Having a ball with the locals in the “Land of the Free and Plenty/Paranoid”

A two month trip takes a lot of planning to get the details right, not to mention expense, patience and more than a couple of plane trips in a lot of cases. 2014 saw our member Erkpod head off on what some might say is the trip of a lifetime, experiencing a convention in Las Vegas and a Cruise from Florida.

Often I read here about the trips themselves but not always about the preparation & planning into a trip. Here is my story about my upcoming trip to America.

As the poem goes, the best laid plans of mice and men, often goes awry, and soon enough Erkpod‘s work saw his plans needing to have an expensive change of dates, thanks to leave being approved then unapproved. Apparently your meant to know that you will need to work on New Years Eve 6 months out! So departure was put back to New Years Day. It always pays to check the change/cancellation fees no matter who you book with, some don’t even come with an explanation as to why they are high.

Soon enough the trip began, and after a delay and the shock of discovering there are window seats with no windows on a Virgin Australia 777 ext row, Erkpod was off to the land of the free and paranoid (or plenty, depending on your take), or LOTFAP as it commonly appears on AFF!

One of the things that varies between countries in a lot of cases is their national sports, being Winter in the LOTFAP, it’s Ice Sports time. Sometimes one chance meeting, then attending drinks & trivia, can lead to other things

Thanks to my friendly quizmaster & the team’s announcer, I headed out to watch a game of (ice) hockey. It was my first live game

It was not long before Erkpod preferred Zamboni’s to ZZZ’s, attending another game and even catching a Roller Derby on the same Ice. So whats next for Erkpod with the trip yet to reach halfway? Follow the adventure HERE.

Staff Writers