JD's web-loggery-pokery...
It’s real now, as I have now paid in full. The preparations are moving along. Big thanks to Kym for pulling the Giant to bits, and replacing (most) of the moving parts.
Geo tagging photos was on the list tonight.
I wonder if the geotag is visible to people reading the blog…?
We’ll soon see!
Well, it’s not long to go now. Getting everything sorted now is in the little things now. Blogging offline, photo applications, final clothing choices…. new wheel bearings on the Giant Trance…. it’s all go!
Cocoa is helping any change she gets… next weekend I think I’ll sleep in the tent, just to make sure everything is all ok…
It’s getting quite real now, as the payment in full is nearly due.
Still more to come as we get closer to leaving!
- jd
Location:Adelaide
Just when it all seems … well… too much, a situation comes up where you find that you can use your own experiences to seriously help someone else out. It just sneaks up on you, and without any agenda for reward or recognition, you can assist a friend / family member with a challenge they are facing. Weird. Take a breath, and look out, not in!
I’m back after a blogging hiatus. A few friends and I are about to embark on an adventure in 2011 – a mountain bike ride across Australia – from Port Augusta, to Karumba.
Sound fun ? Try 28 days @ 90km a day. Right up the Birdsville track, and via Mt Isa…
See the Adventure Collective website for more details….
We leave April 10, 2011…. Check back here for more details as we draw nearer to departure!
Team Mawson:
Day 3 - Monday in New York...
Ok, so it was mighty hard getting up after our first decent sleep in 3 days, but we managed to make the 7:30 Red 1 express train, which hurtled downtown to the ferry terminus, and battery park. Lucky for us, there's not much of a line for the first ferry to Liberty Island, and we start chatting to a young guy from Germany in the line. He'd been there for 2 hours that morning to get tickets. wow. Through metal detectors, and onto the ferry, we wait for the boat to fill up, and we're under way by 8:20. Being the first boat to the Island was a bonus, as we were able to make a b-line for the Monument museum at the base Lady Liberty. After a quick argument with the automatic lockers (which are keyed using your fingerprints - cool!) we are about the 5th in line for more metal detectors, and entry to the museum.
The museum was really good, explaining how the statue was conceived, and made. I never knew it was built in France, boxed, and shipped to the US. The boats that brought it across hit heavy weather, and even ran out of fuel for their boilers, so they completed the crossing under sail. The actual metal shell - made from copper - is only 5mm thick in most places, and the supporting structure inside the "tower" was designed by the same dude that built the Eiffel Tower. (Mr Eiffel, I presume?)
These days you can only climb to the top of the base (about feet level ;-) ), but even that afforded a sensational view of Manhattan and the surrounding areas. The weather was pretty perfect, with blue skies, slight breeze and about 28 C. Brilliant. With the obligatory photo's taken, we wander back down to ground level, and once again thank our lucky stars that we got the first ferry - the line for the museum was now over an hour long. Crikey. A few more photos, and we're back on the ferry to Battery Park, via Ellis Island. If we had more time, this would be worth a look, I think.
With our feet back on Manhattan, we grab some cash, buy some photos of "the buildings of manhattan" and jump a train to Union Square. This turned out to be somewhat unremarkable, so we hot foot it uptown to the flatiron building. Man, that really IS flat. Amazing. Madison Square Gardens is just around the corner, but all we have time for is a photo. Too bad. Off to Grand central station via the empire state building, which ends up being a fizzer, as the line is HUGE. We'll do the Rockafellar center first thing in the morning instead. Grand Central here we come. Now, this really is worth a look. What a complex - and surprisingly schmick (read: marble walls and floors)... much neater and impressive .. more-so than any other public place we've seen before. The grand hall is quite a sight with it's 50 meter high windows and its restaurants on mezzanines around the edges. (once again, see the pics earlier in this blog)
There's a Subway shuttle between Grand Central and Time Square.... which turn out to be just another subway train, and this get's us across to Time Square in no time at all. The subway is starting to get busier now, which is what I really wanted to see. The popular claims are that this is the busiest subway (measured on people carried per day) in the world, and it's starting to look like it. Cool.
Up the stairs at Time Square and ...... nothing. Damn. Must've taken the wrong exit. A quick wander along.... 5th Avenue get's our bearings, and in a few minutes we're smack in the middle of the most concentrated gaggle of big video screens I've ever seen.
