk, and we did a lot of catching up, and I learned a lot about his work as he multitasked his office routine with our conversation...a real plus!!
So, by the time the card ran out, it was time to put my now dry camisole back on and board..
So I was VERY glad to see old friend John Green there to meet me at the hospitable New Orleans airport, (where noone would DREAM of yelling at one), ..surprisingly glad, because he and I have a kind of permanent- battle-stations relationship, and he had left his class early and driven an hour and a half to be there on time. I had expected to have to wait for him.
But within 15 minutes he was reminding me why we strike sparks off each other,as he berated the hapless airport-parking traffic director, and then challenged the check-out lady to reduce the charge since we had been waiting in line....and she did it! SIGH!!
And John does not know his way around New Orleans really well, and had expected me to be able to navigate, but I was pretty zombie-like by this, and the eye that had suffered the haemorrhage the week before was playing up, so I was kind of useless that way, and it took us some time to find the Parc St Charles Hotel, which I had booked online from Australia.
But the Night Manager was willing to honour the booking any way, since he did have one room available, and at the price the booking agent had quoted, soewhat below half the going rate for that particular week; in fact he actually undercut it, and we were getting along quite well...
Except that he seemed to take a dislike to John, who was continually embellishing our negotiations with alternate suggestions for my accommodation, largely centred on staying at the nearly Air Base, or Naval Base,which would be so much cheaper, or going home to stay with him and his wife, saving my money altogether...
In fact, so keen a dislike did the Night Manager seem to feel for my friend, John, that I distinctly heard threats involving fisticuffs being bandied about....
But I, and my luggage (and John) finally made it to the relative sanctuary of a fifth floor room, and I opened the drapes to the full wallwindow, and soaked in the city vista, trying hard to ignore John's comments about people with telescopes looking in, and satellite surveillance..I mean, I have heard him on that subject so many times before, and since....
And his familiar challenge..:
Nor was there much point reminding him I had tried hard to discuss this trip with him in the brief time I had between decision and departure, and that it had been one of his "too busy on Firetalk" evenings to help me organize accommodation!
Though I DID have to ask him to turn down the TV., which he had switched on at once, 30 hours in transit being a lot of time to live with NOISE!!!!
So we chatted while I did a partial unpack, and then we walked toward Canal Street, looking for somewhere to eat while I explored the locality, but it was after 11pm by this, and not much still open in the area. But we managed to find a place next to the Holiday Inn on Canal Street, which successfully combines an English Pub environment with Creole cooking. The food was good, and I suprised myself by eating enthusiastically, despite the Cajun seasonings, and John palled up with the English waitress at once, he having spent 15 years in
England,and taken himself an English wife there, which purse-keeping lady keeps him rather short of funds, and had given him just $20 to come meet me, so supper was, of necessity, on me!!
But the walk back to the hotel was nice, too,and we did it hand-in-hand, though a cool wind was springing up..a wind that was to create unseasonally cold conditions for a few days.
But I'll keep you posted!
Then John had to leave for the long drive back to Hattiesburg and work next day, and I did what any tourist does who has only a 3 ft wide, shower-only bathroom at home, and who has not bathed fully in more than 30 hours.....I ran a bath, and threw in some JOOP bath-oil, feeling so warmly happy that these days American plumbing rarely fazes me more than a few minutes, and soaked in it for quite some time, wondering sleepily why I didn't feel strange or foreign, and why I hadn't yet experienced the sudden AAAGGHH! What have I DONE???? lightning bolt that strikes all travellers...
It would come tomorrow, probably, I decided!
Love to everyone ,and everyone on our side!
-from
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©Robin Knight, 2000.
