Double DealingsOK, I'm doing this one early because internet access on Saturday is uncertain. I'm going out of town tomorrow night; as soon as I leave work I'm just driving. Going to see some friends in another city but mostly it's a "I need to get the fuck out of dodge" weekend. I need some me time and I'm not gonna get it here. So I'm out, helping out a friend, and catching up with some guys. But I'm not dwelling on that for now - I need opinions.If you're not part of the Family, or you are but you're not watching this thread, or you are but missed it when I said it days ago, I am doing everything in my power to come to the United States in January - primarily to meet a bunch of the guys. Available dates: - 3-16 January - 1-11 February Projected locations: -Sanford, FL (Puma) -Pensacola, FL (Erok) -Memphis, TN (Tack) -Virginia Beach, VI (SpiderWolve and Sarah) -New York, NY (Chipper) That's the plan. Depending on how the situation rolls, I may have to end up axing one location (either Memphis or Virginia Beach...sorry, guys). Ideally it'll be in January - Feb will be an entire fallback. If it falls in Feb, Virginia may be out since Ben no longer has leave...although I don't really know how that all works...eh, whatever. I want January. But as you can imagine there are hazards in this trip - namely, cost. This is where I need opinions. Talking to a travel agent today there are a few options, but flying to all of the above will easily be well in excess of $3000 because it's that time of the year, at least in January. So I'm considering a few things - bus, train, or whatever. Since I don't know the lay of the land, I'm appealing to you guys. These seem to be my options: 1. Fly everywhere. As stated, this will be more than I can afford in flights alone, not to mention things I'll probably buy (there will be a few things, I daresay) and accomodation (Erok has offered me a bed which I plan to delighedtly accept but I am not arrogant or tactless enough to assume all of the guys will do this, so I'm planning on a bit of hotel-ing it up. 2. Fly to LA or San Fran, fly over to Orlando, meet Puma, and bus it from city to city, finally catching a plane from NY back to Cali and then back to Sydney. Apparently this could cost just as much according to some of the guys; I don't know. I'm not sure how the buses work. 3. Fly to LA or San Fran, fly over to Orlando, meet Puma, catch the train from place to place. Allegedly there are national train passes a travel agent can procure where I can use it basically nonstop as necessary. This would be pretty cool, I do like train travel. This is what I'm leaning towards at the moment; I think that might be the most cost effective method. 4. (Assuming either Memphis or VI has been canned) Do the fly in, Florida stops as above. To skip past whichever one gets axed, fly. One extra flight. This is solely if one gets canned, but we'll see. So I want to know pretty much anything and everything you guys know about the trains and bus services for the east coast, so I can go back to the travel agent and say what I want to do. Whatever you guys think might be easiest, so I can pull this off. I am appealing to anyone and everyone I know to not get me anything for Christmas, instead simply give me a bit of money to make this a bit easier. If I can chisel this one off...well, it should be an interesting few days. Pretty much all I'll need to buy is a camera. My old one shat itself and died. But yeah, that's where I stand. And since I think I kind of took over the thread up there with my plans, I propose moving all discussion of my trip here so that the others can continue planning a meet-up, if they want. So hit 'Watch Comments' and we'll see what everyone has to say. Much appreciated, all. |
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It's the best city ever, you'll love it!
