At 1.50am we were awoken by a loud beeping noise. Checked around the room to see where it was coming from. Initial suggestion was the fire alarm. Thought maybe the battery was going. Ann phoned reception for advice. I stacked furniture and had a look. Woman on reception suggested taking the battery out. I tried to open it but proceeded to pull the whole thing off the ceiling. Turns out it was wired in anyway. Tried to reattach it. Woman said she'd get us a new room. We then noticed it wasn't the fire alarm it was the carbon monoxide alarm beeping. Ann went off to get the key. I opened the window.
During this process I started timing the gap. It was every minute. Ann returned with the key to a new room which was just across the corridor. She said the beeping was easily heard outside. Moved my stacked of furniture to the CO alarm. It came off the wall too but this time I had deliberately taken it off. Read the back of it. It had a list of the number of beeps and their meaning. Five meant the battery was low and the alarm needing replacing.
Ann said to put it back and we'd move room. I pointed out we would probably still hear it across the way. Told Ann to take the alarm to reception so they could deal with it and I'd move the stuff across.
All in all we were back in a new bed by 2.10am. Now awake. Not great.
Eventually drifted off only to be awoken at 6.15am by the fire alarm in the new room beeping intermittently. Thought oh god. Just ignored it and eventually it stopped.
Eventually we got up and headed for breakfast. There was no where to sit as an entire high school girl's sports team were staying and had taken over the breakfast room. Sat on a couch in reception eating which was slightly awkward.
Packed up for the final time and checked out at 9am.
Headed south towards New Haven to join the I95 into New York. Traffic was ok at this point. We made a quick stop at a Service Plaza at Darien just outside Stamford. Went to get a Starbucks which turned out to be the worst Starbucks in the world. There was a loud constant alarm going off which no one seemed to acknowledge. There were only two servers doing both inside and the drive through. They took forever. Eventually we had our order taken and then waited. And waited. And waited. Some people in the queue just walked out. Eventually the other server not the one who had taken our order noticed our order and actually made it. Ann said whatever we get, we're just going. Which we did. And it was poor.
Got in the car with the drinks and hit the road having what should have been a five minute stop turn into half an hour. As we pulled back onto the interstate we hit the traffic. Slowly eased forward and eventually got moving again. Crossed a bridge into Queens and saw Manhattan for the first time in four weeks. Stopped at the gas station to top up and then popped the car back to the rental place.
Met the same woman who had served us when we picked it up. Had a chat about where we had been.
Ann summoned an Uber and we headed to JFK. Traffic was appalling luckily I didn't have to drive.
Eventually got to the terminal and checked in at the Club World desk. Drank all the fluid we had and went through security.
Headed up to the Greenwich Lounge. Looked at the time. It was 1pm. Flight was at 8pm. Last time we flew out of JFK in 2012 we missed the flight. Look back at that year's blog for more detail. This time we had played it safe. Mainly due to the fact the car rental place shut at 1pm.
Discovered most of the USB ports in the lounge didn't work. Past the time. A lot of time.
After what seemed like a decade it was time to board. As normal no one follows the instructions of which groups are boarding. When we got on board we got to turn left for the first time ever as the finger didn't join at the front of the plane. This meant whilst we sat in what has now been christened 'Wanker class' by a colleague of mine, we didn't have to have scum class walk past us. At the end of boarding a bloke got on with his kids who then sat in front of us. Said to Ann is that Eddie Redmayne? He then hit his head on the overhead locker. Turns out it wasn't but looked like him and he had special treatment, so it must have been someone.
His young son was sat in front of me and spent a lot of time climbed up the back of his seat staring at me. Ann thought this was hilarious. I blanked him.
Took forty minutes to get to take off and about six and a half hours to make the journey. We just about spent more time in the lounge than we did in the air.
Deplaned, got through passport control and the baggage came out really quickly. Eventually found our way to the Elizabeth Line station and waited for the next train. It was busy but as we were at the first stop we got seats.
At Liverpool Street I heard a racist on the phone.
On the train to Stowmarket we heard a woman on the phone who spoke very loudly, mainly about an egg woman. The woman behind us muttered 'We don't need to know dear' to herself.
Arrived at Stowmarket to find the taxi company had no record of our booking. Luckily a bloke turned up with his taxi to see if there was anyone needing a lift from the station. We got in and got home. He was a nice guy and we had a chat about the States the whole way home.
Got in and watched Everton's first premier league game at Hill Dickinson Stadium. We won which is startling considering what we saw live in the States.
Now trying to stay awake as I got up 29 hours ago. Also hungry but having to wait for the Tesco delivery to turn up.
States visited - 14
Total mileage - 5598 miles
