Here I sit at Ontario International Airport, that's the Ontario that is just a short distance out of LA. I am using the Dunkin Donuts Wifi which seems to be better than the airport wifi.

Today had to be the potential to be a pain of a day but it has turned out OK, other than our plane to Seattle has been delayed just over an hour.

We started out at Barstow and drove the 210 kilometres to Carson which is a suburb of LA. We called in to see Maria and Charlie, our daughter in law to be's parents. Chatted for an hour or so and dropped off some excess luggage.

Then we headed towards Ontario Airport, I wanted to be way early because traffic can be a pain in LA. We shopped at a Walmart and then spent a hour or so at Ontario Mill Shopping Centre.

Got to the airport to drop off the car at just before 6:00pm. Then a shuttle bus to Terminal 2, our flight was scheduled for 20;09 but has been delayed to 9:20pm so well past midnight before we get to Seattle.

 

Much later now, next day! It was 10:05pm before we took off, there was a further delay as we boarded the plane. Apparently there was an error when the power source was plugged into the plane which set off an alarm. We all had to back track to the terminal until a mechanic did a restart/reset.  This delay caused me great stress as the car rental facility closed at 1:00am. We landed about 12:20am and it was a rush to the rental shuttle bus. We got to the rental facility with 15 minutes to spare and found ourselves 3rd in a line with other people soon behind us. We ended up with a Mazda CX30 which had done 9 K's, that's right K's. This car is so new no one had changed it from kph to mph. A bit confusing, I like the GPS in K's but the car speedometer in mph. I like kph on the GPS because 'turn left in 2000 feet' is foreign to me - by the time i figure out how many cricket pitches in 2000 feet it's too late, I prefer 'turn left in 300 metres'.

Anyway, we struggled to get to the hotel, two wrong turns because the GPS was stupid, or maybe it was me - it was 2:00am after all. Check in took a few minutes, the room stunk of cigarette smoke. It was bad enough for me to go to reception to complain and make sure we weren't blamed for it. The reception lady offered to change rooms but I was too tired and off to bed.

Up a little early for my follow up dentist appointment, got the stitches out.

Around 10:30am we said our goodbyes to Amy and Steve and headed to Las Vegas, that takes nearly 3 hours.

Rayls did a Michael's, a Hobby Lobby and a Target.

Then it was back on the road, I15, to Barstow, that's another two and half hours.  We did 4 states today, Utah, down the Virgin River Gorge in Arizona before heading into Nevada and then California. So about 550 K's today, longest driving day of the trip.

Tomorrow onto LA and an evening flight to Seattle.