Texas - The Lone Star State
Archers Holidays, June 2014
Day 1: United Kingdom to Dallas, Texas, United States
Our taxi arrived for us at 5.45am for our 6am pick up to the airport. It wasn't our usual guy as Archers had arranged a free transfer to/from the airport. We didn't think we were entitled, as we'd booked our own flights independently and, to be fair, the lady at Archers we questioned about it didn't think we were entitled either, but she said she wasn't going to stop it as it was on the invoice! Saved us a few quid anyway.
The driver ignored his SatNav all the way to the airport - good thing too as "she" obviously planned to make him take a scenic route! We arrived unscathed at Birmingham Airport at about 6.30am. We were recognised by the check-in staff - I guess they don't get that many bears!
This trip our party was me, with my little buddy Colin and the assistants Di and Paul, together with Colin's assistant and my reluctant assistant Dave. Although he starts out reluctant, Dave usually mellows as the trip progresses - I think Colin's been working on him since our trip to Hawaii last year!
Once through security we headed to the No. 1 Traveller Lounge at Birmingham Airport. I'm finally giving them five Teds this trip as we were allowed to take in a guest (as we were supposed to be able to), we had working Wi-fi and everything was very good! I got some porridge, a bacon sandwich, scrambled eggs as well as some biscuits and cheese and fruit juice. Not everyone gets all of this, but I have very slow assistants who weren't paying enough attention.
A thwarted attempt to use the total lack of self service tills at WH Smith made it difficult to get a drink for the journey, but we finally managed it. No point to self-service if it doesn't work and the guy manning the proper till has to manage 4 non-working self-service tills AND stock the shelves too. Single-handed as far as I could see. Oh well, we found a place by the boarding gate that does water cheaper so I'll go there next time! No self-service till either.
Unfortunately (not really), as we'd been over to Florida just a couple of weeks earlier, I'd already seen the films I wanted to see. I had another trawl through the sixty available and settled on Captain Phillips,
a Tom Hanks film about a cargo ship attacked by Somali pirates. It was pretty good.
Then I decided to watch Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. I like the Jack Ryan movies with Harrison Ford so thought I'd give it a shot. Dunno who it was playing Ryan (though I suspect I should) but I did recognise Keira Knightly and also Kenneth Branagh as a Russian baddie - who knew? I've seen worse - in fact I had started watching, and turned off In A World... after ten minutes as not much had happened.
We arrived early at our gate in Newark and headed for Immigration - there was hardly anyone there and we were through in no time at all. We then had a bit of a wait for our checked bags but Customs was no problem either.
We needed to switch from Terminal B to C and the Air Train was out of action so we had to get a bus outside, but it didn't take long. Security, with our TSA Pre-Check wasn't bad, though we did have to wait for David as he didn't qualify and went in the regular line.
Then we headed to the United Club for our 6 hour layover, with drinks, snacks and free Wi-Fi. I caught up on emails and Twitter and the time passed reasonably quickly.
We were due to board at 5.37pm but David wanted to get some proper food for the four hour flight ahead so we headed down at 5pm. It had been beautifully sunny when we arrived but we now noticed it was pouring with rain. Paul spotted some lightning and the ground staff had been ordered inside meaning that our boarding was delayed.
It was only for about ten minutes or so soon we were on board - blimey, it was hot in here! We were sad when the Captain advised that, because of the weather delay, there would be a seventy to ninety minute taxi to the runway, so we were grateful when it turned out we were suddenly in fourth position. We were soon in the air.
Once at our cruising altitude of 40,000 feet, we were told by the Captain that our flight should still arrive on time or a little earlier. Wow - great comeback!
There's only chargeable DirectTV on the flight so we didn't bother - I took the opportunity to type up my notes to date instead. Colin decided to just hang out.
We landed and made our way to the baggage claim area. Unfortunately only Dave's suitcase arrived, not Di's bag - which had her's, Paul's and most importantly MY clothes in it. We headed to the baggage services office (yes, this has happened before).
A little checking and it appeared our bag wasn't even put on the flight! We know it made it to Newark as we pulled it through Customs - sigh. With a little prompting they did at least give us a toiletry bag. Just the one bag between three of us, but better than nothing I suppose. However, no clean clothes for tomorrow's trip to Southfork and no cowboy hat for me! How's a bear supposed to meet JR without a Stetson?
Archers had given us vouchers for the Super Shuttle group transport bus to the hotel so we called and headed for the designated meeting place. It was already waiting for us, so we climbed aboard and headed for our hotel. It took maybe forty minutes.
Our hotel was the Hotel Indigo Dallas Downtown. The folks at reception were very welcoming and gave us the envelope of information left for us by the Tour Director, Patrick Neilson. They also discussed options of where my humans could get a few supplies such as underwear and food! We established that the nearest Walmart was a taxi-ride away!
We looked at the tickets as we went up to the room and miracle of miracles they'd got the rooms right! They have never managed that before. They've always put Dave and Di in a room together because they have the same name! Well, d'uh (brother and sister). They even gave Dave the single room. I almost fainted.
Our room wasn't huge, but it was clean, with two beds (so the assistants wouldn't have to sleep in the bath, like last year!) There was a desk, chair, microwave and fridge in a small alcove. There was a tray with tea and coffee on the corner of the bed. The wardrobe was large and there was a separate bathroom and wash basin. There was even a nice flatscreen television with more than a few basic channels.
We tried the Wi-Fi and it connected first time! Well, not on the phone, they always struggle with those pesky welcome pages, but we were soon online on the netbook. In his notes Patrick mentioned there was a CVS Pharmacy just three and a half blocks away - result! They have a lot of drugs there, but they also have touristy t-shirts, underwear, toiletries, beer, wine and food! I decided to send them there and figured I'd have a nap while they went.
They toddled off to CVS for supplies. It was about three blocks away. Success! Well, limited success - they were able to pick up a Dallas t-shirt, some underwear and additional toiletries for a few days - we didn't know how long it would take for the suitcase to turn up - last time it was about two and a half days! They brought me a microwave burrito and a burger too. Oh yeah, and some beer. Result! When they got back they were telling me about an eyeball in the park! Yes, seriously. They knew I'd think they'd drunk the beer on the way back so they took photos! Not sure why they keep it behind bars either!
I got online and did a bit of ranting about lost luggage on Twitter. To their credit the United Airlines twitter account did ask if I had raised a claim, which I had. We checked the listing and added Di's US phone number in case they called.
By this time it was about midnight (6am UK time) so we figured we needed to get some sleep. The letter from Patrick, which gave us our times for the next morning, mentioned an included breakfast that we weren't expecting, so that was good news on which to go to bed.