Monday 29th December 2003, Day 107/273 - San Francisco, California to Denver, Colorado

Caught the Bay Area Regional Transport (BART) out to the Airport. I'd had a hearty breakfast. That's another big change from what i was like prior to coming away. If i was travelling 3 months ago i wouldn't have eaten until I got to my destination. Now I don't know when I'm gonna get my next decent meal so I take what I can get.

I've decided to fly to Denver today as its not that much more than taking the Greyhound and takes 24 hours less even with a connection in Phoenix. The Greyhound costs $100 and takes 29 hours, where as flying with America West costs $174 and involves 2 1.5 hour flights.

I checked on to my flight and went through to departures. I got a thorough going over at security, including taking off my shoes and feeling inside my flies. I think they picked on me because I'm the only passenger who speaks proper English.

It then struck me that my parents were gone again and I was on my tod. Alone with my Pocket PC. It's amazing how quickly 10 days can go. I hadn't really prepared myself for leaving them again and it was an odd feeling.

I managed to pick the worst day of the year for flying. Due to a massive storm all flights have been delayed. We left an hour late so now I'm going to struggle to make my connection. We are now due to arrive 2 minutes before my flight to Denver leaves, but there are lots of people in the same boat. To top it all we've got a woman driver.

I'm leaving San Francisco well fed, having done loads and with a newer wardrobe, but strangely I'm leaving with more money than I arrived with. That's the beauty of having parents come out to visit their only child. I know I'm spoilt, but I'll take that. At least I haven't been to McDonalds in a week.

San Francisco was probably the most culturally diverse city that I've been to in America. There are less Americans than in New York which I reckon would be the 2nd most diverse city. San Fran has a large chinese and italian population, there's also plenty of Mexicans and Indians. Rumour has it that there are also plenty of hippies and gays, but I must have missed that. The city was far bigger than I imagined and you need to use public transport, mainly to get you over the hills. It also had the most character.

The flight to Phoenix took an hour and a half and came quickly, as did darkness, we were flying away from the sun. I said earlier in the blog that Phoenix was a big hub for America West Airlines. Basically every AWA flight either fly's in or out of Phoenix or Las Vegas.

It's cool to be back in Phoenix. I love Phoenix. It’s irrational, but for some reason I really enjoyed my time here. I think spending the 5 nights in a row at the America West Arena helped and I've been following the results of the teams closely.

As expected I missed my connecting flight, but to the credit of America West they had booked me on the next flight to Denver and had my new boarding card ready for me on my arrival. Now I've got 2 hours to kill.  There's no point getting upset as there's nothing anyone can do.

I'm now booked on the 21.34 flight to Denver and due to arrive just after Big Steve and Ben do. We boarded and left the gate on time and were taxing to the runway when the pilot announced that he'd found a problem with the plane and we'd have to return to the gate and maintenance will have to come and look at it. Now I'm beginning to feel that someone is trying to test me. We ended up being delayed a further 2 hours, but at least we got free cocktails.

I met Big Steve and Wickle Ben at Denver airport and we caught a cab into the Ramada Inn on Colfax. It was 2.00 am so we only had a brief catch up before hitting the sack. I can’t believe they've come out here. I kept thinking that it was going to be a big practical joke at my expense, but here they are.