Aside: when you pop up from a subway in New York, it's sometimes very difficult to get your bearings, as the blocks are large, and the sun is often obscured. We often had to walk to the nearest corner to see the street signs before we knew which street we were on, and what direction we were heading. Now, this doesn't sound too bad, but (now) amongst 1000's of other folk wandering about, it can take 10 minutes of walking to get your bearings, and if you've started walking the wrong way.... there goes 20 minutes on a round trip!
Time square is definitely impressive, and a few minutes just standing there starts to give you an impression of what it must be like on New Years eve with 100's of 1000's of folk having the mother of all street parties.
We decide to go and find TCKTS - the quite well known broadway discount ticket box office. A quick sms to Kristy and she tells us where it is, and we discover it's moved, but not too far away.
Monday 2pm - New York / Time Square
We jump in the TCKTS line, which doesn't open until 3pm, so we're got some time to chill out. Sarah isn't feeling well, so she leaves me to wait in line, and heads back over to the Hotel for a nap. (Luckily) I get chatting to the lady in the line next to me - she's from New Jersey, and is getting tickets for her and her daughter. She saves me by telling me that I need cash, and is happy enough to kep my spot in the line while I duck back to Time Square to visit a charity booth @ Bank of America. That would've been a bummer to wait an hour only to not have enough cash.
At about 2:45, the boards listing the available shows springs to life .... Bummer. Phantom of the Opera isn't there. As it turns out, Monday is also "dark", which means that a lot of the more popular shows aren't on that day, and I don't know anything about the ones on the list. Oops. Now our lack of preparation is starting to bite us. I jump out of the line, deciding to try to find the Phantom box office itself. This is harder than I thought, as the address I had looked up before we left wasn't right...doh. There goes another 40 minutes. A quick call to Sarah, and she finds the address on the internet back at the Hotel, and I'm there @ 3:30. The short line move quickly - mostly, I quickly discover, because the show is sold out. Boo Hiss. Damn. And Grrr. Should've just pre-booked. Shoulda Coulda Woulda.
Another quick call to Sarah with the names of the shows on sale back at TCKTS and we decide on "Title of Show". I get the tickets, and head off to Brooklyn Bridge. The subway is REALLY getting busy now, and it's squeezing room only across to the Brookyln Bridge station. Grabbing a bottle of water on the way back through Grand Central turned out to be a good idea, as walking across the bridge was surprisingly uphill, as the walkway was built with quite a camber. This was definitely worth a visit, as there is an observation deck in the middle of the bridge, affording some really spectacular shots of the harbour and the city. It's also a Civil Engineers idea of heaven to wander about on such a famous engineering achievement. With a cool breeze blowing down the harbour, it's also nice to sit down for a few minutes too.
Well, no rest for the wicked, and I'd better get back to the Hotel to get changed, and drag Sarah of to a show on Broadway.
Hour 46 - 5:30pm Sunday
After our quick nap, we grab our Metro passes and once again jump down to the 96th street subway, and head downtown to Eight Mile Creek Aussie restaurant on Mulberry St, Little Italy, NY. The restaurant is owned by a few Australian guys from Whyalla. It's starting to get dark ,and for the first time, it seems a little spooky coming back out of the subway on lower broadway. Eight Mile is only a few streets away, and we're there in no time. It's a cute little restaurant, with an upstairs and downstairs bar, and a beer garden out the back. We settle in for a Coopers (even Sarah had a pale ale...!).
We order dinner and end up at the bar eating and chatting to the barman (from New York), a waiter from Sydney, and a very drunk Melbourn'ite that was in NY working for Citibank. We also had a chat to one of the owners from Whyalla, Frank Ford. We are actually good friends with Meg Ford (his sister) so after introducing ourselves, we got down to some more serious drinking... coopers once again, of course. The menu had some obligatory Aussie fare - kangaroo etc... - and meals were pretty damn good, IMHO. As the evening wore on, our little Melbourne friend became increasingly drunk, along with another two Aussies that wandered in - one in a wheelchair, who quite unceremoniously tipped over coming back in from outside.... oh dear. Frank dealt with them in true country style telling them (not so polietly) to bugger off, insisting to throw them in a cab. Just like back home.....
Saying our goodbye's, we head off to the Hotel for a well earned rest. When we get back to the hotel, I enquired at the desk where we could get a can of drink (soda) and ice, and was happily told that there were ice machines and soda machines on every floor. A quick first person survey revealed that this really meant ice on every floor, and coke machines on 4,5,7,9,12 .... hmm, and the ones on 5,7 and 9 were out of coke. I eventually found a couple of cokes, and filled up the ice bucket (us hotels don't usually have fridges, but instead have ice machines on every floor, and you fill up an ice bucket to keep things cold) and proceeded to pass out, quite thoroughly exhausted.
