American History Road Trip

[CrispyA]

We love our road trips and this one sounds great. Look forward to hearing all about it - have a wonderful time!

[Grapesoda]

Hold up... Ade plucks your eyebrows!

[Redrach1903]

Its going to be a very different holiday , but also lots of fun and new memories to be made

What a shame that your family aren't going to Orlando with you next year anymore! Boo!

xx

[pinkstargirl]

Looking forward to this - I love your trip reports!

[miss_mouse]

Hello lovely Dibbers!

With just 2 weeks to go, I guess it's time to update this Pre Trippie.
I'd planned to document so much more than what I have, but I was desperately trying to finish my Orlando trippie and I've been swamped with work, then I got a nasty cold last week.
So, 2 weeks to go and here I am.
Glass of wine in hand and adding a little more before we head off.

I only touched on our plans before, so here's the nitty gritty:

Leaving:
We have booked a taxi to pick us up from home and take us to Heathrow. We are only 30 mins away, so this seemed like the easiest option. The taxi guy is my inlaws neighbour and is just charging us £95 there and back.

We are flying with Virgin again. Bumping up those airmiles!
I would love to say it's been as smooth as all the previous flight, but I'd be lying unfortunately.

It all started after we had booked our flights.
I really can't be bothered to go in to it all now, but we've had lots of problems. It's all to do with our Delta Codeshare on the way back. Delta and Virgin had different rules that even the staff are unaware of. It's caused lots of worry, stress and time.
I ended up needing to cancel at one point and had to have a new ticket booked, so I'm on a separate booking to the others.
This seemed fine, until Delta kept changing their flight times and planes on the way back and our seats were changed each time and every time I went in to check I had to change our seats so that we were seated together again.

I was concerned about the return as with a change it gave us only 1hr10 mins in Atlanta to connect.
We are flying home from Nashville and it's only international from there, so we are connecting in Atlanta.

I was so relieved when I checked one Sunday evening only to notice that the times had changed again and we only had 49mins connecting time and I knew it was a 1hr minimum connecting time.

I called Virgin. What a faff!
He was only able to change my flight. Said the others had to be changed by Delta.
So we went to bed with me travelling on a different flight home to everyone else.
The next day I called Delta in the US who after 30 mins said Virgin had to do it, called Virgin who said it was Delta.

To cut a very long story short it took until Thursday to get it sorted.
So much messing around.
So we now have 3hr20 mins between flights which we are much happier with.

We paid £699 each for flights and paid extra for the extra legroom seats.
These have really increased from the £25 each back in October 2014. It's now £40 each, one way.

And a total of £276 with Delta.

NYC

We have booked a taxi shuttle through Attractions Limited Direct to collect us from JFK. This was £12 each.

We are staying at Radio City Apartments.
It doesn't look fancy, but the location is great and we have an apartment, so I'm hoping with the 4 of us it will be a little more roomy than the general hotel room in NYC.
We have 2 queen beds and a bed sofa and a kitchen area too.
It does get great reviews on trip advisor.

We have 3 nights here and plan to cram in as much as poss.
We've booked crown access for Liberty and we also have TOTR tickets.
We still aren't sure if we will go up the Empire State.
I've done it before and the others aren't fussed.

I've bought dinner tickets for Hard Rock.
£15 each which includes a main, cookie and a drink plus priority seating.

Our NYC Bucket list is:

- Financial District
- Liberty & Ellis Island
- Louis wants to see the building that is used for Brooklyn 99 (over in Brooklyn) Apart from celebrity spotting, that's his only wish.
- Ade would like to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge
- Chelsea Market plus the High Line

- Central Park
Lots of bridges, sit on the steps of the history museum (Reference -Night at the Museum)
- My wish is to see Belvedere Castle

- Grand Central Station
- ESB
- Shake Shack in Madison Square Park

- Hollie wants to shop
- TOTR

Foodie wise:

- Shake Shack
- Hard Rock
- Possibly Ellen's
- Fluffy's for breakie
- Pizza
- Magnolia Bakery
- Street Meat
- We've decided not to queue for a Cronut, but going to find a Doughnut Plant instead

Washington DC

We are collecting a car from Newark Airport on the Saturday.
We have booked with Avis and have a Tahoe booked for just under £800 for 7 days.

