A solo trip to America

My first time in the States, missing a flight and heading for the Great Smoky Mountains

It’s Wednesday night and I’m writing this from New York. New York!! Well, not quite New York… I’m at Newark airport, New Jersey, where I’ve unexpectedly got an extra four hours to kill after missing my connecting flight.

I think this is the first flight I’ve ever missed. That’s a miracle given that, for instance, when I went to Gran Canaria in February I was pulling into the cheapest car park, a 15 minute bus ride away from the airport, at 9.05 and my flight was at 10.10 and I still had a bag to check in. Interestingly (Is it interesting? Maybe not.) I used to be obsessively early for all modes of public transport, always. What went wrong?

I don’t think this one was my fault, though. There was a very tight connection and despite barging my way to the front of every queue and literally sprinting as fast as my legs would go between those queues, I couldn’t make it. I’d be interested to know if anybody else did make it. I’m not the fastest sprinter in the world, admittedly, and almost cert…