Another US trip report - but this one's about the home of disco balls and hand transplants

[NSun]

With quite a few other trip reports about US trips right now, I was tempted to wait a while to post this one. But I'm biting the bullet, because this one will be unique given a lot of it will be about Kentucky. Yes, Kentucky is the state of KFC and bourbon, but also the one that (according to our city tour guide) has the only disco ball factory in the world, gave us Hi-5's, Happy birthday song and hand transplants. To be fair, our guide admitted it was the 3rd worst city for driving and the first KFC outlet was actually in Utah. But it is a great place to visit and one I never would've but to visit a family friend there.

There'll also be a bit of Dallas, Chicago, Indianapolis, Nashville, Atlanta and New York. Beyond my sightseeing and catchups with loved ones, I'll also tell a bit about my adventures on Greyhound buses (I saw some interesting stuff) and my struggles to try and eat healthy, which isn't easy to do here, but also to find decent coffee. On the latter point, it has been 2 years since I last went there and I've finally fallen for the trap and begun drinking coffee - albeit mochas. So it is my first trip facing the dilemma many Australians have in the States. Or do they face it?

Let's go!

 

[NSun]

I went out on QF7. Only had a smoothie for breakfast. So I'll also share the dinner I had just a couple of weeks ago prior to a trip to New Zealand. Buffalo mozzarella, Lamb and vanilla ice cream profiterole. They all tasted great, but was disappointed with the portions.










Our aircraft was VH-ZNL which is actually in the first photo. I'd never been on that one before, so now I've only got ZNB, ZNG and ZNN to fly on before I've 'completed' the set of Dreamliners. It is hard to get a close-up shot of aircraft from Gates 8 and 9 - we used the latter.

I was in Premium Economy and in 21K, next to a fellow WP who seemed to be travelling in a group as he spent about half the flight in the business cabin talking to acquaintances. Was a beautiful morning to fly out of Sydney.



Gin & tonic with nuts to start. Then pumpkin ravioli - delicious.





Was a rough night's sleep - don't know how much I got, probably 4-5 hours and broken up a lot. It is always harder going east than west and also in northern summer when the US time difference is even greater. Our flight time was 14 hours and 59 minutes, longer than usual. We actually returned to the gate to offload a passenger then had to wait for a tug again. We didn't have to see the safety video twice but the cabin crew had to walk through the cabin to perform an extra round of safety checks. Took off 1.5 hours late and landed 50 minutes later, which would've led to many tight connections.

 

[NSun]

Arrived.





It is great that QF7 is timed back to the morning so there was no queue at immigration. Many of my friends were warning me about US customs since Trump returned. I had an interesting encounter, I got some guy who seemed bored but perhaps thought maybe he get a little kick out of particular encounters. Asked for me ESTA and told me,' You have to have a return flight to enter on an ESTA', and turned around the screen to show me it. I just showed him my return flights, looked at them for a moment then just waved me through. My attitude towards any immgiration officials is to be calm, honest and answer all their questions even if they're acting arrogant or trying to get you pissed off so they can not let you in, and it worked this time.

I was going to spent a night in Dallas so exited the airport and caught the DART into town. To get there, you need to catch an landside shuttle to Terminal A then walk. If you arrived on a domestic flight, you can catch the Skytrain to Terminal A then exit, but that is not an option when you're arriving internationally.





It is about an hour ride to get downtown. On the way there, we passed Las Colinas which seems to be to Dallas what Robina is to the Gold Coast - a planned community, only Texas' one had a convention centre of its own to boast of.



Made it to Downtown Dallas. First thing I did was see the place where JFK shot. Obvious stop, yes, but it was close to the 'DART station' where I got off.







Then went on a walk for a few blocks, stopping at a foot court to get some Indian to eat. Cost me US$20 including sales tax, drink and tip.

 

[NSun]

More of Downtown Dallas, and the Ellum district to the immediate east.













After a few hours, I got back on the DART to my hotel - the Holiday Inn in the Medical District. It hosts many hospitals, headed by Parkland that is the largest in the state and is also the hospital JFK got taken to after being shot. And there are memorials there too.