I'm pretty much zoning out at this point, but Sarah is paying attention and overhears a guide telling a group that this ferry doesn't actually stop at Liberty Island. The statton ferry has just pulled in, and Sarah gets both barrels of a JD grumpy gram - the first of the trip. This isn't the ferry we want. Looking back, Sarah didn't deserve the hairy eyeballs that she got, but maybe the haze of a 40 hour commute got the better of me. I really wanted to go to Liberty Island, so I bolt back to the information booth only to confirm that we had been waiting for the wrong ferry.
We jump out of the line to the Statton Island, and hurry back past the subway station, and head towards Battery Park - where the ferries to Liberty Island leave from. We wander past a few ferries, that upon closer inspection are just a bay cruise - not stopping at the statue - and lob at the circular 'battery" building. The park guide booms out a repeated message " tickets to liberty island around to the left" .... he seems bored. We walk around the corner, only to find our first "Disney" line.
Aside: A disney line is a waiting line when you can't see where the line ends, and ultimately have no idea how long the wait really is. It's an exercise in wishful thinking for those folk in a disney line, as just when you think you're close to the front, you turn a corner, or move into a building or room, only to find that there are already 500 people in there waiting. Some might think that this is done on purpose to trick people into waiting for hours on end to get a ticket when they otherwise wouldn't wait for..... but then again, I could be a cynic, right? ..... hmmm...
We hit the end of a line cordoned by strangely permanent looking temporary rails, and wait as the folk in front of us inch forward. About 20 minutes later, we enter the building, only to see the obligatory large room with 5 lines and 500 people waiting. About the same time, an announcement is made that there are no more tickets available for the "base" of the statue today, and the wait for a ferry is 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Sarah and aren't too keen on a 2 hour wait to get a ferry, and Sarah has a brainstorm - there is a short line where the booth signs say "pre-paid tickets", and so she jumps over to it and asks if we can buy tickets for the first ferry in the morning @ 8am. Success. We've got tickets for the island AND the base museum for 8am. Cool. Sarah also bought tickets for the harbour cruise that would allow us to see the Statue of Liberty and the Brookyln Bridge - score one for Sarah - and we walk straight over and line up for the 12:30pm boat.
The cruise leaves as scheduled, and we get an amazing view of Manhattan, The Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. See the pics page linked earlier for the photos. Whilst this took a hour and a half, I'd recommend it to anyone visiting New York, as it gives you an amazing perspective on the scale of Manhattan Island and the surrounding areas. One thing that we wouldn't recommend is the hot-dogs on the ferry - small, and not particularly tasty at all. Dunno what I expected, I suppose, but they did fill a gap.
With the plan set to get the Monday morning ferry to Liberty Island, we once again set of in search of the sights of Manhattan. Sarah wanted to see Wall Street, and we both were interested in having a look at "ground zero". The most striking thing about the World Trade Center is how big the area is. Whilst it is hard to visualise what it would have looked like with two huge buildings in the open space, you really do get a sensation of the enormity of what happened there on Sept 11. Unfortunately, there was construction going on and getting down into ground zero wasn't an option. Interestingly, from one of the viewing platforms around the edge, you can see a few of the train carriages that they haven't removed from what must of been the subway under the building. Kind of eerie, really. The rebuilding of the new towers is well under way, but looks as if it'll be a number of years before they'll be finished.
It takes us over an hour to walk around the Trade Center site, so we head off to the subway to go and see Washington Mews and New York University. Not really sure what the significance of the Washington Mews was for Sarah, but we got some photos, and walked through "Washington Square" to New York University. Haphazard is the best way to describe this campus - not at all like Stanford, or Harvard. Weird.
Hour 44 - 3:30pm Sunday
We're starting to run out of steam, so we jump back down to the subway and head back to Days Hotel and check in. Check in is quick, and after a quick trip up to the 11th floor in THE WORLDS SLOWEST LIFT we dump our stuff in our room, and settle in for a much needed shower and sit down. We're off to the restaurant eight mile creek for dinner, but there's also time for a quick nap.
