Creatures of habit

Well, we all have our little routines, don’t we?

We really love to step out along Fifth Avenue at this time of the day, to gaze up at the skyscrapers and to wonder what it must be like to live here and to deal with this constant hustle the whole time.

Of course, we are heading for our favourite breakfast venue.  We found the Red Flame on our first visit to the city quite a few years ago now and it never changes, thank goodness.  When they refurbished a few years ago, they replaced like for like – the same layout with the same formica tops, the same leatherette banquettes and the same brisk service.

We had the same as we always have: corned beef hash for he who loves corned beef hash.

French Toast for me who likes French Toast.

Simple.

Suitably fortified and ready to start the day for real, we walked up onto 6th and snapped the traditional National Debt photograph.  That number keeps increasing and I must refer back to previous photographs to compare the figures.  One such photograph can be found in this blog post from 2011 when that number began with a 14 not a 19.

Anyway, rather than ponder the US National Debt, we continued down 6th Avenue, stopping by M&J Trimmings, another favourite haunt.  No, I didn’t need anything.

Yes, of course I bought something!  I blame it on my hero for encouraging me to go inside in the first place!

Anyway, the obligatory shot of the Empire State Building followed.

Followed by a quick visit to Rickys where the buttons amused us.

But I was after hair product – no better place to buy Redken!

And sadly, that was it for New York this time around.  It was time to pack up, to check out and to hail a cab back to JFK and fly to the start of our real Road Trip.  We’ve loved the few hours we spent here and are delighted we decided to stay over and not simply change planes here.

We booked Jet Blue to Charleston and made our way to Terminal 5 at JFK, a bright modern building with bright, modern systems in place.  We’d checked in already, had chosen our seats ages ago and had only a couple of things to do before boarding.

So we printed our bag tags and our boarding passes, dropped off our bags at the carousel and made our way through security.  The staff here seem to be all as bright and modern as the decor too – perhaps a pleasant, clean working environment makes for cheerful and efficient workers as well?

The flight was scheduled as two hours or thereabouts, but no sooner had we boarded than the Captain announced it’d be just an hour and a half.  He went on to draw our attention to the free onboard wifi – or should I say “Fly-fi” – which Jet Blue proudly offer on board their aircraft.  This was a new one for us.

As we taxied to the runway however, he returned to the microphone with apologies.  Not only had we been re-routed on a more westerly route which would take longer, we’d been restricted to 8000ft for the whole journey and there’d be no Fly-fi as a result – it only kicks in at 14 000 ft it seems.  Boo.

All was not lost though.  We’d been flying for five or ten minutes and he was back.  Wait for the “ping” he said – we’d been given permission to ascend to the magic altitude and could get those computers buzzing.  Of course, the flight passed by in no time!

We landed just five minutes late in Charleston, noting immediately that Mary’s flight had been delayed for more than an hour.  Poor Mary started early in LA, had to change planes in Charlotte and now was experiencing further delays.  What a day she was having.

Whilst we waited, my Hero sorted the rental car and I sat on one of the comfiest loungers in the baggage reclaim area and chatted to my friend Dorothy via Messenger.  That hour passed quickly too, for just as my battery was beginning to fade, a familiar face was spotted in the arrivals hall.

Let the Road Trip begin! Bumps and scratches checked, mileage noted, Sat-Nav fired up, off we went.

Back in the old routine and the Hampton Inn “clean sheets” post it notes.

We were all tired and hungry, so we took the easy option for dinner and went straight to the highly recommended Hyman’s (thanks, Wes!) 

I don’t think the spelling is quite right (there are 4 ys in the name), but whether it was the real deal or the impostor, I hope he/they enjoyed their dinner as much as we did.

And although there’s a mug of discussion cards on each table, unsurprisingly we didn’t have any need of those tonight – we had quite a lot of catching up to do!

Feeling very full and weary, we staggered back to our hotel in the sultry South Carolina heat.  Better get used to that, I suppose.