Day 42 - Chicago

I got up horrendously early this morning to get to Chicago. I had to return Thelma to the Alamo people and then navigate the ‘heightened security’ measures at Denver Airport. So I allowed myself a lot of time before my flight left. As it transpired returning Thelma took about 30 seconds and I got through check-in and security in 30 minutes so I had a lot of time on my hands at the airport. Anyone who has ever spent time in an American airport knows that there is not much to do there at all. No shops to speak of to browse and only a Burger King and a Taco Bell for company. After spending a lot of time at Las Vegas airport waiting for people I have discovered that US airports have hardly any seating which gets rather annoying when you have a lot of time to spend at them! Eventually I decided to go to my gate and wait there as at least there were a few seats around so I got bored there for 2 hours before my plane was ready for boarding.

SatNav decided today, on the final day that it had to work, that it would have a strop and not work. Apparently, according to it, there is no navigable route from downtown Denver to the airport. Luckily I had not yet packed my road atlas in my luggage so managed to find my way there (there are also hardly any signs on roads here to large landmarks like the centres of cities or airports so you have to guess a bit). I bade an emotional farewell to Thelma too, she did just what was asked of her – got me from A to B in one piece without breaking! She looked a tad dirtier than when I picked her up but we did travel a long way!

I flew on United’s low-cost airline today – Ted. It was fairly uneventful and a pretty empty flight, although one strange thing they insisted on was that if you wanted food you had to buy it, which was fine. But you only got the option to buy food on flights over 3 hours. Any less than that and you are not allowed to buy anything to eat. I thought this was a bit odd, not that I was that bothered anyway, but the horrendously large man squashed into a seat next to me was rather put out. Luckily, because the flight was quite empty, after takeoff he moved across the aisle from me which made the journey much more pleasant.

I have now installed myself in my hotel which is really central although nowhere near as nice as my hotel in Denver and more expensive too. The walls seem rather thin… No duvet again either :-(

Distance travelled today – 907 miles.

Total distance travelled in Thelma – 6,999 miles.

Bearwatch – 0.