Hour 36:30 / Start of "Day 2"
We're in New York, and both Sarah and I are keen to get into it, so we bolt to the luggage carousel .... only to wait 20 minutes for our bags in one of the most dilapidated and seedy arrival lounges I've seen. Actually, lounge isn't fair.... it was a crapped out old carousel, a few odd "smarte-carts" and not much else. The really odd thing was actually that there were about a dozen (presumably unclaimed) bags randomly scattered around the floor. We joined the other folk making sure we weren't standing too close to any of them, just in case....
Much to our delight, both the bags came out fairly quickly once things started to move, and it was off to the Air-Train and the Subway. It was a short walk to the elevator, which turned out to be the first of about 6.... up, over a road, down elevator, through a tunnel, up elevator, across a boardwalk, and up elevator again to the actual platform.
Now, I concede that these guys may have got a good price on elevators, but this was quite simply over the top - even for the US.
The air trains run quite regularly, and we were soon trundling along towards the Howard Beach subway station.
Exiting the air train, we visited the last of the many elevators, and landed in the subway transition. This is where we encountered our first moment of the trip where we didn't know what to do next.
We were faced with a wall of "automatic" ticket vending machines for the exit from the air train. Now, up until this point, all of the signs for the air train suggested that the air train was free. So we had expected to simply buy a subway ticket - or if possible a 3 day pass - and jump on the next train to Manhattan. Hmmm. Nope. The options on the vending machines were : Air train, Metro, Metro+ Air train. Now, the first and the third options just didn't make sense ... unless of course the air train is only "free" if you use it within the airport. Ahh.
A few minutes pass before one of the attendants sensed we were stumped. "we want to get a weekly pass for the subway". Oh, you need a $7 exit from the airtrain, go through those gates on the left, use the vending machine on the other side of the hall, and buy a metro pass. OR, you can buy a $5 exit from the airtrain, go through the other gates, and use yet another set of vending machines, and you can get a metro ticket there. .... Duh. Why would we go through the $7 line?
So now we need 2 x $5 tickets, right ? Nope. You buy 1 x $10 ticket, and use it twice by handing it back over the counter. Riiight, Ticket in hand, I shoot through the turnstile (which I might add, it quite obviously NOT designed for people with luggage.... kinda handy at the terminus of an Air Train) then reach back over and swipe it again for Sarah to come through.
We're experts on the vending machines now, so I set about buying 2 x $25 weekly tickets. It all goes well, except this time my credit card is denied. Oooh... heart attack. "It won't let you use your credit card more than once in an hour on the vending machines" adds one of the attendants. You'll need to use another method to pay, or wait. Grrr... but hey, BE-COOL, right....
After trying Sarah's VISA card and finding that it works, it's through another bunch of turnstiles not wide enough for luggage, and down yet another elevator to the train siding. Phew. Maybe now we're off.
The E train to Manhattan was there in under 5 minutes, and we jump on and hurtle towards the Big A. All is going smoothly, until we seem to be going past stations that aren't on the subway map that we've got. A quick scan of the map on the train wall reveals that we're on a different subway line. Hmm... that's not good. We have now missed the station we were going to swap trains to head up to the hotel. Luckily, we had planned a second station station, and both the blue line and orange line would stop at. Now, it turns out that it's normal for trains to deviate from their normal tracks on weekends to enable maintenance, not that we knew at the time!
We jump off at 42nd street (also named "Port Authority" which was initially a worry, 'cos according to the map it's smack in the middle of the island !!) and traverse to the red 1 ... other than a few sets of stairs challenging us to carry our suitcases, we manage to find the right siding for the uptown red 1, and we're off to 96th street station.
Aside: Over the next few days we discovered local vs express, thanks to watching the locals. Local trains stop at ever stop on the line. Express trains stop at ever 4-5 stations. Once you figure this out, you catch an express to a hub station, and catch a local to the station you want. This cuts your travel time in half. Much better.
When we get to 96th street, we are faced with 6 different street exits. By some luck, we manage to choose the closest to our Hotel - Days Hotel on 94th.
Hour 38:30 - Home base @ Days Hotel - 9:30 am Sunday.
We can't check in until 3pm, so we store the bags with the door man who chains them to about 30 other bags in the lobby. After charging the camera and our phones for 30 minutes, and getting a Starbucks, it's out and about to see some sights.
It was quite warm - at least 30 C (whatever the heck that is in Fahrenheit I guess C x 2 + 32 = 82 ish). We decide to walk down Broadway to the Statue of Liberty ferry. Sounded like a good idea, until it took 25 minutes to go 5 blocks ... the ferry is effectively south of 1st ... so, it's take us 4 hours to walk there ... hmm. Luckily, we come across a subway station, and head down to catch the 1 downtown.
