Comfort Inn - Downey

... in one piece as we only had it in a "Gucci" bag (the term they use for the blue and red striped plastic shopping bags). She felt sorry for it (and me!) so grabbed as many as she could and wrapped it up nice and tight before wishing it luck and putting it on the conveyor belt. I said a little prayer - and then realised how terrible it was of me to be praying for alcohol when I had so many other things to be putting my energy into... a safe trip home for instance! With that little ...

Day 10 Thursday 20th November Compensating for the short entry last time, it's essay time!! I'm going to sound so British here talking about the weather, but it is still lovely here! It's been in the high 20s and even when it cools down when the heatwave ends, it'll still be in the low 20s which will be nice (sometimes it's been getting a bit TOO hot) Yesterday, I travelled through some slightly rough-looking areas of LA (don't worry I didn't stop in any!) to ...

... We bedanken de dames en gaan naar die bus. We moeten gelukkig niet al te lang wachten. We zitten toch nog een half uur op de bus alvorens in Santa Monica aan te komen. De afstanden zijn hier echt altijd enorm. Santa Monica is een nog grotere teleurstelling dan de Farmer's Market. Het is hier één groot circus en een enorme massa volk (het is zaterdag) Op de fameuze pier waar iedereen over spreekt, kan je op de koppen lopen. De attracties zijn belachelijk. Er is een ...

... was not bumper to bumper, stop or go 70 mph, and stop again. The time or the day does not seem to matter. You will be happy to know the 405 did not disappoint us on this Saturday afternoon. I said in an earlier blog ...

... making and given that we would have plenty of time to visit theme parks in Orlando, I opted to go to Warner Bros. Once again I vastly underestimated the walking distance to the studio (this will appear as a common theme throughout this blog). When I eventually arrived I joined a 2hr VIP guided tour of the studios ($45) to see the backlots and sets of shows such as ER, Friends and The Ghost ...

... s realities. Once upon a time (not long ago) I thought that the life of a permanent traveler, that dreadlocked guy with a backpack and worn out shoes, to be the ultimate life. After observing these guys and girls in action, I know that it just isn't for me. I simply cannot sit at a table, rolling my own cigarettes, drinking coffee and talking about past concerts for days on end, trying to squeeze every penny out the money ...

... directions to downtown Los Angeles, so all being well and good I was going to be able to get there okay. BG had reserved a hotel room for the day so I had somewhere to drop off all my stuff when I arrived without having to drive around suburbia trying to find where we were actually staying. The drive up to LA was pleasant, but I could feel it getting hotter as I headed north, which meant my scalp ...

... has kindly lent us for the next fortnight. When we arrived at the park it was to find that they are closed during the week in winter (how hopeless at planning are we??!!) so we took a scenic route over the mountains across to malibu, which took a couple of hours on very windy but scenic roads with hairpin bends and steep slopes, which was quite exciting when driving something the size of a small tank!! Anyway we made it safely over the mountains to Pacific highway and went down to ...

I called my best friend back in Fort Wayne, with whom I was in cahoots at the time, from a payphone outside the Best Western we were staying in and although I didn't give him any information on where I was or anything, he still managed to track me down; he put the pieces together, deciphered the clues and informed the authorities... At 8 am, before the sun even rose over the Golden Land of California, two LA County Sheriffs bursted into our hotel room with guns and flashlights ...

... and feel I couldn't find my way out. Sort of how, perhaps, some less "street-wise" victims of the Holocaust must have felt. Next we found ourselves forced to sit on concrete benches in a long drab gray concrete hall that must have resembled the rooms Jews were hoarded into and gassed. TV monitors mounted in cubicles on the wall showed the vibrant Jewish life that existed before the Holocaust. By this time you are emotionally drained as you exit and insert your child's ...