GA to GA (Gatwick to Georgia)

I really didn't sleep too well last night (got to be at 11.00pm and was up at 2.00am for half an hour) so when my alarm went off at 4.30am (11.30pm US time!) I already felt shattered! The taxi arrived 10 minutes early so I had a 20 minute wait at the station and then had to change trains at London Bridge. There was only 4 minutes between the trains but thankfully I made the connection and got to Gatwick Airport by 7.10am. Check-in and security were relatively quick so by 8.00am I was having breakfast and relaxing!

My 10.00am flight took off about 20 minutes late and as there were headwinds they said that it was going to be a nine and a half hour flight! I'm quite used to 7 hours to NYC (or sometimes 6 flying home) so that seemed quite a long trip. I haven't flown Delta before but the staff were great and there was lots of food! The downside was that there were no screens in the back of the chairs so we were limited to a couple of films, neither of which I was interested in.

We landed only 15 minutes late at 3.00pm (Atlanta is on the same time as NYC which is 5 hours behind London) but it wasn't until 5.00pm that I actually left the airport! There were really long queues at Immigration and they had 4 people checking our forms were completed correctly but nobody directing which line people should join so it was a total mess! Thankfully the guy didn't give me the 3rd degree today - I've travelled to US so often that sometimes they really quiz me. He did say that he hadn't heard of Kasim Sulton and then asked me if he played Christian music which isn't the first type I would have thought of with that name!

After I'd collected my suitcase and gone through the agriculture part I then had to recheck my suitcase and go through security (including taking off my shoes) to enter the airport! How I could have got any weapons whilst flying over the Atlantic is beyond me! I then had to travel to another terminal to collect my suitcase again! I collected my car and drove to my motel which was only about 2 minutes away. I'm just staying at a cheap Motel 8 as it's only for one night. It's quite a good standard and has wireless Internet so I'm happy! I was supposed to be meeting some people for dinner but I don't really have the time now so I may see them afterwards.

I hope this gig isn't the zoo it sounds like it will be....