Day 13: Travel Day
Welcome
Yesterday we left the United Kingdom and flew to the East Coast of the United States of America.
4.50am is one of the more classic lobby call times in band touring. Just as the high jump has its bar, and the long jump has its pit of quicksand, we had a predawn taxi to catch to the airport and in this case we can only be awarded the bronze medal because we somehow accidentally stole someone’s uber, and it was too small for all our equipment, and the driver was very unhappy.
We did make it to Heathrow on time, though, and we immediately sprang into action, splitting up to try and find the Customs and Exports office, to operate the carnet. After a thorough search it was determined to be located on the other side of security, so we instead headed over to the check in counters to begin the fabulous task of trying make airport computers process multiple oversize pieces of luggage. This process took nearly an hour but then we sailed through security and were in the departures area, once more on the look out for the Customs office. Our search took us down a long and secret corridor, at the end of which was a desk with a red phone, the customs phone. Jon picked up the handset, spoke a few words, and then a man emerged from a side door, ready to receive our carnet.
With this important step completed, we headed to our gate, a walk that was marked by the deafening sound of the wheels from my carry-on suitcase. These hard plastic rollers clacked and thwacked their way along the many travelators on the way to Concourse B, Terminal 2’s satellite pier, making the fifteen-minute walk vastly more enjoyable.
We had just enough time for a bite before our flight so I made use of my recently achieved gold status and headed up to the United lounge to attack the buffet. I began with two hashbrowns served with brown sauce and then moved to bircher muesli topped with coconut, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and dried goji berries and cranberries. Finally, I ended with a bowl of fruit salad, topped with natural yoghurt.
It was time for our flight to board, so we headed back to the gate and filed down the airbridge onto a United Airlines Boeing 767-300, where we were pleased to find the less common 2-3-2 seating configuration in the economy cabin. Soon we were all settled in, and our aircraft was taxiing around the perimeter of the airport, trying to find a free runway. We took off at 8am, ascending rapidly into a clear, blue sky, and catching a final glimpse of London’s Orbital Motorway as we headed west away from the city. Our ascent took us over the irregular farmland of southwest England, gradually merging into rugged hills and then we were out over the Celtic Sea, beginning the 5000km crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean.
We saw our first glimpse of land with a few hours remaining in the flight, the hazy grey form of Newfoundland just visible through a fine cloud cover. Novia Scotia was next and then we came down the coastline of Maine and saw the famous anchor shape of Cape Cod. The skyscrapers of Manhattan were just visible as we passed New York State, and then we were on approach to Dulles International Airport, to the west of Washington D.C.
Cape Cod.
It felt good to disembark after this eight-hour journey and we wearily walked along a series of corridors on the way to our domestic transfer. To our surprise we were led down another airbridge and embarked into what from the outside looked like a science fiction lunar mining vehicle but on the inside felt halfway between an airport lounge and a bus.
The Mobile Lounge is a Dulles Airport innovation that dates to 1962; a way of moving passengers from the terminal to an aircraft parked out on the parking ramp. Everyone would remain dry and thanks to the vehicle’s lifting mechanism they could board straight through the aircraft door, no stairs required. The advent of the airbridge rendered these shuttles obsolete fairly early in their lives but thankfully Dulles still retains them for inter-concourse transport, and we felt lucky to experience one of these relics of the jet age.
📷 Glenn Beltz
Immigration was swift and we waited for our bags while Jon disappeared into a back room to get the carnet stamped. As is customary when transferring to a domestic flight in the US you have to re-check all your luggage so we took our items up to oversize and sent them all back into the airport’s baggage transport and sorting system.
For the next six hours we waited until it was time for our flight, a pretty solid layover, but certainly improved by the fact that a couple of us now had gold status and could bring people into the United lounge. There was food, coffee, wifi, and comfortable seating and that was plenty to get us through to until the 7pm departure.
The Eero typeface used around Dulles International.
The Aero Train which connects the terminals at Dulles.
The comfortable seating of the United lounge.
The final hop took us northeast, up the coast to the state of Rhode Island. Our aircraft was a Bombardier CRJ550, a small, regional passenger jet, which carried us smoothly, albeit with a notable screeching sound that seemed to be coming from the emergency exit door. It was almost dark when we landed in Providence and the air was thick from the rain shower which had just passed through.
We were met at the baggage claim by our driver, organised by the Newport Folk Festival, and he took us out to a waiting Mercedes Sprinter, which to our surprise was actually a limo-van, with coloured cabin lights, tvs, an ice bucket, and a faux-leather bench seat to stretch out on. In the back of this fine vehicle we completed the final leg of our transatlantic voyage in luxury, enjoying the view out the windows as we drove alongside the Providence River
I’ll leave you in Art Corner with a nice piece, hung on the bathroom wall of our Sonesta Select Newport Middletown. As we all know, bathrooms are one of the places where the presence of an art piece can really make a difference, and there is no better example than this, the spread of golden ripples playing havoc with the rigid, white stripes of the wall upon which it is hung.
