Los Angeles -
USA from coast to coast

We were given a precise route to Rajivs place but nevertheless we pick a wrong exit and are totally lost in the big city. We drive around for half an hour until we give up, buy a LA-map at a service station and get pinpointed where we are. Then we use Rajivs directions to find Marengo Avenue in Pasedena and finally we are back on track again (or so we thaught). We are entering Marengo from the northern side, Rajivs directions would lead us in from the south - why should that make a difference ? (but it did)

When we found the house with the right number we rang the doorbell, no one answered and waiting a few minutes without Rajiv turning up Shehab telephoned him again from a nearby phone-booth. He was on the phone immediately and couldn't understand we had missed him since he had been home the whole time. We tried the door again but still no one there. A second telephone call and now it began to dawn on Rajiv where we were. The Marengo Avenue is split in two, the Northern- and the Southern part and where Rajiv lived South, we were lost in the Northern. We also couldn't understand the strange part of town he had settled in, perhaps he was trying to save some money and staying cheap but this was a poor district, rather sinister-looking with shady characters walking the streets.

When we finally rang the right house we were greeted inside. We could drop out luggage at his room and freshen up before we would go out and get something to eat.

Tuesday, August 1'st

It is nice to have some friends you can stay with while visiting the States, otherwise Motels/Hotels is going to be too big a part of your budget. We stayed in Pasadena, a very pleasant suburb. It'll only take you half an hour to get to downtown LA or Hollywood, and you can always check the LA Realtime Trafic control to estimate your time of arrival. At first we wanted to get aquainted with the City, it is a bit ambitious to believe this can be done in two weeks, but we were going for the big lines, all the little details could be resolved with the map we had bought. We had made an arrangement to visit Rajiv at the place he worked, Tanner, and go for a bite nearby on his lunch break. It was a typical lunch-place, rather nice and I had a grilled Turkey-sandwich and a coke. We discussed what our plans would be for today and the rest of our stay.

Our most pressing plans for today was to switch cars. There was some plastic thing dangeling onder the hood, I had fixed it temporarely with a piece of string at Provo but Shehab would like to get it fixed and if possible to get hold of a faster car. Rajiv suggested that the three of us should drive up to San Fransisco in a prolonged weekend and stay at his brothers house and explore that part of California from there. Then we would have a week in LA before our return flight. That sounded like a good idea so it was settled.

So we headed off towards Hertz at the International Airport of LA (LAX), Rajiv had given us a map from Hertz so we could find the way, but again we took a wrong exit. We almost drove through the Inglewood part of LA but quickly got back on the freeway. Inglewood is not the place to go by choice, this is gang territory and the place where the Rodny King riots began in '94. At Hertz we got a new car, they could see that something had loosend beneath the engine. They didn't have that much to choose from but the Ford T-Bird was just fine. We took it for a spin up and down the Pacific Coast Highway nearby and made a lunch-break in Santa Monica.

At the main shopping street I found a cool record store and searched among the artists I had on my mind and found a Antonio Carlos Jobim record, that I did not have in my collection back home, and a Rolling Stones singles collection I had to possess. We headed out into the rush-hour trafic with our new Thunderbird to get back to Pasadena, many cars on the road but moving slowly. Not like back home, when there is a cue the traffic usually come to a complete stand-still. Again we got off the freeway one exit too early and we tried to guess where to go but again we were lost. The residents of the neighbourhood might have been puzzled by seing

That evening we invited Rajiv and his room-mate out to eat. Afterwards the room-mate went back while the three of us went to see a movie at the local cinema in Pasadena, Apollo 13. It had been a long day with a lot of impressions and I heard snoring sounds from their direction, they were sleeping like a log.

On the way back to Marengo we tested the acceleration of the T-Bird, there was no traffic and at each stoplight we floored the accelerator and there was a slight smell of burnt rubber. It was like a racing car, a good swap for us. Back at the house I managed to send an Email home to Denmark, just to let them know we made it across the USA without problems.

Wednesday, August 2'nd

Rajiv had taken half the day off so we could leave for San Francisco around noon. So when Shehab and I are finally awake it is noon and Rajiv is back, all ready to go. The trip to northern would take eight hours including stops on the way.