These trains run every 3-4 minutes, which is fantastic. The sticker on the wall of the train is helpful telling us that we need to be in the first 5 carriages to get off at the ferries.... unfortunately it's not smart enough to tell us what carriage we're in, So a quick dash forward when we stopped at one station gets us to the 3rd carriage. Cool.
The excitement got the better of us for a few minutes, as we charge up the escalators to the ferry terminal for the Stratton Island ferry. A quick check at the info booth reveals that the ferry is free, which is the first time I'm a little suspicious.
.... See part two.... more to follow....
I think that Sarah took a few minutes to get used to sitting on the left and not driving, but before long we barreling along the freeway towards the Hollywood Sign.
Before we left home I programmed in a few of the popular vantage points into our GPS. Our route took us through some pretty amazing terrain, and pretty soon we came to realise that the Hollywood signs were on a pretty steep bit of hill. We got pretty close really, and after some obligatory photos, and a little more sightseeing, we found ourselves at Universal City - right near Universal Studios.
Feeling a little bit peckish, I decided to introduce Sarah to "In and Out" burger. Now, for those of you who know my mum - Christine - you'd know that she has an innate ability to get a car park wherever and whenever she wants, typically right out the front of places - not on the same scale as certain historical figures that can part water and such, but it sometimes seems that she can MAKE a spot on demand, regardless of how busy a place is. This is known affectionately in family circles as a "Chris Driscoll Park".
Well, we managed a "Chris Driscoll park" - thanks mum - right at the front door, and went in. It had been a few years for me, and I must say the double double cheeseburger was just as tasty as I remembered. Hit the spot nicely. As is more usual than not in American fast food places, the Coke was flat, and I must say, Sarah and I were amazed at how BAD these guys could make a potato chip taste. I mean these things were something else - almost like they were made from reconstituted or frozen spuds, and they hadn't put in enough water.. urgh!
So, we finished our flat coke, and our cardboard stick fries, gave Sarah's brother Joseph a call for his (18th) birthday, and fired up the wheels, and set off again. Destination Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, and Sunset Boulevard. The GPS did it's job once more, and before we knew it, we were rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous on Rodeo Drive. There we 1000's of tourists - just like us I guess - and I must admit, it was kinda cool just to be there. I found a replacement bright yellow convertible for Mr Bukva - a Rolls Royce - parked outside of Gucci with the hood down.
In case I haven't already mentioned it, it was 31 C and windy in LA, and the huge engine in the mustang seemed really good at making noise, but not doing much else - especially the seemingly simple task of running an air conditioner.....
With Rodeo drive behind us, it's off to Sunset Boulevard. Quite unremarkable really (unfortunately), and pretty much tired and ugly - just like the rest of LA IMHO.
Well, time was running on, and we needed to get on back to the airport, so a quick re-routing in the GPS and we're cruising back to the 10 and 405 to the Avis terminal.
Must say, that LA was just as windy, dirty and pretty much run down as I remember... and arriving back at the LAX concrete jungle wasn't much of a disappointment as we though it might be ... New York, bring it on!
After a parking the car in the line that said returns, and taking our bags out of the "trunk", AVIS decided that this line wasn't open anymore - despite processing the 2 cars in front of us, and the car next to us. So we were asked to drive to another line - after they shifted the car next to us so we could get out. And the return lady was quite grumpy when I made HER wait while I walked to 200 yards back to get our luggage. AAARRGGHH - didn't make much sense to me, but hey... we're in America. BE-COOL.
The check in line at Delta was quite short, and we were at the front of the queue in no time. The lady that served us must have been to Qantas check-in school, because she once again gave us seats that were not only different to our previously allocated seats, but once again, not together. I asked for an aisle and a middle, and she obliged, suggesting that we had an aisle and a window because this aircraft was in a 2 + 3 seat configuration in our row. Deciding that we were actually in good hands this time, I decided to accept her explanation, and we dropped our bags at the x-ray machine.
Aside: For those of you that haven't been through a US domestic airport since Sept 11, you may be surprised to discover that after checking in, and tagging your luggage, you'll be asked to wheel your bags to a makeshift x-ray machine, and just leave your bag in a pile of others for ground staff to process. Now, aside from anything else, this is quite disconcerting, as you're basically just leaving your bags in an un-secure area just meters from the taxi / drop-off area. There is a heightened fear that you may never see your bag again....
The security area at Delta was really quick, and we settled in for a Sam Adams and a quick rest.
