LA

After a good nights sleep, I was up about 8:30 and down for breakfast, with Mum and Dad, We went and packed bags and then drove round to pick up my car from Allamo, rather than be assigned a specific car you are given your documentation then go out into a huge car park and just choose the one you want from the group you have booked, all the cars are open and they all have the keys in them so you can try them all for size, I picked a Pontiac G6 as it has a closed boot, but I could have had a rather racy looking Pontiac (but everything was on show) or a huge people carrier but I figured for just me and nobody else it was a bit over the top (and probably was heavy on juice). Once you've decided on your car of choice you drive to the exit and it's checked off and you leave, simple. First stop in LA was to the Boy Scout's of America HQ in California, They have a huge Office/Training/Store complex jest to the west of Down town LA. I picked up a Scout Shirt and some badges and then back into the mad LA traffic to an Amateur Radio Shop not far away to buy a roof top aerial for my Amateur Radio Walkie Talkie. I also ended up buying a hand-held mic. and a data cable to program the radio and it worked out cheaper than they would be in the UK. Next I tried in vain to get a SIM card for my mobile – I even went to Verizon Mobile phone store and got blank looks of bewilderment at why I just wanted a SIM card and was told that it would not work in my phone. This even when I showed the Sales Assistant that I could use the Verizon Network with my New Zealand SIM in my phone. That threw him and his colleagues completely; how could I be using a New Zealand number on their network when I was from the UK? I gave up! I then had to find a phone box to give Les a ring(not enough credit left on the NZ number) . Les was on the 2nd (South India) tour with me and I had mailed him in advance to meet up for lunch. Eventually I found one outside a Seven Eleven in Burbank and found that Les wasn't that far away so I drove over to his office. We met up and walked down the road to a Mexican restaurant to have a burrito and a horchita drink. The burrito was huge and very spicy, so much I couldn't eat it all but the horchita; which is a drink made from rice was really refreshing and cooled down the spicy-ness of the burrito. After lunch we walked back up to Les' office where he is the Chief Technology Officer for a company which restores films. The kit is the rooms there was definitely not you average PC with a video player plugged in, However they did have and AV room where they could transfer virtually any legacy film to digital format. The even have their own cinema to view and test the films which they restore frame by frame. Interesting place. By now it was getting on for 3:30pm and I still had to drive up to Las Vegas to meet up with my Mum and Dad who had booked us into the Monte Carlo Hotel & Casino there. The SatNav – which was a boon whilst trying to navigate 6 lane motorways in LA – said it was going to be about 4 ½ hours but because of the traffic and stopping halfway for a break I didn't actually get there until around 11pm. I booked in OK to the Hotel. And dropped my bags in the room and just managed to make last orders in one of the Bars (I didn't realise that there we 2 more that were open 24hrs till the next night!) Anyway after all the travelling the day before and the road trip tonight to Vegas after 2 beers I was knackered and went up to my room on the 18th! Floor.