waitingman (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
waitingman) wrote2016-11-01 09:02 am
waitingman) wrote2016-11-01 09:02 am
Entry tags:
Tour Diary - Day One
Been away in the USA for most of October. For the curious... or for those of you with nothing better to read...
Tuesday, 4th October - Sydney to Los Angeles
Hurry up & wait... that seems to be the theme & only requirement of the day. We set 3 alarms, the 1st & 2nd of which I heard, then was vaguely aware of Julia in the shower, but didn't really wake up until Layla launched herself onto the bed & landed on me. Saying goodbye to her was probably the most difficult part of the morning preparations. She'll be looked after by my Mother & Sister for a few days, then goes to Holiday Camp at our neighbour's home, with a back yard & a chicken to play with. I fear she may have too good a time & won't want to come back when we return...
The trip to the airport in the Northern Beaches Shuttle was notable only for the lack of traffic (thanks to school holidays) & the entertaining-for-mostly-wrong-reasons conversation between an Australian returning to Aspen, Colorado & the driver. We elected to not mention that we are heading that way by the end of the week, just in case he wanted to talk to us instead. Casually racist, absolutely full of himself... not sure if living in the USA has made him that way, or if he just fits in there hand-in-glove perfectly. Either way, not sorry to see the back of him once we arrived at the airport & can only hope he's nowhere near us on the plane. Is this what Australians are like now?!
At the airport, a mad dash to the other end of the terminal, then a 20 minute wait for the check-in gates to open. Weighed down as I was by a large duffle bag & wheeled suitcase, I somehow failed to knock over several people who think that airports are for standing around in the middle of, with no spatial awareness, or other awareness of any kind
Hurry up through to Customs, wait in line. Hurry through to Duty Free & coffee, then wait for the flight to be called. Why is it so hard to get a soy coffee in an international airport?? The 'specialty' coffee cart had no soy, the deli/café had no soy... You know who did? The Sumo Salad Bar. A sign of things to come? We already know the coffee in the US is basically hot water with a brown crayon dissolved in it, maybe this is the airport's way of pre-acclimatising us. Anyway - must fly
Pause for 14 hour flight...
Julia has lost the right to complain about always being the one who gets searched at the airport while the white guys go through unchecked. Not today they didn't... or at least I didn't!! A smiling Security Guard led me into a small room where I was looked over & scanned for explosive residue & other terroristic tendencies. Not finding any, they let me rejoin Julia & board the plane
(Julia - rightttttt... so Justin gets searched once and suddenly he knows the struggle of my people? I don't think so. I think even the airport staff were surprised it was him being searched and not me, because she took several looks at me, at my boarding pass, at Justin, at his boarding pass, before finally realising that yes, it was his boarding pass that meant he was to be randomly searched. The only thing I could tell that was different, was that his boarding pass had a code of SSSS on it and mine didn't..)
2 seats at the back of the plane, with no 3rd person to climb over or disturb. This is a good thing... What wasn't a good thing was the turbulence we flew into after about 30 minutes & continued to be shaken'n'stirred by for the rest of the flight. According to the in-flight info & entertainment system, we would be in the air for 13 hours & travelling 7501 miles... that last 1 mile being just as important as all the others combined. Highlights of the flight for me were seeing Ball's Pyramid sticking 1600 feet straight up in the middle of the ocean & the rich, red sunrise over the Pacific about an hour out of Los Angeles. Lowlights - not a great movie/TV selection, selfish gits in front of us lowering seats while we're still eating & drinking & how disappointed I was by Brad Paisley's recent album 'Wheelhouse'. Won't be rushing off to JB HiFi or iTunes for that one any time soon...
