Day 0 - Thursday 4 January 2024

Well, the big day has come to take that first small step on my giant journey.

I was all packed yesterday, but wasn't happy with what I'd done, so that was redone this morning after omitting some items that were taking up inordinate amounts of space; a full sized tripod was a bit unnecessary as I doubt I'd have used it, and a few other space-hungry items found themselves back in storage ..... the bag closed a whole lot more easily once I'd revisited it this morning.

Mum arrived at 11.00, and after double checking everything that went into my hand luggage (yes, I have remembered to pack my passport) gave me a lift to the railway station for my 13.00 train; the journey was simple .... first leg to London Liverpool Street, and then a transfer to the Elizabeth line for the onwards transfer to London Heathrow.

Unfortunately, there was an 'incident' at Chelmsford where someone had come into contact with a train, so the line was closed while that incident was resolved. Off the train at Colchester as it was heading back to Norwich, and a local service to Witham before a double decker transfer around Chelmsford and to Shenfield. 

As luck would have it, Shenfield is the end of the Lizzie Line, so I was able to get that straight through to Heathrow T2 and T3, where I then caught the hourly 'Hotel Hoppa' coach (yes, you guessed it ... I missed one by five minutes so had a 55 minute wait) which has bought me to my residence for the evening, the Raddison Hotel and Conference Centre, where I arrived at 18.30.

A quick beer and meal before retiring to the room to check in for tomorrows flight to Los Angeles, and starting the habit of journaling my adventures. 

Just a quick post to start with now that I'm on the road; the nerves I've had for the last few weeks seem to be gone now that I'm on my way. Next time I comment will be in just over 24 hours in Los Angeles for my one and only night this trip in the USofA.