The longest day...

Blimey, what a day! I've finally arrived at my hotel in Bozeman, only to discover that there is no mobile coverage for either Vodafone or O2 round here, so I'm going to be well cut off. Good job I have MSN!

Here's a brief summary of how I got on on my journey...

The flight from Manchester was good. We got "Take It Easy" packs, containing eye-masks, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a ped and small pad and some flight socks! There was a large school trip on the flight and when they saw these packs they let out a collective "Coooooool!".

What was cool was watching the tv screens in front of each seat. Throughout the flight you could select one of 2 cameras mounted outside the plane, to get a "pilot's eye view". This was really good, especially on take-off and landing. After take-off, I tried to access the Games on the TV, but it crashed! Bloomin dodgy Windows error!

I had a nice meal of Chicked Korma, rice, salad, cheese & crackers...and a mini Toblerone! :o) All washed down with a glass of CHardonnay, which was rather nice.

Things took a bit of a downer when I discovered a family with a little girl a few rows in front. she must have been about 3 or 4 and seeing them with her made me witsh I had my kids with me, so I got a bit sad then :o( But then, thankfully, Little Britain came on the TV, so I watched that (as did everyone else, by the sounds of all the laughter). It was the first episode from the second series, which was really good to see again.

We had a piece of Pizza and a small cake at around 6.15 as our tea. It was a bit soggy, but it kept me going. I was busy watching the stunning views of the Appalation Mountains on the TV screens as we passed over Canada and into the USA. We eventually passed over New York, although I couldn't quite see if Mary-Kate and Ashley were there for Rosie (!).

My neck was killing me - I had had a fitful night sleep and had really cricked my neck. Spending hours on an aeroplane was doing it no good at all.

We eventually landed at Washington, where I had to go through the stringent security checks, get my fingerprints taken, photo taken, take your shoes off, coat off, take your laptop out etc. etc. It's a bit of a pain, but I guess it's making sure we're all safe, so I shouldn't complain. I had a couple of hours till my flight to Denver was due, so I grabbed a bite to eat (spent my first dollars!) and waited by the gate.

The plane to Denver was quiet different the the previous one. It was set out in a 2-5-2 arrangement, and I was plonked right in the middle of the 5. Great. And the guy in front of me insisted on having his seat reclined, so I kept sticking my knees in his back till he moved ;o)
Take off was delayed by about 20 mins for some reason, which was a bit boring, but once we got up it was a decent flight - 4 hours long. I was starting to feel really wierd by now - my body thought it was 18:45, but actually it was only 13:45. Very odd.

So I finally arrived in Denver, dashed off to find my luggage , only to find out that I didn't need to as it would be transferred to the Bozeman plane for me. I had, by this time, gone out of the departture lounge though, so I had to go back through all the security again...shoes off, bags emptied, laptop out etc. , then get a train back to the departure lounge. I was rapidly running out of time so I sprinted as best I could, dragging my trolley case behind me, and just made it onto the Bozeman flight with 10 minutes to spare. This was a much smaller plane, just 2+2, although it is a relatively short hop of 1.5 hours from Denver to Bozeman. I spent this time finding some really funny things you can buy in the in-flight magazine. I'll tell you all about these another day!

In the end, we landed in Bozeman a bit early. I collected my bag and called the hotel to arrange a pickup (they do a free transfer service). I was fretting a bit tho, as there appears to be no mobile signal out here. I have had no problems in Washington and Denver, but it looks like Bozeman doesn't come under any roaming agreements with O2 or Vodafone - there's just no signal at all. This is a real pain, as it means I'm limited to MSN, or costly hotel telephones, when sometimes just a quick text would do. Grrrr......

Anyway, I got into my room and rang Lisa to tell her all was well. When the kids got up they all went on MSN, so I had a nice chat with everyone and we got the webcams working at least (no audio tho :o[ ) I miss them all so much already. I don't know quite how I have managed to be so brave, coz all I wanted to do today was cry and cry all day, but I toughed it out and managed to control myself, for the sake of my fellow travellers!

I'll now finish my unpacking and get some sleep. I think its gonna take me a good few days to get back to normal, so I hope there's nothing too strenuous in the first few days training!