Starting out

After we left the day room there was a short train ride from Terminal 2 to it's satellite terminal. It's around 300 metres/yards and the train just goes up and back, so no delays. We had a short wait at Gate 91 before boarding our American Airlines Boeing 777 flight AA170 to LAX.

Once again we left on time - although there was a long taxing period to the runway and then a 10 minute wait for flights ahead of us to depart and other flights to land.

The seats on this aircraft were a litle closer and we both found it difficult to get comfortable. There is an entertainment system on the 777, a TV in the rear of the seat ahead of you. We had no way of knowing what was on and so after take off I surfed the channels and was a little disappointed with what I found. There was 12 channels and some were Japanese. There was a classics movie channel which was showing All The President's Men and a couple of other movie channels which showed more current movies such as Alvin and the Chipmunks. Both these movies were watched in part over and over again but as our mate Glen says in the Travel Tips area of this web site the best entertainment is the flight map showing where we are. I was lucky as Rayls left her TV on the map whilst I watched the movies, glancing regularly at the map on the seat next to me. The map was less exciting than normal given there was a Japanese cycle which left me a little confused.

We approached the cost of the USA just above San Francisco before making landfall 100 miles or so from LAX. The views as we came in were just awesome. About a half hour before landing the captain came on the PA and announced that this was his last flight after 30 years as a pilot with American Airlines - he opened up a bit and after a chat there was a round of applause from all the passengers. Kind of cool, although we then had to go through the Japanese translation. Why is it that it always seems to take the Japanese twice as long to say the same thing that was just said in English. The vast majority of passengers (80%?) were Japanese so you can't knock the Japanese content on the flight.

We had a great view of LA as we came in to land and the captain's last landing was text book. Perfect.

Disembarking the 777 took some time as we had to be bused to the international area. By the time we got to the Immigration area there was a long line of up to 500 people ahead of us. US Citizens have this much shorter line but alas we were 100 people beyond the rather lengthy maze system they have in the immigration area. However things went pretty quick and within 45 minutes we were past the Immigration area and collecting our bags which had been taken off the carousel and were waiting for us. Customs was much easier and within a few minutes we were out on the street having bypassed the area where people wait to meet incoming passengers. Nobody there to meet us!

An Alamo bus was just pulling up as we exited the terminal and we rushed across to board it. There was no real hurry as the shuttle buses come through every few minutes. Bags loaded we headed to the Alamo facility where we waited in line for about 15 minutes before being served. The gentleman behind the counter was very keen to upgrade us to a larger car at $11 a day - no thanks. Then he offered roadside protection at $4.95 a day - no thanks. He was annoyed as the car had been pre-paid and he got no commission from us and made a big deal about making sure we took a compact car from the lot.

There was about 10 cars to choose from and I was tempted by a VW (not the bug type) but we ended up with a blue Corolla because we drive a Corolla at home. There was much going to the wrong side of the car as we started out loading the car and then we took some time to get the GPS to work. Sadly it is in metric which is different to the distances here but we will manage.

We loaded in the coordinates for the Glendale Galleria Shopping Mall and off we want but we were headed the wrong way as for some reason the GPS had locked onto LAX. We fixed that and were soon on our way again. Traffic was OK but roadwork’s near the Galleria were a pain. We had intended to visit a number of stores in the Galleria including a Lego store for our friend Glen back home. We spent half an hour there but decided to push on as we were tired and a little bit queasy.

We put in the coordinates for the Days Inn in Barstow and after 2 hours arrived there at 5pm. It was an OK drive especially after we left LA. We both like Barstow, not sure why but we do. The service at the Days Inn was excellent and we were soon in our room. Our first taste of American differences when we were asked if it was OK if we had a room on the first floor. I had visions of lugging the luggage up a flight of steps but then remembered that in the US the first floor is what would be the ground floor back home.

The room was great and after settling in we headed to the Wal-Mart where we bought bottled water and numerous toiletries and other bits and pieces for the trip. We met up with Robert, a Wal-Mart associate, who gave me a 'bless you' after I sneezed in the tissue section. Sadly the sneeze resulted in me eventually getting a cold but before that we chatted with Robert for some time. Nice guy and we gave him our business card and noticed subsequently that he has left a message in our guest book.

After Wal-Mart we headed off the Denny's for dinner. We were served by Trena, a lovely lady with whom we chatted about tipping procedures and a few other things. Food was good and we enjoyed our stay.

Back to the hotel around 9pm - it had been a long day. A very long day, it started a few minutes after we left Perth and included a 9+ hour flight to Tokyo, a 8 hour lay over in Tokyo and a 9+ hour flight to LA before a 2 hour drive to Barstow. Somewhere between Tokyo and Barstow we had crossed the International Dateline.