Greetings from 30,000ft – I’ve just finished my third consecutive ‘lunch’ and I’m cruising over George W territory with the plains of Texas unfolding beneath me. I’m in that jetlagged daze where I’m really not sure what time or day for that matter it is. I left in the morning, had dinner at 3am, woke up a couple hours later had breakfast, got on another plane and all of a sudden it’s 7pm. The need to sleep in a real bed is becoming an overwhelming urge – time to hit the internal control-alt-delete and reset the system into some for of circadian rhythm that resembles normalcy before the sleep monster gets me.
Travelling through the good old U, S and A has become a rather interesting prospect in this post 9-11 world. It seems that every time that I pass though America (3 times this year, so far) the thumbscrews are turned a notch or two tighter by the department of homeland security. Something new this time was an onboard announcement that passengers were forbidden to congregate in the plane outside of their seats. Apparently terrorists never manage to get seats together, or perhaps the cue for the toilet drives marginal characters right over the edge and the urge to auger the Airbus into a landmark outweighs the urge to evacuate their bladder and they just snap. Either way – there is to be no fraternization at any time while the doors are sealed. Just to be safe I didn’t utter a word to the person beside me on the Auckland to LA leg – 11hrs of complete silence… you’d think that would be more un-nerving?
But it didn’t stop once I was on terra-firma. Apparently the risk of terra was just as firma once you set foot on Yankee soil. It took a joyous 90minutes to get through passport control. When I finally got to the front of the line and had my turn – the immigration officer asked me if I could see his screen as he was typing away. I stood on my tippy toes, crained my neck and leaned in towards him. He looked at me like I was insane and I slinked back like a scolded child. “I’m not supposed to be able to screen am I?”
“No, you’re not.”
“Riiiiight.”
Luckily they let me go on through…
Wellll I betterrrrr save some batteries for a DVVVVVVVVVVD – the thoughhht – woah turbulence – sorry about that. Yeah time to tuck into a flick and get ready for ‘lunch’.
Cheers
~Scott
Travelling through the good old U, S and A has become a rather interesting prospect in this post 9-11 world. It seems that every time that I pass though America (3 times this year, so far) the thumbscrews are turned a notch or two tighter by the department of homeland security. Something new this time was an onboard announcement that passengers were forbidden to congregate in the plane outside of their seats. Apparently terrorists never manage to get seats together, or perhaps the cue for the toilet drives marginal characters right over the edge and the urge to auger the Airbus into a landmark outweighs the urge to evacuate their bladder and they just snap. Either way – there is to be no fraternization at any time while the doors are sealed. Just to be safe I didn’t utter a word to the person beside me on the Auckland to LA leg – 11hrs of complete silence… you’d think that would be more un-nerving?
But it didn’t stop once I was on terra-firma. Apparently the risk of terra was just as firma once you set foot on Yankee soil. It took a joyous 90minutes to get through passport control. When I finally got to the front of the line and had my turn – the immigration officer asked me if I could see his screen as he was typing away. I stood on my tippy toes, crained my neck and leaned in towards him. He looked at me like I was insane and I slinked back like a scolded child. “I’m not supposed to be able to screen am I?”
“No, you’re not.”
“Riiiiight.”
Luckily they let me go on through…
Wellll I betterrrrr save some batteries for a DVVVVVVVVVVD – the thoughhht – woah turbulence – sorry about that. Yeah time to tuck into a flick and get ready for ‘lunch’.
Cheers
~Scott
PS. Chase Jarvis's blog can be found at: http://chasejarvis.com/blog/
sorry for the omission in the last post.
2 comments:
Hey Scott,
Great to hear about your work and travels... I for one have always wondered how it is that travel guidebooks get written! I look forward to reading your upcoming posts and am always stoked when I see one pop into my RSS reader!
Have fun, and get some rest!
PS: It's 10:20 here, and 11:20 in Cowtown, just in case that helps.
Cheers, Josh
Josh McCulloch Photography
Hey Josh
Cheers for the comments - glad you're enjoying the blog!
i'll keep posting, don't worry about that...
just touched down into Turks and Caicos... killer sundet and time to go get my free rum punch from the bar - then B E D
cheers
S
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