Friday 11th: Left my New York hotel at 7.20 am and went to get in the wrong side of the shuttle that was to take me to the airport and Nashville. An attractive young girl who was sitting in the van said to me, “Are you Australian?” I said, “How did you guess?” she said “Cos you got in the wrong side of the car." I said, “Wow yours is the first Aussie accent I’ve heard in 2 weeks.” Anyway, we started chatting the whole way to the airport and she told me how she had ben there for 2 months looking around and having a great time and how she vowed to come back. I told her I had been there for nearly 2 weeks and had had a fantastic time and that I was heading off to Nashville for a few weeks for hopefully a white Xmas and then coming back to New York. I also told her my daughter was joining me in Nashville for Xmas then coming back with me to NYC. She asked me where I lived and I told her Sydney and she said “Me too” and then she said “Whereabouts in Sydney?” and I said “In the Sutherland Shire” and she said “No way” and I said “Why?” and she said “Is your daughter Jessica?” ...To say my jaw hit the floor is an understatement ..I was gob smacked!! Chantelle is her name and she is one of my daughter’s best friends who was supposed to meet Jessica in NYC and spend a couple of days with her before returning home. Who would’ve believed huh??
The flight was uneventful and I was picked up at the airport by a great long time friend of mine Joe Lamont (who manages a lot of big name U.S. performing and recording artists) of whom I will be a house guest for the next few weeks...lucky Joe ehhh??
We went back to his beautiful home in Brentwood. I told him I needed to buy some warm clothes so he took me a place called TJ Max...Much in the same way we have a place in Oz called DFO which has a whole lotta stores which act as clearing houses for designer brands (but I have to say I’ve never found any cheaper than the shopping mall prices) TJ Max is a clearing house for all the brands such a Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, etc etc and the prices have to be seen to be believed ...Guess and Hilfiger jeans $19.99...Shoes reduced by up to 90% (and great stuff, not crap) Needless to say I bought a shitload...so I really hope we have a bitterly cold winter in Sydney...haha
Sat 12th - Wed 16th: Nothing of any consequence to report here..Just hung out at the house and listened to music and drank good red wine..Not all day of course...only at night..went to different shopping places during the day. Tried to get tix to Wicked in NYC for the 30th but could only get crappy seats so Joe called his friend Lyle in LA and as Lyle is best friends with Steven Schwartz (the guy who wrote the show) we were able to get the seats reserved for him every night..4 rows from the front dead centre...now that’s cool.
Thursday 17th: I decided I wanted to get out into the country and see and meet the real folk of this great and diverse country. I rented a “standard” size car for 2 days. They brought out a Mazda people mover and I thought not quite what I wanted but hey it’s high off the ground and that might be a good thing seeing it will be difficult at first driving on the opposite side of the road. The problems started when I hit the freeway!! I did a “pin on the map” sort of thing and landed on Louisvile, Kentucky... Famous for Mahommad Ali and yes you guessed it - Kentucky Fried Chicken. It’s about a 5 hour drive from Nashville. Well, back to the problems I encountered. The road noise from the tyres on the car was deafening once I hit 50 mph (80k) so I pulled into a quaint little town called Bowling Green and rang the car rental place and they organized for me to replace the car there. When I went to their other office in Bowling Green they gave me - get this- a brand new Pontiac GTS V6 Turbo BEAST. Oh my god...What a firecracker!!! When I overtook a truck at say 60 mph by the time I got to the front of the truck I’d be doing 120 mph...It was F-A-S-T!! I've always been used to relatively quick cars but this thing was ridiculous.
With my concentration level so high I was starting to feel tired about 5pm so found a Hampton Inn (owned by the Hilton chain) and checked in. To my frustration the internet didn’t work in the room and there were hairs in the bath...you know what kind I mean.
When I checked out the next morning the receptionist asked me how I enjoyed my stay and I told her what I found and they comped me...a freebie!!
I left about 8.30 am and thought I’d head to Roswell, Alabama then I remembered that the Roswell I wanted to see was in New Mexico...scratch that!!! So I just drove due west for about 7 hours or so and went through Idaho and ended up for the night in a lovely little town called Harrisberg, Illinois. The beauty of the countryside was breathtaking. Rolling green hills as far as the eye could see. When I got to my room I decided to check and see if my results from Macquarie Universty were there yet and guess what??? They were and I now have my Masters Degree...so good on me ..all that pain and sacrifice was worth it! It started snowing quite heavily through the night so rather than continue my trek I thought I should head back to Nashville as I didn’t have any experience driving in snow at speed so thought it the smartest thing to do. I was only about 5 hours from Nashville so I left at 6.30 am cos I had to have the car back by 11am. So now it’s Sunday and all up to date. Cheers. Standby for the next instalment ....Next Sunday..Oh and Merry Christmas everyone
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