We arrived into LAX at 7am local time on Monday morning. Considering we left Australia at 11am on Monday I felt I was very productive over -4 hours
First of the plane, first to Customs and Border security.
A few things I noticed at first glance in America.
1) Not very jovial. Most of the workers at airport just look plain pissed off. The guy who scanned my fingerprints and interogated me about my trip was not a guy I wanted to have a beer with.
2) Everybody, and I mean everybody, in uniform, was carrying a gun. I think I passed about 30 of them in my first 5 mins.
We breezed through customs and were outside waiting for the crew bus before the crew even arrived. Then there was a 40 min bus ride to the crew hotel, the Hilton Hotel at Long Beach.
Long Beach
We get into the hotel, the crew is all stuffed so they retire pretty quick, so we get Brad's mate Miguel (a self confessed Asain/Mexican - Asiacan) who works at the hotel to drop us of at car rental to pick up some wheels.
We go to the local Budget rentals, meet another of Brad's friend from her we hire this:
$220 for 4 days. Unbelieveable.
We then head around the corner to the "Ghetto" part of Long Beach to the local Albertsons (supermarket). We head straight to the Alcohol to pick up some thank you presents for the crew. Everything is so cheap.
Slabs are max $19.99. Jacks is $14.99. Beam $15.99. Vodka $12.99. Range is massive.
We get what we need and head over to Walmart for the other most important part of the trip.
BB Guns.
We pick up 2 handguns (1 with laser sight) and a rifle with 2000 pellets for $83. Great for the Mojave Desert. I have to admit I felt a bit weird carrying a rifle out a store and down the street.We headed back to the hotel to drop off the presents and then headed over to Jersey Mike's for lunch.
Jersey Mike's is a chain similar to subway. The main difference is they slice the meats in front of you on a meat slicer, and the size of the buns. A regular is around a normal footlong, while a large is around 20 inches (50 cm). They're massive.
We both ordered the New Jersey one, with was 5 meats, double thick (ham, salami, pepperoni, cappucini, and one other), provolone (cheese), lettuce, tomato, onion and red wine vinegarette.
It was sublime. It got better and better with every bite.
LA Freeways
It wasn't a warm day, maybe 20 degrees max, overcast, but there is no way in hell we weren't driving with the top down. We hit the freeways pretty quick, lead foot most of the way. These freeways are 5 lanes each way, with the inside (fast) lane usually being a carpool lane for 2 or more people in a car. Apparently no-one drives in LA with anyone else so it was always empty.
Speed limit is 70 MPH. I honestly don't think we dropped below 90MPH. And this was (in the beginning anyway) just to keep up with the flow of traffic. We travelled for about an hour on the outskirts of LA, changing freeways 3 times. This part of LA is all the same. Sprwaling concrete jungle. No trees. Massive billboards everywhere. Fast food at every exit. We even passed the Bicycle Casino at one stage.
After about an hour we were outside the city limits (not that I knew that, it looked the same) we were passing through an area called Rancho Cucomunga. That's seriously what it's called. We were on the freeway and saw an absolutely massive Bass Pro Fishing and Hunting store. Brad is an avid shark fisherman and supplies in the US are about 20% the price of home, so we decided to check it out.
There is no other way to decribe it. The place was f***ing massive. I will post photos but it really is unbelievable.
They had everything. We spent 2 hours there. We were just cruising around at one stage and wandered into the rifle section. OMG. Rifles, shotguns, hanguns, thousands of them. Staggering. They are all on those retractable wires like at mobile phone store so you can pick them up and "test" them. That was a good half hour wasted in there.
When we finally left we got back on the road and headed towards the San Bernadino Valley.
More to come...
