Jewels of Georgia and South Carolina

Archers Direct, May 2012

Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12



DAY 1: Wednesday 9 May 2012 - United Kingdom to Atlanta, Georgia

Time to start (who knows when I'll finish!) reporting on my latest US bus tour!

This one was with my usual bus tour tour operator, Archers Direct, the cheaper, online/telephone-booking version of Cosmos Tours.

This tour was only a short one (at ten nights in the USA) and on this tour we plan to cover only two states (Georgia and South Carolina - the clue's in the name) over a period of twelve days. Not to mention brief stopovers at Newark Airport in New Jersey each way. I've been to Atlanta, Charleston and Savannah before, but have yet to tell you about it, but I'm sure I'll find some new stuff to do. Not like you'll know the difference anyway.

Map Copyright © Archers Direct
I don't really have a lot of photos to show you from the first day. Not a lot to photograph on the planes and I don't want to show you the United Club Lounge at Newark - I'd hate to show you something you can't have. What with you not being as special as I am, obviously! Just kidding. I just never thought about it.

We were up at 5am for our 6am taxi to Birmingham Airport to start our flight to the US for our latest tour. We were checked in and through security by 7am – Di got her laptop pulled for a quick swab, but otherwise, no worrries and I was on my way, with my usual bus tour assistants, Di, Paul and the more reluctant Dave.

Being a Gold Premier member of United Airlines (well, technically I was a Gold member of Continental Airlines but they just got taken over, sadly - I doubt it will ever be the same!) we get to go in the ServisAir Lounge – free Wi-Fi, snacks and drinks. It’s a much nicer way to start a trip than hanging out with the peasants out in the terminal. It means I don’t get to shop, but there’ll be plenty of time for that on the trip.

We'd heard they'd put Olympic rings on the new Air Traffic Control Tower so we thought we'd better go take a look on the way to the plane.

 

The flight left just a few minutes late, having arrived in about 40 minutes late that morning. We got on board and, as there were plenty of free seats in Economy Plus (the extra legroom seats) we were able to spread out onto two rows. Much more to my liking than that squishing up lark.

The films weren’t bad on the flight. One For The Money, which is a Stephanie Plum movie. Di has read umpteen of her books, written by Janet Evanovich. She even met the author once on a book-signing tour in the UK. The movie was okay. Not great, sadly, the books are better, but it passed 90 minutes. Then I watched War Horse. This was a little disappointing, especially as a Steven Spielberg movie. Again, I’ve read the book (on my Kindle, which usually dies every time I get near an airport but was behaving itself today). This film wasn't bad, but it’s hard to create a movie from the horse’s perspective, which is how the book is written. That said, it was a nice horse movie. Sticking to the animal theme, I also watched We Bought A Zoo, another movie based on a book (I believe), the book is based in the UK (Dartmoor maybe?) but this was set in the US. It was the best of the three, although none of them were outstanding. At least on United, we get about 80 or so movies to choose from, and a load more shows besides. They're usually rubbish, but at least there's a choice - and with our own TV set, we can all watch what we like, or don't. Then I spotted they had The Descendants on too, with George Clooney. I’m pretty sure he models himself after me so I would’ve watched, but we didn’t have enough time on the flight. I’ll catch it on the way back, perhaps. It's supposed to be good.

We were a few minutes late into Newark Liberty International Airport, so were a bit worried about immigration and customs in the time we had (1 hour 45 minutes till our next flight). Nothing to worry about, we were through immigration in minutes – absolutely no one ahead of us in line at all. Mind you, we were at the front of Economy cos of my Gold status. The downside of the airline takeover is that now United has completely taken over Continental, they’ve taken our Transatlantic Points off us, so doubt we’ll ever make Gold again. We used to need 5 transatlantic crossings (each way) to get gold, now we need about 50 flight segments or 50,000 miles which is tricky. We used to do all right with 5 return Atlantic crossings per year. Great holidays too.

Our next stop baggage claim and this was slower. Despite having Priority bags, we had to wait twenty minutes for them to appear – not first out either. I suspect that it was partly because we got through immigration so quickly (take that, Heathrow, and Orlando) and party cos it was raining. They like to give the bags time to get wet before giving them back. Anyway, we got them, went through customs and re-checked the bags quickly. Then we took the monorail from terminal B to C.

We have to pass through security again (so I was stuffed back in the carry on!) before looking at the gate, and the time. We were due at gate 80 in about an hour and the Departure board said it was on-time but we figured we had time for half an hour in the United Club. A very nice lady (makes a change) checked us in and we settled in for free wi-fi, cheese and biscuits and a nice glass of red. Well, a cheap one anyway (free is usually good!)

