Arriving in America

with No Comments

After a fairly comfortable flight we arrived at Miami airport and I got my first glimpse of the country that dominates the world!

The first thing I noticed were the yellow taxies outside the airport – just like the New York cabs you see in the movies. Very bizarre. I would have felt like I was driving through a movie set had the first part of Miami I saw not been a bit scabby! We went to pick up our car in an industrial estate near the airport, all around were large buildings with messy concrete expanses out front. Nothing seemed glamorous in the slightest.

We checked in at the car rental office and discovered that our gold car cover didn’t include breakdowns. So if their hire car failed us we were responsible for the cost of recovering and repairing the car – how ridiculous. Very politely I told the assistant so, then through gritted teeth handed over my credit card and paid the extra money for the breakdown cover. We were told to go to the ‘full size’ row and pick any car we wanted, all the keys were in the cars!

I looked at the row of saloon cars with massive expanses of boot sticking out the back and zero reversing sensors. Not only was I going to be driving an automatic in a strange country on the wrong side of the road but I was also going to have to deal with a car the size of a small aircraft! How I wished for my little (REAL) Mini. Then I spotted it – a hideous orange Chevrolet something or other – but it didn’t have a massive boot sticking out the back, problem solved. Although dad didn’t look so happy at having to drive it, oh well he put me as the lead name on the car hire plus he can’t reverse to save his life!

I was nominated as driver and I jumped into the wrong side of the car adjusted my mirrors and prepared to set off. As I edged out of the car hire office onto the main road I realised just in time I was looking the wrong way for oncoming traffic and stopped just before I pulled onto three lanes of oncoming traffic. I was careful to make sure I was always positioned in the middle of the road and began making my way to our hotel without further incident – apart from us getting mega lost!

We eventually found our way onto the correct freeway amidst many cross words between me and Dad who was supposed to be navigating. But it fell to me to read the map when we stopped at traffic lights as Dad didn’t seem to have a clue how the American road signs worked! We passed two accidents and navigated our way around numerous women driving Mercs while talking on the phone and swerving all over the road – I was actually quite surprised to find moronic drivers drive the same cars in America as the do in England!

Luckily we managed to bump into the hotel at the end of the freeway – a very good thing as we didn’t have any detailed road map to speak of. The car was valet parked and we made our way into a massive plush hotel lobby and checked in.

The rooms were amazing. A two bedroom apartment with two separate bathrooms and a jacuzzi bath in the room I shared with Naomi – a much appreciated relaxation tool later that night.

By the time we’d checked in and gawped at the room it was time for dinner. But first Naomi and I had to drag Dad and Uncle John out of the hotel bar.

We ate dinner in a restaurant on a pier near the hotel. The views looking over Miami Beach at the skyscrapers in the distance appearing to almost rise from the water into the sky were beautiful. But the food was decidedly average and didn’t taste of a lot. Once dinner was digested it was definitely time for bed. It may have still been early in America but it was about 4am in England and my body still though I was at home. After my jacuzzi bath I flopped into bed and fell almost immediately asleep. Tomorrow was an early start as we were off alligator watching in the Everglades.

* Posted by j150vsc on 16/05/2008.
* 1 comment

Leave a Reply