Around The World

After a good sleep we surfaced at about 8:00 am this morning. We got downstairs around 9:00 am for a leisurely breakfast.

After breakfast we headed back upstairs to pack our suitcases. As a result of our shopping enthusiasm in LA over the last couple of days, we are already struggling to get our suitcases closed! With seven weeks still ahead of us, we’re clearly going to have to exercise some shopping restraint.

With cases closed, we headed downstairs, checked out, and hopped in the car to head to the Porsche Experience Centre in Carson, just south of Los Angeles. The traffic on the 110 freeway was pretty heavy so it took us about an hour to get there. We checked in just after 12:00 pm, met up with our instructors, and headed out for some high-speed fun. We started with car control exercises on the drift circle, kick plate, and drift course, before heading out onto the track to experience the capabilities of the 911 (which we have been a bit reticent to do in our own car!).

After the adrenaline rush of the Porsche 911s, it was time to drive back to the airport to catch our flight to Nashville. We dropped off the hire car, dragged our suitcases onto the Hertz bus, and rode back into the airport to check in for our flight. We breezed through security (which is unusual these days) and embarked on a 10-minute walk to the lounge. On the way we walked past a See’s Candies store so we decided to stock up with a small (still about $85!) supply of chocolates that we would eat progressively over the trip.

We got to the lounge with about half-an-hour to relax. We had a bite to eat in the lounge, followed by a few chocolates!

Our half hour in the lounge turned into nearly an hour and a half as a result of our departure being pushed back a couple of times. There have been a lot of storms today across the US and this has played havoc with airline schedules. We ended up getting away about an hour late and that probably wasn’t a bad result given the disruptions across the country today.

We had a very nice meal on the flight and then had a little after-dinner nap. We landed in Nashville around 11:15 pm but sat on the tarmac for about half an hour while waiting for a gate. It was after midnight when we left the airport for our hotel. We were looking forward to crashing into bed after a big day but the storms in the area had knocked out the power to some of the city and our hotel had no power! We sat in the lobby in the dark while the hotel fired up its generator. The generator provides power to the computer systems so we could then at least check in. The elevators are also powered by the generator so we didn’t have to walk up ten flights of stairs to our room, which was a nice!

It’s now 3:00 am and we are in our room, still without power. We’re pushing today’s update out via a tethered iPhone connection since the hotel’s wi-fi is also not working without power.

We’re looking forward to getting a few hours of sleep, and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.