The view from 37,000ft
More hurrying up & waiting at LAX, off the plane, through 2 lots of Border Protection, then organising a 'Lyft' from the airport to our Hotel. A friendly Armenian driver who knew his town & had insights & opinions about most of it, as well as a couple of recommendations of places to visit. Probably not 'til the end of the month when we hit town again, but worth remembering are the LA Observatory & a drive up to the 'Hollywood' hills. Not sure if LAX is a long way out of town, or if he just took the scenic route, but it took a while to arrive at our Hotel. Still, Lyft are like Über - the price is agreed on before you drive, so it's not like we paid any extra for the sightseeing...
Our Hotel turned out to be in a pretty good location on Vine St, near Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard & other street & place names familiar to anyone who's watched too much American TV. They kindly allowed us to check in early & we climbed the stairs, dumped the bags & visited oblivion for 90 minutes 'til it was time to go & collect our wheels for the trip
The Car Hire place was, fortunately, only a short 2-block walk up Vine St. Fortunate, because I had to do the walk twice, having left my phone behind... Given that it was the end of the school day, there were surprisingly few pedestrians on the sidewalks. It must be true that nobody walks in L.A. Negotiations about additional car insurance concluded, we took temporary ownership of a Chevrolet Traverse 7-seater SUV... to be known as 'Travis Bickle' - the main character in 'Taxi Driver'. You talkin' to me??
I started getting to know Travis while dealing with LA traffic & parking as we ticked off various chores at the Post Office, Market, Chemist, T Mobile & a glorified fish taco food truck on Hollywood Blvd. We'd been expecting a smaller SUV, but the Car Hire guy thought he was doing us a favour by 'upgrading' us. Travis is a big upgrade alright, but I've driven larger beasts, so will withhold judgment until we've spent a full day on the road... tomorrow
Back at the Hotel, a call from our friend & future host/travelling companion Gary in Colorado, checking we'd made it here in one piece. Then troubles with the new SIM card, trying to call home to various relatives to tell them we'd arrived & hadn't been mugged, been shot, or been to Burger King. A terse conversation with the T Mobile help desk &, at time of writing, we still haven't been able to call Australia home...
Is 6.15pm too early for bed? Not today, I think...
Tuesday, 4th October - Sydney to Los Angeles
Hurry up & wait... that seems to be the theme & only requirement of the day. We set 3 alarms, the 1st & 2nd of which I heard, then was vaguely aware of Julia in the shower, but didn't really wake up until Layla launched herself onto the bed & landed on me. Saying goodbye to her was probably the most difficult part of the morning preparations. She'll be looked after by my Mother & Sister for a few days, then goes to Holiday Camp at our neighbour's home, with a back yard & a chicken to play with. I fear she may have too good a time & won't want to come back when we return...
The trip to the airport in the Northern Beaches Shuttle was notable only for the lack of traffic (thanks to school holidays) & the entertaining-for-mostly-wrong-reasons conversation between an Australian returning to Aspen, Colorado & the driver. We elected to not mention that we are heading that way by the end of the week, just in case he wanted to talk to us instead. Casually racist, absolutely full of himself... not sure if living in the USA has made him that way, or if he just fits in there hand-in-glove perfectly. Either way, not sorry to see the back of him once we arrived at the airport & can only hope he's nowhere near us on the plane. Is this what Australians are like now?!
At the airport, a mad dash to the other end of the terminal, then a 20 minute wait for the check-in gates to open. Weighed down as I was by a large duffle bag & wheeled suitcase, I somehow failed to knock over several people who think that airports are for standing around in the middle of, with no spatial awareness, or other awareness of any kind
Hurry up through to Customs, wait in line. Hurry through to Duty Free & coffee, then wait for the flight to be called. Why is it so hard to get a soy coffee in an international airport?? The 'specialty' coffee cart had no soy, the deli/café had no soy... You know who did? The Sumo Salad Bar. A sign of things to come? We already know the coffee in the US is basically hot water with a brown crayon dissolved in it, maybe this is the airport's way of pre-acclimatising us. Anyway - must fly
Pause for 14 hour flight...
