Day 11: Saturday 11th September

Tragedy in LA

Today was the anniversary of 9/11 - and, of course, there were a lot of mentions on the TV - but, in no way, could you have called it over the top.

It was, again, very very HOT! We left Vegas without too much trouble (traffic-wise) and drove through more of the Nevada desert (past more Casino resorts, especially at a place called Jean!) - and we didn't actually KNOW when we crossed the border into California and entered the Mojave Desert (although it is probably the Mojave Desert in Nevada too!).

Nevada Landing


A rest area somewhere


Joshua trees everywhere - Bono must've been here ...


they make their crows BIG here


where? (see this page


they were shut

We were going to turn off at the Calico Ghost Town, but decided against it as it was far too hot to walk around too much. Instead, we stopped, in Yermo, near Barstow at a diner called Peggy Sue's! What a swell place!! The walls were covered by photos of 50's rock stars (some signed) and the (middle-aged) waitresses wore bobby socks!!! I forget what we actually ordered - but we were served with plates loaded with food - and none of us could eat all of it. (I wrapped half of mine in a napkin, which I disposed of later!). After a quick look around the shop, filled with rock 'n' roll and old movie nostalgia, we were back on the road again.

curly chips

We stopped, once more, at a garage in the San Bernadino hills, before starting on the seemingly endless (and rather mad) circuit of Los Angeles on the Interstate 10.

train in the San Bernadino hills

We reached our hotel on Sunset Strip, the Best Western Sunset Plaza and checked in. I had booked a suite - and, indeed, a suite was what they gave us. Alas, it had no balcony - and I had rather expected one! In fact, the room was really dark and rather dingy. So we went back to the front desk and asked if they had a room with a balcony. We were in luck! It wasn't a suite, and only had one (king) bed - but it was far nicer than the previous room. "We'll take it."

The view, over Los Angeles, was superb - but the balcony was a little high (for me with my fear of heights).

Joyously, I soon found out that I could access the internet (free!) via the hotel's high speed thingie! I wrote a few messages to the OU, via First Class and was about to send Nick an email with a lot of photos attatched - but we decided to go out to find something to eat first.

When we returned, the laptop wouldn't boot. I was quite distraught! All those lovely pictures - sat on there somewhere - would I ever be able to access them again??

I decided that I didn't like LA all that much. It was Saturday night and sirens wailed through the streets and police helicopters (at least 5) prowled the skies above. There was lots of screaming and shouting - not least from outside our door, where a couple of girls decided to make long-distance phone-calls and one (seemingly) became jilted and there followed a lot of weeping and swearing. Thank goodness for ear-plugs ....

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[ Introduction ] [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Day 4 ] [ Day 5 ] [ Day 6 ] [ Day 7 ] [ Day 8 ]
[ Day 9 ] [ Day 10 ] [ Day 12 ] [ Day 13 ] [ Day 14 ] [ Day 15 ] [ Day 16 ] [ Day 17 ]
[ Days 18, 19 and 20 ]

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