Monday 22nd April (Easter Monday) - Houston, Texas
We had received notification last week that we had not
got our upgrades to Business class for which we had applied, so it suggested
that the plane was going to be full. To rub salt into the wound, on Saturday we
got an email telling us that “due to heavier than normal traffic,” access to
the Air NZ lounge would be restricted and we would therefore have to go to the
Strata lounge, operated by Auckland Airport Ltd. As it transpired, the AIAL
lounge was much quieter than Air NZ’s (and still had the free food and grog) and
since it was the old Air NZ lounge anyway, it was a bit like coming home again.
It also turned out that the plane had been changed from a 787 Dreamliner to a
777-300, which carries a lot more passengers but, as feared, it was completely
full and included lots of rugrats heading for Disneyland , or other US fun
destinations, for the school holidays..
The plane bounced all the way to Houston, so not a lot of
sleep was got – but I managed to watch 3 movies and 4 episodes of the Les
Miserables TV series. We arrived at 3.30pm (45 minutes early) at Houston but
found there were only 4 Customs officers on duty to handle the 300 plus
passengers off our flight. The agents sorting us out were sending all the US
citizens to them first, so it took over an hour for us to get through onto US
soil, by which time our bags were sitting beside the carousel at the luggage
claim. However the Ramada was only a short shuttle ride away and it arrived
promptly and we were soon in our hotel where Carolyn went to the pool and I
went to happy hour in the Dolphin Bar. The meals were just as good and cheap as
last year – as was the beer.
Tuesday 23rd – Atlanta/Savannah, Georgia
We were up again early (5am) for the 8.10 flight to
Atlanta, but were whisked through check-in and security (unlike yesterday) and
had time for breakfast before boarding. Another packed flight to Atlanta, but
only for 2 hours, and collecting our luggage and getting to Hertz on the “Skytrain”
was a breeze, although there was a lot of walking involved – Atlanta is a HUGE
airport. The Hertz people couldn’t have been nicer and there wasn’t a single
issue over card payment, unlike last year. We had a choice of vehicles and one
was a Dodge minibus with everything that opened and shut electrically, and lots
of storage room. It was a 3 ½ hour drive to Savannah, extended by a stop at a
Tanger Outlet Mall so Carolyn could buy (yet more) Skechers shoes. The
temperature was 87 degrees F (30C), but the pool was under repair, so that
disappointed Carolyn somewhat. There was a restaurant/Bar on the site, but it
was one of the few where smoking was allowed and the air was thick with it,
because everyone in the place was smoking – eating there was just not an
option. It’s funny how you get so used to not having smokers in restaurants and
how critical you get towards those that do. Anyway, just down the road was a
“Southern style” buffet, called the “Frog and the peach”, which changes its
menu every day, and only cost $9 each, including
tax! They also had a Tee shirt that Carolyn wanted to buy me but the
sales girl had left for the day, so we decided to go back the next day which
happened to be pork chop night.
We dropped in to a Walmart and I bought a 32GB Mini SD memory card for the handicam - 7.48 US dollars there
versus $47.99 in New Zealand!
Wednesday 24th
- Savannah
We discovered this morning that the Sirius satellite
radio in the van was also a Garmin GPS, so we decided to use it instead of
Carmen (or own GPS). Well, it got us lost trying to find the Isle of Hope and
then Thunderbolt marinas (ones we’d berthed Loopy Kiwi at during the Great
Loop) and we finished up downtown Savannah instead. However, due to its mixup
between River St and River Drive, we actually finished up where we would be
embarking for the cruise the next day. This was just as well as we found a lot
of one way streets that made access difficult, so it was good to have a dry
run. Going back to using Carmen, we finally located Thunderbolt marina and a Walmart
near Isle of Hope where we bought top-up
cards for our US phones and lunch, which we had at the Isle of Hope marina.
On the way back to the motel, we dropped by the Savannah
Port Authority, where Loopy Kiwi was lifted onto the ship for transport to NZ.
(see the posting on 19th April 2013 for details and pix on that). BTW, when
I input the details of the motel into Carmen, I abbreviated “Days Inn Savannah”
to “Days Inn Sav”. Carmen speaks that as “Days in Savings”, which sounds
quirky, but cute! Of course, we found that the phones wouldn’t work as we tried
to add the airtime and had to return to Walmart to remedy. It seems that if you
don’t use a prepay phone in the USA for 6 months, your numbers will be allocated to
someone else, so it took us an hour or so to get new numbers from Tracfone and
get them working again – I don’t think we would bother in future.
Of course we dined on pork chops (done 2 different ways)
at the Frog and the Peach and (yes, Mary), we bought the Tee shirt.
Thursday 25th
- Savannah
Timing was critical today to get Carolyn and our luggage
to the cruise, and the rental car back to the airport in time to catch the
return bus to the river to arrive in time for lunch. Yesterday’s dry run had
given us good insight into what was necessary to achieve this so we headed down
to River St, arriving at 9am. Oops…….no ship!!! It was supposed to have arrived
last night but had apparently been delayed, so we were quite relieved when it
showed up round the river bend and docked at 9.30. Carolyn and the luggage embarked
10, while I returned the car and bused back – in plenty of time for lunch.
Surprisingly, there are.only 25 passengers for this cruise (the ship can hold
up to 80, and did on the cruise last year). To make matters worse (or better,
depending on your viewpoint), because the ship is returning from its Caribbean
winter season, there are 20 crew members
aboard (including 2 Captains) plus a photographer and a lecturer, so the crew/
passenger ratio is almost 1:1. After lunch we did a trolley tour of “Historic
Savannah” – lots of old houses and references to the movie “midnight in the
garden of good and evil” which was filmed there, as well as to “Forrest Gump”,
where the famous park bench scene was shot (the park bench is actually in the
Savannah museum!)
At the safety briefing after dinner, we were told that
tide times were wrong for travelling the Carolina’s Intracoastal Waterway
during the day – the ship draws 7ft and the US Army Corps of Engineers who
maintain the ICW haven’t been dredging recently (no money). So the choices were;
leave at 3am and use the ICW at high tide, or go out to sea at 5am to reach the
next Port, which would be dependent on weather.
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