Tour Diary 1

TOUR DIARY 1.  23.3.11

Day one

Arrived safely in NYC.  Some hassles.. Steve did not read the luggage allowance correctly and we are having to pay lots on excess even though we both only have one suitcase each and only carrying clothes in it.  They say they will change it again soon and let you have two bags but for now we were charged an extra £40.00.

On the American Airlines internal apparently we have to pay for every bag we put on and an enormous fine if they are over.

Hopefully if the weather changes for the better we can ship some clothes back.  Otherwise everything we have we need.

Oh well.

The plane did some amazing skids on landing which caused the passengers to clap and cheer when he finally straightened up and our taxi driver from the airport got totally lost and kept ringing our hotel to find his way and we could hear her very carefully explaining the route but as he didn't speak English it didn't help him at all.  Luckily I spotted it on the left as we drove past on the motorway and it only took him another 20 minutes to get back onto the right road to drive in. He was not impressed with Steve who did still actually tip him, but obviously not as much as he wanted and he swore quite colourfully for a few minutes.

It's cold here with snow on the ground as we landed, but hopefully once we get to Aztec it is supposed to be mild spring days.

Just chilling now, Steve still trying to cook the books to make the suitcases weigh the right amount, but at the end of the day, they weigh what they weigh.

Two flights to do tomorrow to get to our final destination and we have to get up at 5 am to catch the first.  Thank goodness that will be a normal time for us with the 5 hours time difference.

Watched 127 hours ... boring, True Grit... good  and a Sean Penn film based on a true story about the whistleblower who called the American government liars about the WMD.  To punish him they outed his wife who was a secret CIA agent and because she was exposed all the people she was trying to help abroad to get to safety were killed.

The guy who caused it all to happen eventually got prosecuted and sent to prison for two years and fined $250,000 and the George Bush evoked his ability to use his executive order and got him freed.  I would like to read the stories both the man and his wife has written.  Fascinating stuff.

I also watched Monsters which was sooooooooooooooooooooo  boring.... So before I knew it we had landed.  Films make travelling so much easier.

Loads of love to everyone... Will catch you all up again when we finally arrive at Aztec.  The conference is on Friday and Steve is the Key Note speaker which although good because it means he is the last speaker and it's the top position, but it means that people might not hang around to buy books.

To think we were thinking we could carry a case of books around as well!!! 

A young man chatted to us in the queue to get out of the airport.  I liked him because he was just like Jon and even sounded like him.  He asked what we were doing and Steve said a book tour and after lots of questioning on the boys part I finally said what it was about and he was soooooo enthusiastic and immediately wanted to know how he could get a copy, what it was called and said what a brilliant title.  I think he was really reluctant to say goodbye.  His brother lives here and is a Yuppie big cheese in Wall Street and so he is on a visit for 5 days.  I think in the end he would have rather have been on tour with us.  I expect to hear from him soon once he has read the book.  The interest in the subject is so big now and Steve daily is getting so many wonderful messages from people all over the world who have read the book and say that it has totally changed their lives...  So reassuring that we are doing the right thing....

xx