On the boats and on the planes they're coming to America....

... as the mighty Neil Diamond once wrote.  Well in my case no boats but a lot of planes! The company I am working for manages its costs very carefully and even the MD/owner travels economy (or coach as the American's call it!).  They also look for the best deals and coupled with US airlines increasingly looking to use 4 or 5 main hubs for international flights there were a lot of connections on this leg of my journey.

To get to Delaware (my first stop) I had to fly to Philadelphia via Detroit.  In the next week or so I am going to do a Barry Norman Film review special on the 6 movies I watched whilst travelling so nothing further to add on the transatlantic flight at this time. 

I arrived in Detroit with a little bit of panic beginning to set in.  Despite emails and phone calls I still had no information on where I was staying.  I couldn't get my mobile to work at first and had images of having to sleep in the hire car! Still no news before I boarded the flight to Philadelphia.  After a long flight from the UK the last thing I needed was a 40 min taxi around the airport in Detroit but that is exactly what I got.  As one fellow passenger asked the flight attendant at one point "are we actually driving to Philadelphia rather than flying then?!!".  Unfortunately the same happened at the other end and we actually spent more time on the ground on the plane than we did in the air!

Turned on the mobile to have a message from the Group FD saying that he still hadn't been able to get in contact with the US office but he thought I would be in the same hotel as they usually use for overseas visitors.  So after googling the name and location I now had an address.  The company had fortunately got me a car with a SatNav or GPS as they call it in the States and off I went.  I love driving in the US (one of my unfulfilled life ambitions is to drive from coast to coast) and half an hour late I was in the suburbs of Wilmington at the hotel.

History fact fans ... Wilmington was named by Proprietor Thomas Penn for his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, who was Prime Minister in the reign of George II.

Unfortunately the hotel had no record of any booking and they were full! Luckily they were very helpful and had details of other availability in the area.  After a quick phone call to reserve a room I was off to Quality Inns.  This was very much a motel more than a hotel and the external and internal decoration had seen better days.  However the rooms were very comfortable and had a kingsize bed and free wi-fi so not too bad at all. 

After a quick unpack it was off to Chilis for dinner.  This is one of my favourite stops when in the States.  I have been to one in the UK but it is just a pale imitation of the US originals.  I had a very tasty Fajita Trio (tender grilled steak, marinated grilled chicken and spicy garlic & lime grilled shrimp. Served with grilled onions & bell peppers).  I am getting hungry just thinking about it!  It was then off back to the hotel to get some sleep before starting work tomorrow.

Now the offices were in New Castle a 15 min drive from the hotel.  No that is not a typo - it is spelt as two separate words.  Probably due to the fact that the area had also been known as New Stockholm and Nieuw Amstel before being captured by the British. More history facts for you!  The local office was incredibly friendly and helpful with the project.  It was refreshing not to have language barriers (well not too many!) after my European trip last week.   The office was very American with lots of worker cubicles and whiteboards with targets and latest scores.

On my second night I had to go to a book and music store.  I love the set up in the US with stores the size of 3 or 4 football pitches, lots of chairs and sofas, cafe, listening posts.  I went to both Borders and Barnes & Noble!  I can lose hours wandering around them and often have when in the US! They just seem so much more welcoming than the UK versions and the vast selection is just so tempting.  I would have loved to have stocked up on some American history titles but knowing that I had  a small bag and had another location to go to I had to leave them behind much to my disappointment.  I also managed to resist the temptation to buy some CDs to add to my collection (cough cough ... Mrs D reads this you know!).

Dinner was at another of my favourite US restaurants, Red Lobster.  After some shrimp to start I had a lovely selection of different types of fish and seafood for my main course.  Yummy!

Back to the hotel for starting the original blog post below, reading the latest Nick Hornby book (more of that on a later blog) and then off for a good nights sleep.

The following day went well again.  After getting the job done it was off to lunch with some of the local office and then in the car for starting the journey to Omaha....

Now I am going to spoil you all and have two music clips for this blog.  The first one given the intro to this blog has to be from Mr Diamond.  Now I grow up with Neil ... well not literally - he wasn't an uncle or relation - although that would have been kind of cool!  My mum is a big Neil Diamond fan.  When the Jazz Singer came out she went to see it at least 5 times including the charity premiere and dragging me and my younger sister to see it.  She has also been to see him live on many occasions including when I treated my mum and dad for their wedding anniversary at Earls Court in 2002 (I went too and it was a very enjoyable gig!).  She hasn't really liked his two recent Rick Rubin produced albums (which I think are very good and show the talent as a writer he actually is) but still loves him none the less!  So here is Neil at Glastonbury in 2008 with America....

Now I was going to stop with Neil but in doing the research for this blog I found by chance that Vinnie Moore, UFO's current excellent guitarist, was born and brought up in New Castle, Delaware!  UFO are one of my favourite bands of all time and Vinnie has been an excellent addition to the line up once Michael Schenker self distructed again.  I have to say some of the recent albums with Vinnie Moore have been up there with some of their best 1970s work.  I was very lucky to get a ticket to see them in a small venue in Southampton earlier this year and they were fantastic.  So to finish this time here is UFO live in 2008 with Too Hot to Handle....