The day i became the bag lady.

So today i booked my tickets to America for my next little holiday and it reminded me of my first trip to America and the adventure i had on the way there. Its one of my favourites and one i thought i would share with you.

The day i became the bag lady.....

When I first met Becka she had had her luggage stolen and was traveling Europe with a day pack and a plastic bag. By the time i left her she had a day pack and about three different plastic bags full of clothes (we had found the shops of Czech republic). But even then my huge backpack next to her stuff looked like I was carrying the kitchen sink.

She was the person I was going to visit in America. But first I was spending some time in Nicaragua visiting Martina. That is another story but where this one starts.

Martina and I went out for a huge night on my last night in Nicaragua. Few bottles of rum later found us dancing away at the local night club. Where I decided that it would be nice of me to give my handbag to a girl as a substitute for not letting her kiss me (well we assume shes the one who stole my bag im not sure any of our group remembered to ask if it had been handed in at the bar I think we all assumed everyone else had and I couldn’t speak Spanish to ask anyway!)  So we decided it would be a good time to leave especially as I was also having trouble walking as had taken a huge chunk out of the bottom of my foot (stu, gareth yes I know you always warned me dancing bare foot wasn’t a good thing!)

So limping home with a bad case of hiccups, bit disappointed that I had lost my little camera but knowing it was my own fault for leaving it unattended and realizing I was going to have to find some way to cancel my credit card before getting on the plane. When one of our group who was walking us home all of a sudden said this is where I parked my car…its not there. Hmmm my troubles all of a sudden became nothing.

Home we go, I pass out trying not to think of how I was going to get my bag out of the locker without a key.

Finally register that there is an annoying noise going on and I have been turning it off for a long time. Look at my mobile…oh oh I have been hitting snooze for the last half hour (luckily I set my alarm before going out and set it earlier than needed whew.) remember that there is a taxi coming for me in the next half hour. Ive set my shower stuff out ready on the bed (yep fell asleep on top of it!) grab that, hobbling along as cant walk on my foot. Cold water shower so cant really wash it properly but it sure wakes me up!

Back to my room….hhhmmm need to get to my bag…..luckily the lady who owns the place has spare keys! Oh no my passport it locked in my bag…cant find padlock keys..starting to panic that they were in my bag as well as the locker key…nope under my pillow gee I must have known I was going to loose that bag.

Don’t really remember packing, no idea how I got it all to fit in that bag. Wake martina say goodbye still with major case of hiccups. Ladies in hostel laughing at me and demonstrating I need to drink out of wrong side of cup…hmm be ok if I had some time and drinkable water!

Taxi man is laughing at me telling me I need to drink ‘agua’ with very limited Spanish, pidgen English and sign language I explain we had had a big night of drinking…he tells me off!!! Not good. Hes only a few years older than me!

Ok cant handle these hickups anymore but have lost all my cordobas in my handbag. Hmmm open my wallet…ahhh credit card! Didn’t take it or my ID out last night…thank goodness for that! Hand the taxi man a US dollar bill and ask him to get ‘agua’ for me. He pulls over and buys me a big bottle and even gives me the change lovely man.

2 hours to airport. Its 8.30 in the morning no idea how much sleep we had.  Get a bit concerned when I think the taxi man is asking me to stay and marry him. I pretend not to understand and hide in my back corner of the car and look out the window.

Get to airport with plenty of time. It was an 1.5 hour taxi ride…only 25 pounds! They ask me for some sort of immigration paper…oh was I meant to keep that..oh oh…its ok just fill out a new one for me whew…pretending to be a bimbo works sometimes!

Feeling really spaced out I go and wait for the plane. Coffee and cake turns out be my last food for a long time.  Really scared that not everything is in my bag as it all seemed to fit too well but well cant do anything about it now.

Ok now my plane flight here hadn’t been the most stable and well no idea if it was the plane or my fragile state (or a mixture of both) but I was so sick on the take off and landing.

Get to Miami. Think that im arriving at 2.30pm and think im flying out at 6.25 so take my time walking to immigration instead of the usual running…hmmm not a good idea get to immigration and I see by the clock I have arrived at 4.30pm not 2.30pm

The hostess had handed me an immigration form while I was asleep its in Spanish so I grab the English equivalent and fill it out in line. Getting real edgy as its now very close to 5pm and I still need to get my boarding pass and my bag on the plane. Get to guy, do you have a visa, no visa for USA (what?!) Ahh you Australian, you need to fill out a green form go back and fill it out and come back to front of the line, ok the panic is starting to set in I have another two flights to make after this one, I cant miss it!

Fill out form quickly, get back and the damn guy is going on break they have to log out etc. New lady yells at me as I haven’t filled out all the form, (didn’t know there was a back there wasn’t on the other one) and I also don’t have a destination address. Back out of the line I go, throw my stuff on the floor, a guy comes over and says are you ok, im almost crying as I dont have an address and have to catch my plane.  Tell him I have to catch a flight at 18.25 its ok you have time he says and no you cant use a P.O box as your address (the only one I have for becka), ‘come over to the counter cant have you sitting on the floor’, ‘here ring her on my phone’, I scare the hell out of becka as I sound in such a panic.

