The journey to California

We've been in California for 3 days now. So much has happened, I've resolved to keep a journal of it all on this blog.
I'm just going to be honest and pour out my experiences here - please don't pity me, judge me, or think that I'm considering going back to South Africa if I mention something I don't like!

We left on Thursday evening - it was chaotic. We just managed to shove the last few things into our suitcases before leaving the house half-full and in a mess for our parents and siblings to clean up. We still managed to forget a few essentials, like melatonin for the journey and jetlag, and Brad's electric shaver.

The flight to Atlanta started off well. Ariane slept in her sky cot, leaving me with 2 free arms to eat. Nikhil actually ate some supper, and curled up into his economy class seat and slept. And I managed to get a couple of hours' shut eye before Ariane woke up. Predictably, she didn't allow me put her down again, so I gave up all hope of any more sleep.

We arrived in Atlanta to the the typical Southern drawl of porters. It was like walking into a movie. After getting a super-sized trolley for our luggage, we rechecked it in and made our way to our rental car. It took 2 high-speed trains to get there, which were very impressive.
We found ourselves a family restroom and freshened up. We were already exhausted and at the end of our tethers at this stage, but we had 17 hours to go before we reached California.

Atlanta was quite a disappointment. It may have had something to do with how terrible we were feeling physically. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that our rented GPS wasn't up to date and got us lost in a dodgy part of town.
Perhaps it was because the kids were livid at being taken out of an airplane after 16 hours and being put back into car seats. They screamed, they cried, they tore our hearts out. Ariane was hungry, and all I had was a packet of two crackers saved from the plane for just such an emergency. I kept handing her broken up pieces of cracker to try to keep the tears at bay. The crackers were eaten and still we couldn't find a place to get food.
Eventually we stopped at a gas station to buy water and make them some bottles of milk. I'll never forget the smell as I walked into the gas station store - a combination of diesel, dust, grime and stagnation. It was so foreign and so strongly unexpected - it brought home the fact that I was in a foreign country.

We finally found our way to the Atlanta Zoo - so well-marketed on the internet, but in reality a tiny little zoo with very few attractions. We thought Nikhil would have been enchanted by the pandas (he's loving pandas at the moment) but he looked at them once and then dissolved into tears because he wanted us to buy him a red car... and not one red car in sight! All in all though, it was good to get out of the airport and spend some time under the trees in the sunlight instead of whiling away 12 hours in the airport.

Nikhil had a meltdown when we told him we were going back to the airport to get on another plane. Ariane followed suit - crying because her brother was. To make matters worse, the airline had assigned us all separate seats, expecting Nikhil to sit on his own! The unhelpful cabin crew left us to deal with the situation, and a very selfish woman refused to swap seats with Brad so he could sit with Nikhil. In the end Brad sat with Nikhil on his lap in the cramped little plane. That's strictly against airline regulations, because Nikhil wouldn't have had access to an oxygen mask in the event of an emergency. But Delta was making it clear they couldn't care less.

And five long hours later, we were finally in Sacramento! I'm praying I don't have to make that trip again soon!