…it’s very sad that i have to leave Atlanta now. The last days where very pretty and awesome. I have to say thanks to all friends of Whitney for the lovely time together and for my first thanksgiving in the US. Thanks to Sean for the awesome juicy crispy bacon wrapped turkey and all others who supplied that amount of delicious food. Yes, i donated a big portion of self-made Käsespätzle and the pan was completely cleaned out and got really good positive feedback. One of them was, that she never tasted such good thing and she probably never wants to make Mac+Cheese again. It was very nice to sit outside at the fire, talking to all the people and starting to notice that some of them starting to fell asleep. Now i really know what Turkus Nappus means 🙂
Currently i doesn’t have a real home, but at my 2 weeks staying in the house felt like some kind of being home. Thanks Whitney, Heather und Kipp for the temporary accommodation. My saddest moment is that i have to leave my girl Whitney and we cannot see us for the next months, so i entered the plane with a tears in my eyes… oh yeah, the plane, something what i really tried to forget in the last days, not to become sad too early. As some of you already know, from time to time i have some problems at airports and planes. Seems that they don’t like me and always wanna play games with me. Cancelled flight? Nope, it starts with an automatic checkin machine which doesn’t let me check in. It knows me, but with that booking code i wasn’t able to get my ticket, because my details of destination and name wasn’t compatible. The fact that companies trying to save money, less staff is now behind the counters. Luckily i arrived early and seems that i had enough time for handling this issue. After waiting 15 minutes in front of the checkin machine till an employe showed up to figure out what happened. She also tried to check in and failed. It seems that my Around the World ticket wasn’t clearly in their system. Wow, new record for waiting in line for self checkin, 40 minutes in total. With a lot of hope, i proceeded to the security control to fetch at least an coffee for breakfast, because i had about 40 minutes left before boarding. No worries? Yeah, in the first 15 minutes in waiting line for the security control. After 30 minutes waiting in line, i still wasn’t at the end. At the end it was 40 minutes again of queuing and waiting. In the last 2 weeks i saw a lots of “inefficiency” here… 🙂 hm..or should i call it stressless working? or ignore broken display screens which shows you the correct details about the next train or flight? Oh yeah, the next flight. After passing the security check i headed on to my gate. Since 5 minutes is already boarding now, but i’m still not there and i have to take the train to get from the terminal to the D gates.
After 5 minutes spending on the terminal train, i reached my gate D12, but then realised that there is written “New York” at the screen of my gate. Weird, my plane is bound to Houston, so i tried to find these departure/flight/gate screens which are usually good spread over the airport, but somehow they wasn’t here. After running around and asking a security officer who showed me where to find one. Of course they are located where i have left the train on terminal D. So back to entrance, checked the gate and surprisingly noticed that there is also gate D12 listed for my flight. Running all the way back to D12, while hearing my name announced through the speakers, for last call. At the gate was no time to ask why they had New York listed as flight for this gate, but it was really my flight to Houston. I guess, they have already showed the details for the next flight, whatever, who cares, i’m on the plane now, as one of the last ones.
After arriving at George Bush Airport Houston, it seems that i have some luck to get my connecting flight to Los Angeles, because my gate for departure is directly on the opposite of my arriving gate. 10 minutest till boarding should be enough to buy some sushi and sit down for a second. As i learned from my airport experiences, it’s sometimes better not to use earplugs to listen music, because of missing the airport announcements (…for picking up lost passport at Vienna airport). At this time they announced that our plane needs an emergency maintenance for preparing something and the plane is gonna be delayed for at least an hour or may be cancelled (ha ha..surprise? no, i am already used to cancelled or delayed planes). I though, what kind of luck, because i have now enough time for my sushi “breakfast” with Pepsi (sorry Whitney, no Coke was available) and starting to write this post. After waiting near 1 hour, all passengers where boarded. The fact that my seat is very popular to families, because they want to sit together, i already stopped to count how often that happens and feel more happy to gift them my seat. As i am now stuck in the middle seat, without any space for relaxing or nap and an loud and active small child in front of me, i’m finishing now this post and may prepare the next one. About 30 minutes before arrival some strength turbulences started which continued till landing. I had to stow away my notebook and even reading a magazine was near impossible. Holla, that was better then driving one of the wooden roller coasters in Six Flags over Georgia 🙂 The reason was very bad weather with heavy rain, thanks that i got dry in my rental. Soon as i closed the door it started raining again and i headed to the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) bound to Santa Barbara. Some small parts of the PCH near Malibu and San Francisco i discovered already in 2011 and my plan is to drive it complete from LA to SF. Of course i stopped again at Zuma Beach and took a picture.
Yes you have seen right, the police blocked the PCH completely so there was no way to Santa Barbara and i had to return to Malibu and take an detour via Encinal Canyon Road via Westlake und I-101 and lost about 1 hour. It was already dark now, so i didn’t missed something. Finally arrived in SB and headed directly to In n Out Burger because that Sushi snack in Houston was not my size. Hey, 5.40 Euro for an Burger Menu with medium coke, fries and an double-double burger, isn’t that expensive and it tasted good.