Country #14 – United States of America Day 1

16 Hours of Travel

Today was a busy travel day, that’s for sure! I woke up at 4:00am to meet my taxi driver outside of MoonRaker Beach Hotel in Barbados. She was so sweet and oddly very awake for it being only four in the morning! We talked about my trip all the way to the airport, and she was so nice and excited about it. Once we arrived at the airport we realized that she did not have any change for USD. She forgot her change purse, so I had to go exchange my cash for smaller bills while she waited. After we got that all sorted out, I checked in for my flight back to the United States. I was flying from Barbados to Miami, and then from Miami to Los Angeles.

Other than flying out of Saint Lucia, it was the most Americans that I had seen in weeks! There were no problems checking in, going through immigration, or boarding the flight. For a 6:00am flight at least it was going smoothly! The flight itself was about four hours, but being so tired I was able to get some sleep and the plane also had plenty of movie options (I watched The Edge of Seventeen).

After landing in Miami I used my Global Entry to get through customs in about five minutes. That’s after the twenty minutes of walking it takes to get there.(tip: take the Skytrain when you have to go through customs in Miami). After an easy trip through security, I picked up a bagel and headed to my new gate.

My next flight, to Los Angeles, was about four hours as well. I watched two more movies (Sing and Table 19), and before I knew it I was landing in LA. I have never been further west than Colorado, so I am definitely excited to see even the small portion of LA that I get to see over the next day.

When I landed I took an airport shuttle to my hotel. By this point I was starving, so I walked across the street to get In-N-Out, because of course there is one across the street. How much more California does it get than that? While I’m not the biggest In-N-Out fan - honestly I think the burgers taste like McDonald's and I would rather pay twice as much for the heaven on earth that is Shake Shack - it definitely satisfied my hunger.

I went to sleep soon after this. It was about 8:00pm in California when I fell asleep, but I needed all of the sleep I could get after having traveled sixteen hours today. Plus, I needed to get ready for a big day tomorrow!a

14 countries down, 182 to go.

Read about my second day in the United States here.