26th February

Today I took the BMW south to Las Vegas. It's about a two and a half hour drive, not boring.

12 more Walmart trucks today - 30 in total.

Once I got to the Vegas area I headed towards Henderson and checked out some shops. Kohls and a Walmart.

I arrived at the hotel, the Excalibur, early for check in but managed to get a room. 

I walked a bit of the strip but was pretty tired and ended up back at my room at 6:00pm and flaked out.

Another good day.

Went to a Dennys for breakfast and checked out a Home Depot and a Walmart.

Just after noon I headed to the airport to pick up Scott and Shannon who flew in from LA for a Gwen Stefani concert.

Up until I picked them up I felt I was doing really well with driving and doing things on my own. That all came to a grinding halt. I went to wrong part of Terminal 1 to pick them up. When I found them I couldn't get the boot of the car open much to Scott's annoyance. Then I put the wrong location into the GPS for their hotel and we went well out of our way. Finally, I hope, I ran a bad red light as I was trying to get us to the hotel. I am sure Scott would suggest more errors but that will do for now. Pretty depressing.

After dropping off Scott and Shannon I stuffed up the way back to my hotel but that's OK. Nobody noticed.

I parked the car at the hotel and headed out onto the strip again. With all that is there I wanted to go to the Coca Cola shop. love that place. Lots of Coca Cola memorabilia. Scott and Shannon caught up with me in the Coke shop, Scott drinking a Pepsi! We had a photo taken with the Coke Polar Bear, quite a character who actually bit me.

We wandered back towards Planet Hollywood where we checked out some shops and actually went into the casino where Scott played a poker machine and put $5 into the one next to him so I had to play. In half an hour Scott lost $25 and I won $16. I gave Scott back his $5 and pocketed the other $11. Big time gambler.

We had dinner at a Rainforest Cafe which h was nice. We parted, Scott and Shannon to their concert and me back to my room.

28th February

Fuelled the car, picked up Scott and Shannon at Planet Hollywood and then returned the car to the rental facility. Shuttle bus to the airport, check in - security and half hour wait for flight. It was a bumpy 47 minute flight to Long Beach. Luggage was quick and we got to Carson in Shannons car.

Quiet afternoon, Scott and I did some grocery shopping at Ralphs. Nice lunch from Maria. 

In the evening we went to the Staples Centre to watch an NHL match between the Kings and the Dallas Kings,

1st March

Scott drove me back to Long Beach Airport where I has booked a car for the next three days. Ended up with a Jeep Cherokee, brand new - 140 miles on the odo.

I had some items I was suppose to post to a friend of Ryan's who lives in Wildomar about 130 K's from LA. I have this new car and so drove out to the friends place and dropped off the items.

Headed back to Carson for a quiet afternoon. In the evening Scott and I drove out to Irvine to a shop that sells Ice Hockey gear. Scott checked a few things out and I bought a pair of skates for Ryan.

We did dinner at an iHop on the way home.

2nd March

Did a bit of shopping in the morning before meeting up with Scott and Shannon. We headed back to there Staples Centre for another NHL game, this time Scott's side the LA Kings v Ryan's side the Chicago Blackhawks.

3rd March

Out for some shopping in the morning and then back to Carson for a nice lunch made by Maria.

In the afternoon I went to my favourite spot near the LAX runway to watch planes land. Very pleasant couple of hours watching planes take off and land. So many A380s, 787s and 777s.

Back to Carson in the late afternoon. I must have been tired as Scott texted me twice and knocked on the bedroom door but I didn't make up.

4th March

Last day in the USA.

Packed, took the rental car back to Long Beach Airport.

Charlie kindly shouted us to Lucilles for lunch. Always nice going there.

Finished packing, and chatted a bit before heading to the airport around 6:30pm. Thanks to Scott and Shannon for dropping me off. They will be back in Oz next Tuesday.

Check in and security was fine. The previous flight from our gate (150), Norwegian Airways to Madrid, was delayed. So my flight was delayed - not good when you have under two hours between flights at Sydney. Our 10:30pm flight took off at 11:06pm. The worst was yet to come.

5th March

QF12

6th March

Late departure, headwinds and a sick passenger saw no chance of making my connecting flight.

Have to wait nearly 4 hours for the next flight. But wait, there is more. The new flight is delayed 2 and half hours.

Bugger.