When I started out in San Francisco this morning I didn’t think I would be sitting here at midnight in my king size bed, in my own room suite here in Dallas, Texas.
I started out this morning by trying my best to get to the airport on time to get my flights. Me being me, the king of the faffers, I managed to miss my flight. I turned up at the rental car drop off point with only 3/4 of a tank of petrol, but the dude said he would waiver the charge (usually a full tank of petrol). That was my first bit of good luck today. In the words of an old school mate it all went “jerky up and down” after that!
I then turned up at the check-in desk 10 mintues before the flight was due to leave, so I obviously missed the flight. What made it worse was the fact that I had a connecting flight in Chicago to then catch on to Washington DC, so that was also fooked. The nice people at American Airlines booked me on a flight to DC via Dallas Fort Worth. This was then delayed by an hour, and so when I actually arrived at Dallas, I had missed my flight again, with the next one not being until the morning! I was thinking to myself, someone obviously doesn’t want me to get to DC tonight. So AA booked me into The Best Western hotel in my own suite and I am due to fly out first thing in the morning.
I hadn’t eaten since breakie, so after checking in, I headed round the corner to Whataburger. There I managed to meet the entire St. Louis high school basketball team in the queue, these dudes had classic mid-western accents (just like in Forrest Gump). I am not sure what they feed them on down here, as they dwafed me, all at least 6’4 tall. Nice friendly guys!
Anyway it just goes to show that when you are travelling, you never know what each new day will throw at you, best thing to do is to stay chilled, go with the flow and be nice and polite to people, and over here in the USA they love the out-of-town English accent, as I found out in the burger queue tonight, with one of the guys asking me to say “bottle water”, having a little chuckle to himself after I had said it for him. People are genuinely interested in what you are doing and where you are from, and everyone loves the story of the World Surf Tour!
Early this evening, aboard the plane, I was reading my surf mags, reflecting about what I have seen on this trip, the beautiful people I have met, the great places I have seen and generally just experiencing life to the full. I was a bit bummed at the fact that yesterday will probably be my last chance to surf on this trip. But I have Devon to look forward to in July, and am gonna step up the search back home for new breaks etc. I also have a possible trip to Canada on the cards later on this year, and then there is World Tour 2007/Oz working VISA to start planning too!
This trip has been amazing in so many ways, it has taught me that I can go anyway and achieve anything I want, the only thing limiting me (apart from money) is my imagination and courage to actually get out of teh comfort zone and live life to the max! With each year I am becoming more of a surfer, and hopefully one day I will be living and working near the ocean, surfing every day with my crew and have a great chick by my side. Bring on the summer and the World Tour 2007, it’s all out there to be experienced!