CA - Possibly, Maybe, Now Definitely! Day 1

[tonymc]

Day 1: The Loooong Day

Trip Index here.

5:30am and the two ladies in shock - having very rarely seen that time of morning - when I told them what time they would have to be up at.

And so, with teenager up and all of us ready, we were off at 06:15 to Manchester Airport, and even on a bank holiday week in the school summer holidays, traffic at the M61/M60 junction was almost at a standstill!

However, we still made Manchester by our 07:00 M&G time, car collected, cases dropped with the BA desk and checked through to SFO, and security cleared by 07:30. Gave us time to grab a coffee and share a sandwich before our short flight to LHR. This was only half full at best, left on time, arrived into Heathrow on time.

Using the airside transfer bus between T5 and T3 meant that we used the much less busy security area, so we're across and sitting in LHR T3 within 30 minutes. Again time for a drink and snack before making our way down to the departure gate around 11:00 for our 11:50 departure.

Minimal queues at the gate, and despite Joanne and Alex's hopes, no offer of a free upgrade to Upper Class. However, at least we didn't have to walk through the upper class cabin to get to PE - I would never have been forgiven. Having checked in online yesterday, I had noticed that the three rows of seats behind us in our originally chosen middle row were empty, so changed ours to the row behind on the reckoning that we wouldn't have anyone reclining in front of us. As it turned out, the PE cabin was only half full, so it meant that those in the middle row could sit 2 or 1 on alternate rows and not recline into someone else's lap!

Really decent flight - pushed off dead on time, excellent service by the Cabin crew with drinks shortly after take off, lunch served about an hour after, a couple of drinks runs including a hot snack about half way through, then afternoon tea 1-1/2 hours before landing.

We arrived at SFO and had the doors open spot on our scheduled 15:05 arrival time. One of the ground crew told us immigration would be a 40 minute wait, but with few U/C and fellow PE travellers in front of us, we were hoping it would be less. The now regular Peter Kay "dad walk/jog" to immigration found us arriving in a completely empty hall.

As existing ESTA holders, we used the Automatic Passport Control kiosks which took around 5 minutes, and gave us a lovely souvenir receipt with a horrendous photo each (think of Shrek and Donkey entering Dulac! ).

With that, it was follow the Disney-esque rope queue to a free Borders Officer who merely asked us the purpose of our visit, how long and where we we staying and then wished us a pleasant stay.

As we arrived in baggage claim, we could see two of our bags already on the carousel, and the third arrived shortly after. With bags, just had to see the people who check for any illegal bits and pieces in your luggage and that was it - 20 minutes from leaving the plane to leaving the arrivals area!

It was then a case of catching the Airtrain over to the Car Rental Center, where again our rental desk (National) had no-one waiting. A quick try at up selling additional insurance and breakdown cover (both declined), and we were ready to go... and here's where it all starts unraveling!

Joanne realises that the bag she had some of her stuff in was missing, and we reckoned it had been left on the Airtrain. A call to the staff confirmed it had already been found, and we were given instructions to go back three stations and a me member of staff would be waiting with it.

Whilst Joanne did this, I took the liberty of nipping to the garage to select our car - we were offered a Lincoln SUV which was booked as a Medium SUV but was significantly larger than Joanne's own Honda CRV at home. I picked up the keys and went back to wait with Alex for Joanne...and waited... a little bit longer, for about 30 minutes.

Fortunately everything was intact, so the car swallowed all four cases with ease and we set sail, only to get stuck behind two rentals who seemed to be doing the transaction at the exit booth. Another 15 minutes wasted before we hit the road.

At first, we thought we had a problematic external temperature indicator as it was showing almost 40 degC! However, tuning in to a local station, it appears it is unseasonably hot in San Fran, with temperatures forecast to reach up to 45 deg C over the weekend - fortunately they are returning to the more pleasant 25 deg C when we return in 12 days!

And onto the 101 southbound. We were hoping for a reasonably clear run through, but our delays probably put a stop to that. We only managed a few miles before we hit traffic queues, and it continued like this up to San Jose airport, taking us well over 1h 45 minutes to do the 34 miles. It was little better after, taking us almost an hour to do the next 30 odd miles, at which point Alex had either fallen asleep or passed out through lack of food (not having had afternoon tea), and Jo and myself were also feeling hungry.

Having not seen anything in good time over this distance, we finally saw a sign showing McDs sponsoring a highway clearance scheme, so reckoned one wouldn't be far away at the next junction. As we exited from the queue of traffic at Gilroy, we noticed a Chillis on the opposite side in a retail park, so made the quick detour round.

The restaurant was fairly empty, so we were seated right away. Drink and food orders were also taken quickly and we made our usual schoolboy/girl errors of ordering too much! A ribs/chicken combo for myself, chicken tenders for Alex and 4 sliders fo Jo, all with the usual fries and corn.

Suitably stuffed, we set forth again but to find that the queue had disappeared, which allowed us to cruise at a steady 65-70(-ish! ) mph for the next 120 miles. And naturally, not having spotted eating places for almost 3 hours, every junction seemed to have one now!

However, when the mapping app told us to leave the 101, I was a little suspicious as we hadn't yet seen any Pismo Beach signs, and sure enough, the programmer of said app had entered an incorrect zip code - we were 30 miles short!

So at 22:00, another 30 minutes added on, but fortunately again on a fairly empty 101. We eventually made Pismo Beach, but not before realising that the zip code seemed to cover the entire Pismo Beach area. Putting in the correct address meant another 2 miles south before we finally saw the Hilton Garden Inn, pulling in at 22:40 - exactly 6 hours after leaving SFO!

Fortunately, some of the problems of the journey were forgotten with the warm welcome we received. As the room had been booked using Hilton Honors points, there was little to do other than verify the credit card and hand us our room keys and some complimentary water.

And TBH, we were that tired, it was straight to bed. In hindsight, I realised we had been on the go for some 26 hours, so it was no wonder we were feeling tired and frazzled!

[Melbatb]

-what a long day! You must have been shattered!

Glad the bag was found - that would have not been a good start orherwise!

[spenners]

Wow what a long day. Looking forward to reading the rest of your report.

[Pussycat Doll]

Really long day for you guys! Immigration sounds like it was a breeze! Hope you slept well!

[tonymc]

Defintely one of the longest travel days! Just about recovering after a visit to the Chrrscake Factory last night, merely across the road from us!

[carolynne67]

Wow, a really long day for you. Looking forward to reading more, have a great time.
Carolynne

[jocat]

That was brave going, doing all that travelling on one day! Good on you though, as it means your holiday can start properly now.

[tonymc]

Originally Posted by carolynne67

Wow, a really long day for you. Looking forward to reading more, have a great time.
Carolynne

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Originally Posted by jocat

That was brave going, doing all that travelling on one day! Good on you though, as it means your holiday can start properly now.

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Hindsight being a wonderful thing, we would have stopped nearer the airport rather than driving so far. It was really due to concerns over the level of traffic around LA and the beaches for Labor Day weekend that prompted us to get as far south as possible.

As it turned out, the traffic on the Friday was nowhere near as bad as I had been led to believe!

[Disney Wishing]

Wow you're not kidding with the title a long day! Peter Kay jog/walk

[Glee Fan]

Long old day! Glad that the bag was handed in! No wonder you were all shattered.