Before we knew it - actually, it was and hour, but it seemed quicker - we boarded the flight to New York. Amazingly, it seems that Americans actually listen to the boarding staff when they call out line numbers... wow. That wouldn't happen anywhere else in the world I've been to, especially Australia..
Hour 29:00
After making our way to our seats, it quickly sank in that we were sitting in an Aisle and a middle. Sigh. That's none from 4 for the check-in staff... oh well. BE-COOL. We're both pretty shagged at this point, and I think that we both slept for most of the 5.5 hour leg to JFK airport.
Flying in to the East coast at night was something of a treat, as the city light are not only visible, but they create an amazing line of the coast - just like looking at Google earth in "night mode". wow, wow. There is a picture of it from the plane, but it doesn't do it justice. wow.
Hour 00:00 / Day 1
Well, it all began when I (JD) got home from a work function in Sydney @ the (delayed) time of 10:15pm Friday. Not exactly the ideal start packing for a 6:45am flight out the next day.
.. but hey, "Chill out, I'm On Leave" so let's not worry. (BE-COOL)
After a seemingly quick pack, it was a surprise that I had not exceeded the allocated baggage weight, and it looked like everything was packed. (quite a rare occurrence, for a first try)
Quick call to Qantas to "confirm within 24 hours of leaving" that our details, itinerary and seats were all still sorted. Mistake #1 at 1130pm - the aircraft had been changed (presumably due to the little 747 explosion mishap earlier in July) so the seat allocations had been reset. Now, instead of notifying us as it says in my profile, Qantas had moved us from sitting together in row 25 to sitting 5 seats apart in row 49. What the? And because it's less than 24 hours before, the folk on the phone can't make changes because the flight is under the control of the load controller, who doesn't start work until 4am.
Grrr.. oops, I mean, BE-COOL.
Raymond and Emma stayed over and kindly dropped us off at the airport @ 6am.
The short line @ qantas quickly explained itself - it was too good to be true - as the load controller had still allocated our seats together.
The dude checking us in also tells us that we're not on an Airbus, it's now a 747 and we're on a direct flight now, from Melbourne - LA.
After some delicate discussion, he checks with a colleague, and they decide that we're really on the Airbus, it really is going via New Zealand, and we DO want to sit together. Sigh. BE-COOL.
Turns out that we were able to get 2 seats by themselves in the very back row - a new experience.
The flight from Adelaide to Melbourne is full, but uneventful.
The international terminal is quite close to the domestic in Melb, so after a short stroll, we're through customs, and lounging about waiting for launch.
Hour 04:00
The seats to Aukland + LA were in row 58, j+k (which are 2 seats by themselves in the very back row).
Turns out these aren't bad seats. The galley is behind them, and no toilets = good. The host'ies were immediately good fun, and we struck up a friendship with a New Zealand girl who kept crashing the servery carts into out seats.... "lady driver" according to the other staff. Grin - we spent the next 14 hours paying each other out about just about anything. She got back at us when the pilot announced that the all blacks had beaten the aussies in the Bledesloe (?) cup 38-10. Bummer. Bloody sheep huggers! But, BE-COOL, hey.
Hour 07:00
Other than a 90 minute layover in Aukland - and a bumpy take off there too - we settle in for LA.
Lots of good movies on the little screens in the back of the seats, so all in all, a good flight.
Hour 19:00
As usual, LAX is in complete turmoil. The pilots manage to get a shitty park, so we're all on busses back to the terminal - but hey, what's another 30 minutes given we're not flying out until 9:30 pm, so BE-COOL.
After asking 3 ground staff, and getting the usual 3 different answers, we find the delta check in counters, and discover that we can't check in until 6 hours before the flight. After asking 3 more of the helpful - if not completely void of real facts - for the way to AVIS preferred desk to hire a car for the afternoon. Walked across the airport to get a shuttle that picked us up and went straight past where we just were. There goes another 25 minutes... but hey, BE-COOL, right ?
Just when we we're starting to let the jet lag kick-in, we get to AVIS, and ask for a car for the afternoon.
Our luck takes a change for the better, and the guy behind the desk like Aussies. He find's us a Mustang hardtop for $31 dollar (plus tax)... which is better than the $45 I got quoted (for a compact) back in Adelaide. COOL.
Very cool.
So, we stash the bags in the boot, plug in the GPS, and we're off to see the Hollywood sights.
... more to follow... (gotta go see stuff)
... somewhere in Scotland with Dave and Fiona
