I couldn’t sleep well last night, perhaps because I took the lasixs tablets late at night or maybe the excitement of travelling today had got into me. I was awake at 0415hrs and leisurely took my time to shower, dress and got whatever luggage we had upstairs down. I only realized then that I had not shaved nor trimmed my moustache for 6 days and looked disheveled, not that I am claiming to be looking smart all the time.

The taxi came ahead of time and fortunately Hannah was awake as we had to say our goodbyes in a hurry otherwise the taxi would have to go round the block so as not to hold any traffic up. We got into North terminal of Gatwick well in time but got into a slight problem with our passports as we didn’t have a return or onward tickets. I guess not many people would believe our claim to be driving round the world, but my question is why not????

While I was kind of worried that my legs would not hold up as the flight time to Atlanta was 9 hrs, Alison was worried that we would not make the connecting flight to Norfolk as we needed to clear immigration and customs at Atlanta. I was not worried as long as there was no necessity to open up any of the 5 boxes we had with us. As it turned out we went through immigration with again an unbelievable looks from the officer. After being convinced that we meant what we said about driving round the world, she was extremely nice and asked lots of questions regarding the trip. In the end Alison just gave her one of our cards.

The customs was no hassle and as per our normal practice, we drew prominence to Adrian, the boy has his uses!!! We got to the gate for the onward flight well in time but I couldn’t bring the trolley bag on board due to the small size of the plane, but was assured that it would be safe and returned to me on arrival Norfolk at the plane’s door. We were sat at the last row next to the toilet and Alison, as usual, had something to say about that!!!  

When we got to Norfolk airport it was a shock to find out that it cost USD3 to use the trolley for the boxes, and there was no refund either!! The short ride by cab to Day’s Inn hotel cost USD10 and we had another shock waiting for us when I checked the emails! John Trestrail had emailed me saying that the Carnet cannot be used for importation of vehicle into the USA. I had forgotten entirely on why the USA was not one of the countries listed at the back of the carnet. I called John and told him that I would check with the issuer of the carnet in the morning which meant that I would have to get up at 0400hrs Norfolk or Eastern Time.