UP at 6am and our pals Martyn and Louise pick us up just after 7am to drop us at the airport.

Our flight’s not ’til 1pm, but check-in opens at 10am and the time passes fairly quickly.

We land at JFK in New York and take a good while to get through immigration. Despite having applied for Global Entry – which skips the queues – a couple of months ago, it didn’t become clear until after we’d paid the three hundred-odd quid that ‘there was a backlog in processing’ dating back to the US Government shutdown back in January. So we’re still waiting on clearance.

Our connecting flight to Denver is at 8.20pm (1.20am UK time)...the flight is around four hours and there’s another two hours’ time difference.

We pretty frazzled when we arrive and there’s no food or drink on the domestic flight, but on the plus side, we have all our bags and stuff.

A slightly crazy sixty dollar taxi ride to the hotel and we find we’ve been allocated a smoking room, despite Margaret phoning to ask for a non-smoking room at the time of booking.

Now after midnight, it’s too late to find food within walking distance of the hotel and we’ll be up at 7am to get the rental car and embark on a 900-mile drive…now I’m wishing I ate some of the overpriced food at JFK!!

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