Arizona – Arrival
Panama and Australia, rendezvous? I guess if you were world apart and you decided you should meet somewhere then Phoenix, Arizona would be the answer? Given we are new age thinkers then this is where we decided our journey to the land of heat, desert, cacti and, of course, the Grand Canyon should and would start.
From Australia (for Lena) meant sitting for 14 hours of oversea flying followed by 1 hour of desert which was lovely but the best part was spending 7 hours in the luscious Phoenix Airport. The only real loss here was missing the ice-cream time on QF15. We’ve all wondered why and how you can chill a Weiss bar to -45DegC so that it shatters in your mouth and sticks to the side of your face while eating but at the same time we love this delicious treat while recovering from a hangover at 2am, but alas Qantas has already run out. Shame.
Passport control and customs were easy as well. There is a lot of walking to get from my arrival terminal to my departure terminal. After some sitting around (about three hours in total – thanks to the American Airlines for the delay) I was on my 45-minute journey to Phoenix. I happened to be sitting just above the baggage loading dock and it is one of those things that you better not see. I guess when you have to load hundreds of bags onto the plane being gentle or careful is not your priority. I do feel for the person with a golden suitcase that somehow got unzipped and unloaded some of the luggage as it was coming out of the plane. I think baggage carers collected most of it back, good luck goldie.
Then there was me getting from Terminal 4 to Terminal 2. The airport seems quite nice, nice artwork along the way with descriptions as well. Monorail train takes you from Terminal 4 to Terminal 3, then you walk to Terminal 2 along a walkway, which is when you feel the warm welcome from Arizona – 42 degrees and the wind is almost like putting a blow dryer to your face.
From Panama Tim was waiting for the helicopter from site, but Panama had had other plans and turned out a lovely rainy day with 0 visibility so driving to Panama in the most wrecked minivan that could be found was the best option. This meant arriving in Panama City at 11pm and then readying ones self for the trip via Houston to Phoenix the next day.
The two parted lovebirds could only try their livid best by taking photos of pizza’s they could order in different airports until their long awaited reunion in Phoenix.
The Houston Airport Pizza and Phoenix Airport Pizza
Once through Phoenix and together at last, the best part of the trip over and worst to come, Lena and Tim made their way to the holy Avis car rental department.
One thing which is surprising about America is the sense of cattle herding that you feel when shuffling through the necessary services. The attendants in the airports and the drivers of the shuttles are in a routine and the people traversing their services are mere animals to be reported from one line to another or scolded when they seem confused. We don’t know why it feels this way in America particularly and not in other places, maybe a smile that doesn’t need a tip wouldn’t go astray?
Picking up the car was hardly a joy as the attendant at Avis had decided that we were criminals as our bank momentarily declined our transaction. Tim had decided that if America was too good for our money, and if a an Avis attendant didn’t like the fact that our last names weren’t the same that we were minutes away from booking return flights and never spending time in this country again, whether great or not there are plenty of places in the world to gift your money to. What was most irritating about the entire process was the perception that if you don’t have a credit card then booking accommodation or rentals is impossible. Given that once our bank realised where we were everything progressed easily but we were given the first degree by a car rental attendant and lectured about the need to have a credit card is a good indication that the world is in a poor state if you can’t buy things with money and can only purchase items with debt. However looking at the way banks and interest are operating now it is a curiosity as to why you would save money since it’ll cost you to leave it in a bank.
El Mustang,
Anyway thank god that rubbish with Avis ended and we could finally pickup the Ford Mustang GT, which although the headlight switch is elusive is an absolutely wonderful car. Traveling at night from Phoenix to Sedona was easy and the highways in the state are well signed and easy to navigate.