Ok all done through I go grab my bag race to customs…’do you have food or alcohol in your bag?’..no…I do but have no time to go through customs. Drop my bag off to the people. Race out and cant find damn place to get boarding pass, see board…damn my flight is at 18.05….i have half an hour, no idea who im flying with guess American airlines as I have a quantas ticket and no one knows them here, Cant find the place some lady asks me ‘oh my gosh whats wrong’ my face must look horrible! Sends me to a lady who decides to have a rant cause she hasn’t had a break and some girl thinks she can push in to the front of the line as her plane leaves soon, she wasn’t going to help me but I kept being pushy…I don’t have a bag to check lady I just need a ticket…oh ok here you go oh and you better run. (all in a sarcastic voice of course but I got my ticket and that’s all that matters.) Grrrr

Race though airport to security, say to guy my placn leaves at this time, ‘no stay in line you will make it’. I have 20 min before the plane leaves. But it’s a domestic flight so the security actually wasn’t too bad. Realise that I still have sunscreen and aeroguard in my bag! Damn they are over the limit oh well they have made it through one scanner im sure they can make it through another.

They don’t find my stuff and I didn’t have to empty my bag, pull my boots on who cares about the laces and off I race. Get to the plane with 15 min whew!!! Man this isn’t doing my foot any good.

Nope no food on this one either, 5 hour flight next to some huge guy who wants to talk, thank goodness I wasn’t sick on take off this time I would have hated to have that for every flight.  15 min late arriving.

Get off plane have 1 and 3/4 hour exactly to pick up luggage and check in to next flight (realize now I could probably have checked luggage the whole way but thought I couldnt due to different airlines and tickets.)

Hmm no bag….they’ve turned off machine, few of us standing around with no bags….45 min till plane leaves…damn it, Thing was I had a feeling I was going to loose my bag somewhere this trip. Thank goodness it wasn’t in Nicaragua.

Go check in to next flight as I have to make that flight. Leave the lady with my bag ticket as I have ten min to find it and bring it back to her.

Nope no bag.  Go to lost luggage people, huge line as lots of us with no bags from that flight.  Lovely guy lets me go next as I have another flight to catch. Lady races through my form and says they will send it to beckas place (as I now have her address thanks to immigration). Turns out one of the baggage carts got sent to the wrong terminal and they will be 20min to an hour at least idiots! nope no time for that!) Run through airport again security man sees my face and looks at my ticket and lets me jump the line. (at least I burning off all the calories from the alcohol but I would love some food its been 10 hours!) oh and once again I make it through with my sunsceen and areoguard so much for scanners.

Get to flight with 15 min to go and they are still boarding, ask if I can purchase some food on board, nope not on this flight sorry. Where then as its 11pm and everything is closed…maccas is back down the hall (damn it I haven’t eaten maccas for 2 years but I cant wait another 4 hours).

Race back down there, impatiently waiting for them to cook my food, race back and get on board, takes for ever I didn’t need to run! Find out that im very lucky and the reason this plane is chockers is that the airline had cancelled at least 100 flights that day due to bad weather. Whew I didn’t need to deal with that as well.

Arrive at Charlotte finally after one more much more relaxed plane change. Totally over flying at this time. Its now 8am local time. After all the changes Ive made I have no idea what time I feel it should be. Its great getting off the plane and not having to worry about luggage.  Check with the lady nope there is no note that your luggage has been found yet. I greet Becks with nothing but my day pack and a tripod... 'Remeber when we met you had only a day pack.. well its my turn now'

Wish I had some clothes though as all that running and sleeping and the fact it freezing cold. Luckily Becka has been virtually living out of her car for the last couple of days so she has extra clothes. Ring and get told my luggage has been found it didn’t arrive until 12am, I flew out at 11pm it must have not have made the plane in the first place. So its on its way but prob wont arrive till Sunday it is now Friday. Hmmm Oh I get $50 for that….not much but it will do between borrowing becks stuff and heading to wallmart! Yep I get the real American experience of shopping at wallmart and they do have everything!

By the time I finally get to Becks place 2 days later and get my bag I have gone mad buying stuff and now look exactly like Becks did when I left her in Europe! Day pack and bags of souvenirs and clothes.  And she looks like me as she had no time to pack properly and has a huge black bag full of clothes! Now to see if I can get it all to fit on my already full backpack! Oh and somehow the only thing that seems to be missing from my bag is my face wash and my padlocks. I was worried it may have all ‘gone missing’ on the way.  

Unfortunately as far as we are aware no photos were taken of either Becka or I in this unfortunate state so the above image will have to suffice.