Day 1: Larrington Towers - Tampa, FL

Firstly, apologies for not publishing this earlier, but I was disinclined to fork over $12.95 for the dubious privet hedge of using the Intercontinental's wireless Intarwebs.  Yarbles to them, that's what I say.  Bolshie great yarblockoes.

So yesterday was not one of the better ones.  My rucksack weighed heavy upon my sorely abused back, neck and shoulders, while The Luggage seemd heavier than ever.  At least the trip to Airwick Gatport was less fraught than going to Heathrow, though i do have that to look forward to on the return journey.  On the plane, I snag a copy of The Independent (the alternative being the Daily Heil) and learned to my considerable  chagrin that I will miss the first three episodes of The Thick Of It chiz.  Then we were seventy minutes late taking off, waiting for some spannermen to fix the entertainment system, and the driver only managed to make up five of those due to a mighty rushing headwind.  Plus there were two idiot mothers of toddlers who decided to use the aisle next to me as a playground.  After nine houurs both I and the cabin crew were ready to commit multiple homicide...

Tampa airport was at least a fairly smooth experience compared with some - Denver in 2004 springs to mind - and there was no messing about with a minibus to the rental car place - it being just over the road from the terminal building.  A pity they couldn't install air-con outside the building as it was 34 degrees out there.  Initial the paperwork in a thousand places and go to collect motorcar.

It's a Chrysler 200.  Bugger.  The lad goes off on a fruitless Mustang hunt.  Double bugger.  The problem with the Chrysler is that the roof folds away into the boot.  Thus when the roof is down, the boot will hold a couple of jackets, thereby obliging The Luggage to travel on the back seat instead.  Oh well, let's get to the hotel.  Another problem - Emily the TwatNav can't find any satellites from inside the car park and from this deduces that she is still at Denver airport and therefore the 1,860 mile drive will take somewhere in the region of 28 hours.  After a Several of reboots she finally twigs thhat we'reonly a couple of miles from the hotel after all.

I finally get checked in and decide to settle down with a stiff Scotch and a good book, only to find that my Kindle has died somewhere between getting off the plane and pouring said drink.  This has not been a good day.  New states visited: Florida