Plan

I thought I might let you in on the plan for this journey.
I am a passenger.
Robyn's family invited me to come on their "vacation" so I accepted.
If it was up to me, to travel all this way, I would hang around to check out the dominant empire of the day some more; but it is not so what can you do - enjoy the ride, I suppose.
So we spend one week in Orlando for Disney World over Xmas and then two weeks in Colorado Springs to visit.
Two states is not a great sample of a whole country, especially one as big as this but hopefully I should be able to give you some insights none the less.
We will see.

Half Mast

All the flags that I see, of which there are many are at half mast.



I can see three reasons for this:



1. James Brown is dead.

"The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" and "The God-father of Soul" died at the age of 72 on Xmas eve. Despite the amount of PCP that went through the man he was killed by a cold.





Or, more likely:



2. Former President Ford is dead.

One of the more forgettable presidents to my mind. I am not sure he should have pardoned Nixon.




Or least likely:



3. Saddam Hussein is dead.

Hanged for crimes against humanity by an occupying power. I am not defending the man, by all accounts he was a right bastard; but I can see no legitimacy in the way he was tried. I would have been better if he had gone to the Hague to be tried under international law.

Photos:
James Brown in Scotland
Ford and Nixon
Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein
Saddam's last moments
Courtesy of www.bbc.co.uk

Arrival

4.00 am.

Alarm.

Pick up bags.

Lock the keys in the house.

Final march up Istaklal with all our gear.

Half way up we got a cab to the Havas.

The security was tight but typically disorganised.

Finally we got on a plane.

Seventeen hours from Istanbul to Chicago.

Because of the two hour delay taking off we missed our connection to Orlando.

I was delirious as we were waiting in the queue to get a new flight.

My immediate impression of Americans is that they are very chatty.

I cannot say that I was in the mood.

Three hours later we were on the plane for Florida.

While waiting a woman in a pink jumpsuit sat next to me.

She seemed more interested in talking than I did.

All the time in the background there was a booming voice:

"The Department of Homeland Security has raised the threat level to ORANGE!!"

By this stage I was laughing hysterically.

Luckily we made it our destination without incident.

The next day we recovered for the Disney onslaught ahead.

Americans Speak

Am: "Your from Australia? That's kinda neat."

Al: "Yeah, kinda."

Greetings from the USA

Welcome to a new blog and a new country.

I have only been here for a week, but already it has made an impression on me.

Not only is it strange and unusual it is also strangely familiar.

Hopefully I will be able to give you more insights soon.

We only have three weeks here in "The Land of the Free" but in that time I will try and get some understanding of this great big crazy country.

Till then

Peace out

Al