It's a 3.5hr drive to our hotel in DC.
We've found an Earl of Sandwich to stop at half way through the trip

We are staying at the Courtyard Marriott for 2 nights.
We've already paid £240.
The hotel looks nice and has a pool and a Starbucks on site.

It's just a 0.6 mile (about 10 minutes) walk to the White House and the same in the other direction to the Lincoln Memorial.

The plan is to get there for the afternoon and make the most of our time.
We have a dinner res in the evening for Clydes.
clydes/

Seeing as it's Easter weekend, I thought I'd rather be prepared.

It's in Georgetown and looks lovely.
It's a 30 min walk back, so we plan to walk back via the White House to see it in the dark.

The next day is our only full day.
We know we won't get it all done, but we just want to be laid back and enjoy. I think this will be somewhere that Ade and I will go back to in the future.

We have a dinner res at Founding Farmers.
wearefoundingfarmers/locations/dc/

Road Trip
The next day is the start of our long roadtrip.
828 miles.

5.5 hrs is planned for day one.
We have the journey planned with lots of stops.
We've booked another Marriott in the midst of lots of lovely US chain restaurants, so we'll have our pick

The next day we plan to get an early start.
We'll have a 6.5hr drive.
We'll be going through Virgina, Tennesse and Kentucky and finshing at Dad's in Evansville, Indiana.
We want to make sure we arrive in the light.

Staying at Dad's

Here we have planed...

- Cave in the Rock
en.wikipedia/wiki/Cave-in-Rock_State_Park
- Louisville
- Kentucky fried Chicken in Kentucky
- Bowling and Cinema with Dad
- Shopping
- Visit Dad's work
There are several places when I've spoken to Dad over the 21yrs that I regularly hear about or get photos sent from, so these I want to see with him which are...
- I've asked to go to his Taco Bell where he sometimes has lunch at work.
- Visit his local IHOP for breakfast
- Go to his Texas Roadhouse for a steak
- He wants to take us to Hooters for Louis' first Hotters experience
- And Louis, Ade and I want to go to the shooting range

Home Time

We are leaving Dad's a day early, with Dad and his wife.
We are flying from Nashville, so they suggested that we all stay in Nashville over night as a treat.
Our flight isn't until late afternoon, so this should work well.

Then Nashville - Atlanta - Heathrow

So that's our plans

Thanks so much for your lovely comments.
Sorry I haven't replied individually but I do appreciate you reading and commenting.

Right now, the boys are due home from footy training and my wine glass is empty... time to go

Cheers
xxx

[Fuellady]

It all sounds like a great adventure. You have so much to do, but I'm sure you'll have loads of fun along the way. Love the plans for NYC

It will be lovely to spend time with you Dad and see all his favourite places

[miss_mouse]

Originally Posted by Fuellady

It all sounds like a great adventure. You have so much to do, but I'm sure you'll have loads of fun along the way. Love the plans for NYC

It will be lovely to spend time with you Dad and see all his favourite places

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Thanks Lynda,

Yes there are a lot plans.
I just hope it all runs smoothly.
Fingers crossed!

Are you back to Orlando this year?

[Fuellady]

Originally Posted by miss_mouse

Thanks Lynda,

Yes there are a lot plans.
I just hope it all runs smoothly.
Fingers crossed!

Are you back to Orlando this year?

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Hi Lisa, I'm sure with your amazing planning skills it will all go to plan

We are off to Orlando in June this year, so a big change for us in terms of weather. Looking forward to it though

[MarionG]

It sounds like a fantastic trip. I know Orlando is ingrained in your heart but there is always next year to look forward too.
Look forward to the Trip Report!

[miss_mouse]

Originally Posted by MarionG

It sounds like a fantastic trip. I know Orlando is ingrained in your heart but there is always next year to look forward too.
Look forward to the Trip Report!

See more...

Thank you so much.

Happy am amazing birthday celebration by the way xx