Di has the United App on her smartphone so we saw that our next plane had arrived in late from Cleveland, arriving just as we were due to board, but it was still showing an on-time departure for us. We weren’t sure if boarding would be delayed but decided to assume not and head down to our gate – just down the stairs and about a hundred yard walk. People were still getting off, but it was crowded with passengers heading to Atlanta with us.

These domestic flights are more like buses, with less to service between flights, and, in this case, very little cleaning, as, not long after everyone was off, they started to let us on. That said, the plane didn’t seem messy for just having disembarked those Cleveland people. They must be tidy folk in Ohio. We boarded, although our supposed Economy Plus extra legroom seats really weren’t. Seems this plane was ex-Continental and hasn’t yet been converted to the larger Economy Plus area. Oh well. It would be a little more snug for the four of us on this flight, but it was only two hours. We’d probably survive.

We were too cheap to pay for DirectTV ($7.99 on a credit card) so I had to read my Kindle (they need to do a bear-sized one - it’s hard for me to hold when it’s nearly as big as I am) on the way down. It was an uneventful flight, though I nearly cheered when the guys on the flight deck said “This is still your Continental crew on a Continental plane.” Yay. I am sorry to lose what I have found to be better service from Continental, compared with United. Did you know United Break Guitars? Paul is a little obsessed about it, but you’ll see what I mean from this YouTube video he found.



Anyway, I digress. Our nice still Continental folk looked after us and got us safely to Atlanta.

You never know what you’ll find at these regional airports (and yes, I know we'd been before, but I obviously forgot!) We followed the signs for Baggage Claim down a corridor, with moving walkways for a while. We passed a couple of train stops alongside the corridor but didn’t bother to wait. When we passed another one, the train was in so we hopped onto it, thinking we’d walked far enough. It’s a good job we did. We travelled through three more terminals B, G and T before finally arriving at what they announced as Domestic Baggage Claim (which we wanted as we'd come from Newark) but it seemed also to be where British Airways and Korean Air seemed to drop their bags – I'm not aware these guys do much domestic business in the USA. Oh well, who am I to argue?

As we arrived at the bag conveyor belt, we spotted the Cosmos/Archers Rep who greeted us and waitied while we got our bags. They were off early this time. Sometimes Priority works! We grabbed our bags and he walked us out to the airport shuttle. Before he had time to tell us anything about what would happen next, he was unceremoniously dismissed by the Ground Transportation Manager, who said he was not permitted to come outside with us. Sheesh. Jobsworth. Anyway, without much ado, the rep left (having given us our vouchers and leaving a tip for the driver) and left us to it. Our bus was on it’s way.

Well, actually it wasn't.

Half an hour later our minibus arrived. We got on – just the four of us – and headed to our hotel. Our first night was at The Country Inn and Suites Buckhead . In the lobby, the receptionist gave us a welcome pack, along with our keys. They’d done it again! Despite Di and Paul booking together and David separately, they always start off putting Di and Dave together. As brother and sister they have the same name so, despite Di’s “Miss”, they’re obviously a couple. Not. Di and Dave swapped keys and packs and turned around to be greeted by Brenda Brooks, this trip’s Tour Director.

She had a little chat and we pointed out the room situation (we do this every trip and usually it’s sorted from then on) and gave her an update on the Ground Transportation guy. We weren’t overly worried we said, but thought a newbie traveller could have found it a little disconcerting to say the least. Especially as the guy at the airport had admitted he'd missed four people arriving that morning! She seemed nice enough – in fact, David remembered having her on a previous trip he’d done on his own – the Historic Trails and Blueridge Mountains tour. Then, we went to our rooms to check emails and get organised to go out for dinner.

The Hotel was pretty well-equipped, with flat screen TV, free Wi-Fi, fridge, microwave, in-room safe and an array of toiletries in the bathroom. They had a mini-business centre on our floor, with printer, although we didn’t need it. There was also a fitness centre opposite our room – a few machines that looked a lot larger owing to a large mirrored wall, but we didn’t venture into it. Bleagh. Exercise. Oh, and they had a pool too – apparently. We didn’t look for it (although we did find it outside later as we came back from dinner).

   

In the pack, it claimed there was a Chili’s restaurant just a short walk from the hotel. As Di had brought a $25 gift card over with her (a Christmas gift), we figured that was the place for dinner tonight. We hadn’t checked exactly where it was (my assistants are dummies!) so Di’s smartphone came in handy – with Google Maps and Navigation we were able to find where it was and made it there reasonably okay. Eventually. We had a good meal of quesedillas, burgers and Di had a house salad. Red wine wasn’t cheap at $27 (dropped a Ted) but the whole bill was only $60. Then we called into Target on the way back to the hotel to pick up some supplies – yes, beer – before turning in for the night.

Don't worry, there will be more photos from here on in.



Go to next day