Team Fremont.com-Philthy's Excellent Fremont Adventure Pt. 1 Review

Philthy's Excellent Fremont Adventure Pt. 1

Day One: Three Countries in one day (Saturday 5th January)

So the first thing to point out is that I hadn't slept since Thursday morning at this point due to work commitments and packing. So by the time I'm getting the taxi to Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) at 6AM it's safe to say I was already pretty damned tired.

LBA is a pretty small airport with very little to do but sit and wait. I was lucky enough to get some caffeine in the system before taking off and I also picked up some Euros and Dollars whilst waiting. My route for this trip was first a plane to Schipol Airport in Amsterdam and then take a Trans-Atlantic flight across to Minneapolis St Paul from there.

When it was time to get on the plane, I was fairly shocked to discover that I was about to fly on something only a little bigger than a crop duster. I was on row 12 (which was the back row) and there were only 5 seats per row, totaling 60 in total for the whole plane. I seriously thought I was going to die when we took off as the plane was being thrown about all over the place but, after only 45 minutes of flying and some great coffee we were ready to land. The ordeal was over. I was shocked to learn on landing that Schipol airport is so big that driving around the runways after landing was actually nearly as long as the flight itself.

The airport was really damned cool and as I mentioned already, really big. I'd compare it with London Heathrow in size and probably even contained more shopping areas and variety overall. One store in particular that I found amusing was the Cheese Store (pictured below). It sold all kinds of cheese I'd never heard of and was actually shaped like a cheese wheel... nice! You'll also notice in the photo some model cows and horses dotted around and for those with a keen eye, Ronald McDonald can be seen overhead perving on the attractive Dutch girls wandering the airport. As a side note, I love the fact that you can get a Giga-Mac meal plus Beer in Amsterdam McDonald's.

Cheese and cows: who could ask for more?

Eventually it was time to get raped by US customs and get my flight over to Minneapolis. I kid you not, but I actually spent an hour in customs and even had to phone John (at 6am CST) to get his address as they wouldn't let me board without knowing where I would be staying!

The flight itself taught me several key things:

1) I hate American children. They are the single most annoying creatures on the planet when confined to a seat.

2) Airplanes do not have enough legroom for 14-hour flights

3) Mountain Dew is an awesome drink to be getting on a plane for free

4) Whiskey would have been better

We arrived in Minneapolis at about 5:20PM CST where I was actually 30 minutes early. We were told that we couldn't use our Mobile (cell) phones whilst going through Customs (again) but that was ok because since I'd already been checked by US customs and filled out loads of forms already it shouldn't take too long right?

Well I was supposed to be meeting John, Moe and Hilden at around 6PM however at 7PM I was still near the back of a very, very long line. There were no clocks in there and I didn't have a watch so the only way I could keep any track of time was to count my luggage going around the carousel a little ahead of me. I had clocked it at 68 times by the time I got through and I was so late I waited for the guards to stop looking so that I could phone John and check they were still waiting.

I eventually managed to get out and was greeted to a sign that they had lovingly made saying Paul/Philthy on it. The bastards. A short car trip to John's place and we jumped straight into recording the TFL show. I was introduced to Surly Beer and we got down to the show. After we finished recording, I was quickly introduced to Rock Band, which is awesome.

Recording the TFL podcast just moments after I landed. By this point I hadn't slept in days and was so drunk I couldn't keep the camera straight.

Day Two: American Football and Junk Food (Sunday 6th January)

So my day of relaxation arrived the next day. We planned to crash out and watch the American Football (Rugby for pussies) whilst drinking Sailor Jerry's and eating as much junk food as we could find. The first thing was to head to the local Strip Mall grocery store. I was shocked and disappointed to learn that a Strip Mall was not somewhere you could go and see strippers but in fact an area of the suburbs containing several stores in a strip. We went to Cub Foods which is apparently the local grocery store, although is still the size of a very large UK supermarket.

I was happy to see that there was shit loads of variety in the food you could buy, much more so than in the UK and areas of Europe that I had already travelled to. We picked up some Poppers, Quesadillas, and Mozzarella things, none of which I had ever come across before. I was happy to learn that not only do the Americans have Mountain Dew (which we don't get in the UK) but they also have varieties of it too. John kindly provided a 12 pack of the Code Red Cheery flavour and we made our way out. Those who know me understand how much of a caffeine addict I am so it should be no surprise that the next stop was a Starbucks so I could get my morning fix. This was the first of many places to wonder where the hell I was from when hearing my accent.

John wanted to take me to a local Best Buy on the way back which I was more than happy with until 5 minutes later when I had bought 4 PSP and 2 DS games without blinking. The prices were less than half price what we pay in the UK so I couldn't resist, especially when most of the games hadn't been released yet.

My loot from the shopping trip and the lovely sign that the guys used at the airport.

Following the shopping trip, we watched the Football, John tried to explain the 6,000 rules and we ate like kings. Hilden joined us a little later on and the day was finished off with some Rock Band antics. Already, I'm soaking up the American Dream.

Day Three: More shopping and Scott Hass (Monday 7th January)

So John was determined to show me the good stores to get games and make me spend lots of money – he’s good like that. We visited a couple of local places including “Discland” and the wonderful “Cedar Cliff Collectibles”. After being accused of being a Cockney by a store manager (this is someone from the City of London, I am not), I picked up a Virtual Boy with 4 games.

Later that night, John decided that I needed to meet his buddy Scott Hass for some drinks in the City. So off we went to pick up Scott and Moe and we headed into town. Now it has to be understood that no matter how prepared you are for meeting Scott, the reality is you really aren’t. If ever I met a random character, Scott Hass is the one. We hung out for a while, met up with Former Stone Nowhere guitarist Yeski and headed over to Famous Dave’s to grab some food.

This is Scotty Hass, friend, beautiful man and insane genius. He's awesome.

Day Four: The joys of Basketball and visiting a true British Pub (Tuesday 8th January)

It was time to enjoy the beauty of American Sports by going to see the Wolves play some Basketball and soak up the joy of insane advertising, bright colours and half time shows. Now I admit that I’m not the biggest fan of sports, although that being said, the spectacle and overall entertainment factor made for a really enjoyable time. The game was supposed to be pretty awful as it was between the two worst teams but it seemed decent to me, besides I had Moe explaining what was happening which is always entertaining. The half time show was also an experience to behold involving a whole load of dogs running some sort of relay race with hurdles back and forth, again and again. I’m still not entirely sure why.

After the game, John wanted to take me to the Minneapolis Brit Pub for some authentic British cuisine. On the way I discovered that the city is interlinked by the Sky Way, a series of walkways between each of the buildings that allows you to walk around the center of Minneapolis from inside. Ingenious. On arrival I noticed that the pub had a sign banning any guns in true typical fashion. They also sold the greatest chocolate bar (candy) in the whole world, the Crunchie. If you have never tried one, go get one already! The food was phenomenal, and we chatted about some of the differences and similarities with US and UK cuisine such as our insistence that you should have Peas with a plate of Fish and Chips and that Ketchup was made in Pittsburg, UK. No really! Moe was also insistent that I tried the hand driers which were probably one notch off taking off skin they were so powerful.

An Authentic Brit in an "Authentic" British pub... I think
Article By: Philthy