It's over. Not happy. Our American Adventure finished as we left San Francisco and both Rachael and I had mutinous thoughts as we packed our cases and took the trip to the airport. We daydreamed about getting on the "wrong" flight to Chicago and starting the whole trip over again.
We did have a lovely breakfast in SF at Lori's diner - a last taste of 50s Americana which sealed our trip nicely. Then we buzzed Macy's in Union Square to get Rachael some Levi's and for both of us to raid the MAC counter. After that difficult shopping we felt we had to reward ourselves with a last trip to the Cold Stone Creamery just to make sure it was still as good as we had experienced the first night.
But inevitably British Airways took us away from such delights and transported us across the pond. Thankfully the entertainment system on this flight was the "on demand" variety so we could watch what we wanted. Sadly the max volume available was insufficient to make out dialogue on any of the movies so the whole thing was basically useless. Thank god I took movies on my ipad this time because otherwise that would have been a very boring 11.5 hours. On the subject of British Airways... *sigh* We tried to check in online the day before the flight only to be told that we couldn't. We tried several times but it wasn't working on any of them. So we arrived at the airport 2 hours before our flight and got told we could get on the flight but couldn't sit together. There is only 2 of us ffs. /o\ Then as we checked in they made Rachael remove 1kg of stuff from her big case because it was 26kg and therefore too heavy. This despite her having a 2 x 23kg allowance and only one bag being checked. *sigh* The staff were utterly meh about the whole thing - as if checking in for a flight we'd booked for was an imposition. Not impressed at all. Will be flying Virgin next time. (Who aren't perfect but I've always found their staff good even if something goes wrong). We were also told that the flight was oversold by 5. Why? The flight was completely full - how do they get away with that? I understand letting a seat go for standby if the booked person doesn't check in on time but to actually book at 5 over? MADNESS.
As we landed at Heathrow, Rachael and I looked out the window in horror at the grey sky and drizzle on the window. Something told us we were not in Kansas anymore - or any of the other 8 states we visited for that matter! And also horror because we would shortly have to part. It was horrible to be honest. I headed for baggage reclaim and Rachael for 5 hours in an airport lounge for her connecting flight to Newcastle. Goodbyes suck and this was only made worse as we were both exhausted from getting no sleep on the flight. I say "were" but I've not been to bed yet. This is why this is the rambliest most shambolic blog post so far. And there are no pics because we didn't take any today. I am attempting to make jet lag my bitch and this is always a mission fraught with danger.
So here is a piece of advice if attempting this trip - make sure you have a couple of days off when you get home to readjust. Unlike many other holidays, route 66 is a demanding mistress. You really have to keep moving in order to make it and after running full pelt for almost all of the 24 days we are tired from travelling as well as facing jet lag. Both of us are back at work tomorrow. Bad planning. LOL.
We will be finishing this blog with some big picspam posts and a lessons learned type review of how we would change our trip if we had the chance to do it over. Hopefully this will help people from the future embarking on this epic journey.
But for right now we both have to get through a whole week of work without falling over or being useless. Lets see if we make it. Thanks for sticking with us - especially if you made it all the way to the bottom of this post.
