24 Hours of Travel But We’re Here!

Yesterday I woke up at 4:15 am and got ready for the airport.  This morning at 7:15 am I was landing in Peru.  What a long day!  At least it wasn’t just sitting around in airports all day.

I barely go through security in Madison and it was time to board the plan.  We got in to Detroit and I had an urgent situation to take care of.  Then it was time to head on to New York.  I started getting messages though that people weren’t going to be able to make it due to all the snow they were getting.  Despite the snow, I arrived at JFK a little early.

Thanks to a wonderful friend who couldn’t be there on Saturday, I had a driver waiting to take me in to Manhattan.  Since we were making very good time, he took me for the “ten cent” tour of the city.  We came in through the Midtown Tunnel and then worked out way down the east side.  He took me to see Ground Zero and the area where the memorial is.  We went by where Occupy Wall Street happened and then over to SoHo and Greenwich Village plus Chelsea.  We drove by the Intrepid and Pier 88 then in to see the Lincoln Center, St Patrick’s Cathedral, the Rockefeller Center and where they have the Today show, by Central Park and the Plaza Hotel, by the Time Warner Building, down Fifth Avenue to see all the shops and then to Time’s Square where he dropped me off at the Disney Store.

While shopping and waiting for people to arrive, I ran into two friends from New Jersey who I knew would be in town that day, but has no clue that we would meet.  Once everyone arrived and I had purchased a I Love NY Mickey plush, we went to get some food.  Unfortunately, the ESPN Zone was closed so we picked Virgil’s BBQ a couple blocks away.  It was great but oh so much food!  We had a great time chatting and eating.

Next we walked over to the Rockefeller Center and saw the skating rink, went inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, then over to the library and ended up at the Empire State Building.  My driver picked me up there and took me back to JFK, this time over one of the bridges.  What a site!  I just love the bridges around there.

Needless to say, I was exhausted and it was still about 4 hours until my flight would leave but I started meeting some of the others agents that I would be going on the Adventures by Disney® tour with.  There would be 20 of us flying in together.  We chatted for a while and before you know it, we were getting on the plane for our redeye flight.

I am able to sleep on a plane, but I certainly do feel like I get a good sleep in any sense of the word.  When I woke up for good, it was around 6:00 in the morning and breakfast was being served.  7:15 am we landed.

Peru is in the Eastern Standard Time Zone so it was a bit weird traveling for 8 hours to be in the same time zone.  It has made today difficult to be productive.

The first thing I did was try to start up my computer and check emails.  I plugged in a power strip.  As soon as I plugged in my computer, there was a pop.  Turns out the outlet and now my power supply too were fried.  Luckily I was able to find one not too far from the hotel, but it was a bit of a panic.

In a little while, we will go to our first group dinner.  Can’t wait to get this adventure started!!

Disclosure:  In the interest of full disclosure, this Adventures by Disney trip was provided at no charge to me.