First US Open Update

Mid-winter greetings ITFNZ and friends - Carl VR here.

Just preparing for our whirlwind trip to muggy (temp predicted 40 degrees C) Florida tomorrow so I thought I'd let "ya'll know" that while I'll be doing my best to send updates from my cumbersome yet convenient iPod touch browser from airports, cafes and whatever other wifi facilities I can scam in the deep south below the US "bible belt" I'm not sure how much info I'll be able to get back to ya'll.

Let me explain... last time we attended this tournament in Mid-2007 it was not only a crazy trip to cram into less than a week with people trying to cut weight and stay sane while flying east but it was also very VERY difficult to access the internet from anywhere within the 'prison-break' confines of Disney World... Big brother (Mickey mouse) is watching you...

My dad reckons it is all a Disney-conspiracy to keep you focused on spending time and money on what is really important guys... theme parks and useless Disney paraphenalia!! Yay!!
Gets me all on edge. Or am I just paranoid?... "Can't trust... ANYONE!... Hey bro - Why does that guy in the Donald Duck outfit keep looking at me strangely?!!"

Ok - I'll stop with the paranoia until we get there.
In the meantime, below is an outline of our 'glamourous' itinerary for your 'perusal'.

At this point I gotta make a choice - sit next to my angry lighter-weight team-mates who will be hypoglycaemic (low on blood sugar) and developing "AHS" (Angry Hungry Syndrome) or sit next to Luke (AKA Juggerman) so we can both enjoy the bonding experience of struggling with our non-economy class friendly body types...

So without further delay, our travel plan:

01 JUL 09 - WEDNESDAY
QANTAS (AMERICAN AIRLINES) AIRWAYS FLT:AA7315
AUCKLAND-LOS ANGELES
LV AUCKLAND 235P
FLIGHT TIME: 11HR 55MIN
AR LOS ANGELES 730A NON-STOP
Two hours to transfer / chill-out in lovely LA airport. The most hated of all airports. (Half grin, half grimace)


TRANSFER TO FLT:AA2430

LV LOS ANGELES 940A

FLIGHT TIME: 03HR 05MIN

AR DALLAS FT WORTH 245P

Never been to Texas. Might have to stop in at the Ranch and say hi to everyone's favourite American President George "Double Ya" Bush.

TRANSFER TO AIR AMERICAN AIRLINES FLT:AA1856

LV DALLAS FT WORTH 510P EQP: MD-80

FLIGHT TIME 02HR 40MIN
AR ORLANDO INTL 850P NON-STOP
So it is 850pm - we'll have sleep, then we have a day for recovery / weigh-in and then following day we fight. Yay!

What about on the way back? See below:

05 JUL 09 - SUNDAY

110P FLY OUT OF ORLANDO
Same thing - different day. Except all in reverse. We lose a day and arrive back in "sunny" Auckland on:

07 JUL 09 - TUESDAY

AR AUCKLAND 730A NON-STOP
So, final thoughts on the trip?
This time it won't just be the boys and I running rampage through the States but we'll have Mr. Steve Pellow as Coach along for the ride... to rampage with us. Right Steve?

Now don't tell him, but we even got him what he would describe as 'one of those criminal hood tops' with 'COACH - STEVE PELLOW, NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL TEAM, US MARTIAL ARTS OPEN 2009'. Now just gotta get him to wear it...

So it should be good times and we have EVEN taken an extra day in Florida so we might actually have enough time to drag our fatigued (or hallucinating due to sleep-deprivation in the case of jeremy Hanna last time) bodies to a theme-park to which we never made it to last time! Can't wait.

I'll keep you posted whenever I can for sure - but things will no doubt be very sporadic and may come through as clipped sentences with *gasp* txt language abbreviations...
So I apologise in advance for not maintaining my 'usual high level standard of well constructed literary genius' that you see on the pages before you.

Just quietly... I'm secretly expecting a heroes farewell at the airport tomorrow *cough* but also realise that I may have come off slightly ungrateful with the tone of this last blog regarding our boys trip...
So let me clarify to you that we COULD NOT be more proud to be representing ITFNZ, Aotearoa and 'ya'll' over in (to quote Borat) - the US and A.

Kia kaha

Carl VR