Julia has lost the right to complain about always being the one who gets searched at the airport while the white guys go through unchecked. Not today they didn't... or at least I didn't!! A smiling Security Guard led me into a small room where I was looked over & scanned for explosive residue & other terroristic tendencies. Not finding any, they let me rejoin Julia & board the plane
(Julia - rightttttt... so Justin gets searched once and suddenly he knows the struggle of my people? I don't think so. I think even the airport staff were surprised it was him being searched and not me, because she took several looks at me, at my boarding pass, at Justin, at his boarding pass, before finally realising that yes, it was his boarding pass that meant he was to be randomly searched. The only thing I could tell that was different, was that his boarding pass had a code of SSSS on it and mine didn't..)
2 seats at the back of the plane, with no 3rd person to climb over or disturb. This is a good thing... What wasn't a good thing was the turbulence we flew into after about 30 minutes & continued to be shaken'n'stirred by for the rest of the flight. According to the in-flight info & entertainment system, we would be in the air for 13 hours & travelling 7501 miles... that last 1 mile being just as important as all the others combined. Highlights of the flight for me were seeing Ball's Pyramid sticking 1600 feet straight up in the middle of the ocean & the rich, red sunrise over the Pacific about an hour out of Los Angeles. Lowlights - not a great movie/TV selection, selfish gits in front of us lowering seats while we're still eating & drinking & how disappointed I was by Brad Paisley's recent album 'Wheelhouse'. Won't be rushing off to JB HiFi or iTunes for that one any time soon...
The view from 37,000ft
More hurrying up & waiting at LAX, off the plane, through 2 lots of Border Protection, then organising a 'Lyft' from the airport to our Hotel. A friendly Armenian driver who knew his town & had insights & opinions about most of it, as well as a couple of recommendations of places to visit. Probably not 'til the end of the month when we hit town again, but worth remembering are the LA Observatory & a drive up to the 'Hollywood' hills. Not sure if LAX is a long way out of town, or if he just took the scenic route, but it took a while to arrive at our Hotel. Still, Lyft are like Über - the price is agreed on before you drive, so it's not like we paid any extra for the sightseeing...
Our Hotel turned out to be in a pretty good location on Vine St, near Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard & other street & place names familiar to anyone who's watched too much American TV. They kindly allowed us to check in early & we climbed the stairs, dumped the bags & visited oblivion for 90 minutes 'til it was time to go & collect our wheels for the trip
The Car Hire place was, fortunately, only a short 2-block walk up Vine St. Fortunate, because I had to do the walk twice, having left my phone behind... Given that it was the end of the school day, there were surprisingly few pedestrians on the sidewalks. It must be true that nobody walks in L.A. Negotiations about additional car insurance concluded, we took temporary ownership of a Chevrolet Traverse 7-seater SUV... to be known as 'Travis Bickle' - the main character in 'Taxi Driver'. You talkin' to me??
I started getting to know Travis while dealing with LA traffic & parking as we ticked off various chores at the Post Office, Market, Chemist, T Mobile & a glorified fish taco food truck on Hollywood Blvd. We'd been expecting a smaller SUV, but the Car Hire guy thought he was doing us a favour by 'upgrading' us. Travis is a big upgrade alright, but I've driven larger beasts, so will withhold judgment until we've spent a full day on the road... tomorrow
Back at the Hotel, a call from our friend & future host/travelling companion Gary in Colorado, checking we'd made it here in one piece. Then troubles with the new SIM card, trying to call home to various relatives to tell them we'd arrived & hadn't been mugged, been shot, or been to Burger King. A terse conversation with the T Mobile help desk &, at time of writing, we still haven't been able to call Australia home...
Is 6.15pm too early for bed? Not today, I think...
no subject
LOL yes, all good things to avoid! I look forward to following the rest of the adventure. I'm not on FB so I've only heard updates through Debbie. It sure was fun to see you guys again.