Day One – Wellington, NZ to Gary, IN

One of the main highlights of my trip so far happened before I had even left Wellington airport. I was sitting waiting to go through security at the gate when Polly and Grant from the ZM morning show yelled out to my sister (who was, by coincidence, wearing her ZM jacket). It’s the first time I had met them so I was pretty thrilled.

The flights were pretty uneventful though I met a couple of interesting people on my flights. One was a lady who lived in Rarotonga and had caught the Air NZ flight that arrived directly after mine. On the LAX – ORD flight I sat next to a guy who works for NASA and was doing some sampling for the next telescope to replace the Hubble.

Getting to LAX was the interesting part. They are very organised and very security conscious. However, the the thing that struck me the most is that there’s a certain air of nonchalance in the place. The staff don’t care that this is your first trip overseas or that you’re alone. They care about doing their job and only their job, fobbing you off onto someone else if you don’t fit into one of the boxes that they are assigned to take care of. I can understand why though – people don’t listen. How many times do you have to hear “put your shoes directly on the conveyer belt” before you actually start listening? How many times do you have to be told to turn your electronic devices off before you actually do it?

Fascinating things; airports, flights and the people you see and meet in them.

I arrived in Chicago just before 11pm local time. I have to say that the Airport Transport System (ATS) is exceptionally efficient. So it was after catching the ATS and then a bus shuttle to the specific parking lot that the van was parked in that I got the first glimpse of the vehicle that will be my (mobile) home for the next few weeks.

I have two words to describe it: freaking awesome. And it’s not just about the green felt and wood panelling interior. It’s not about the green vinyl seat covers. It epitomises the American road trip. We have two camp-stretcher type beds in the back, topped with a double airbed. Extremely comfortable! We’ve got a ~150l chiller, laptop, music and an RT scanner to listen to the truckers. I’m loving it!

Our first night we stayed in a truck stop near Gary, IN (yeah, I laughed at the name of the town too) where the burger place was open 24 hours and the trucks left their engines idling all night long. I was asleep on my feet by then, having not slept on any of the flights, so I slept fairly solidly throughout the night.