A second goodbye to Chicago, and just as hard as the first. After a night dancing to the Human League with Dan and Mark (you can take the boy out of northern England...), I packed up for the final leg of my American adventure. I've finally had a haircut, so now I finally don't have to explain that mullets aren't big in England - it's just me. I splurged some of my last Yankee dollars on clothes and I ate ribs in the rain to say goodbye to my favourite city.
There was stress as well: the rain was so heavy that just about all my belongings got soaked. I then dropped my boarding pass in O'Hare airport, and inexplicably found it on the floor by retracing my steps. Then there was the flights themselves, the first being shared with a stocktrader who loved money and Texas apparently (yee ha), plus a rather large, Indian nerd who worked for IBM. At Phoenix I nearly snagged an amazing offer: to get on a flight the next day, including free hotel and transport, plus a voucher for more free flights. Annoyingly, some fat couple got it instead, probably because they would have made the plane list.
I will say that Phoenix as a view to look out on was pretty incredible. I've never seen real desert, and the mountains are spectacular. I heard some northern accents talking about not getting the free stuff and it turned out to be a lovely couple from Manchester called Paul and Francesca. I ended up walking them to their hostel - the one I stayed at - before I got a taxi from a really friendly Punjabi man to Ryan's. After catching up with him over homemade beef jerky, and feeling terrible guilt over inadvertently stealing toothpaste from Dan, I hit the sack. I'll tell you what happens in Seattle (stays in Seattle).
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