Day 1 | Here we go ... Brisbane to Los Angeles
The flight was good, particularly because of the great seats with tons of extra leg and side room and the food was pretty good too.
We arrived at the new terminal at LAX - new and shiney but still with massive queues and overall about an hour to get through.
We got the shuttle to the Alamo to get the car. On the shuttle bus there was a girl who took more than 30 selfies in the 20 minute trip.
We upgraded our car to a Tahoe. It was pretty dirty inside, soft drink sticky in a few places. At the exit gate the lady guard asked if we were happy with everything on the inside - we advised 'It's a bit grubby' - she replied 'Thank you, drive on through' waving me out. Right, chalk that up to my assertiveness failure coupled with her lack of interest.
First stop was Wal-Mart at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Crenshaw Blvd in LA to try and get the SIM card for the phones. We arrived at opening time and felt like we appeared the odd-white people out here in South Central.
We had coffee and water at the McDonalds there waiting for the T-mobile to open. They were awesome and the guy there knew straight away and sorted us out.
While driving out of LA we were waiting at the lights when two guys waiting to cross - one was afro combing the other's hair - as they cross the road the guy with the fro starts yelling at the car next to us 'I got a big fro - you ain't got a fro'. Capital Swag!!
Driving out of the mall there was weird music coming from the rear of the Tahoe (it really is that big that we couldn't isolate where it was). Then when we got on the freeway the back window popped open. Seems in the 'exploring' I had opened the widow hatch in the tailgate and the music was from other people's cars. Luckily nothing fell out on the freeway.
We were now off to Las Vegas, stopping for lunch at Peggy Sue's Diner. This is in Yermo, which is not really a town at all. This is a diner which amazing food with a 1950's nostalgia. Odd but sincere.
The four hour trip to Vegas was stretched out due to it being spring break and a truck accident. We arrived in Vegas and attempted to find our car park for the Casino Royale. Unlike our "Street view" simulation the car park road was shut with road works resulting in wild circling trying to find the back.
After parking in some random Casino car park we then had to find the front again. The sheer distances in Vegas can't be over estimated as the Casinos go out of their way to prevent walking through but get you lost like a maze of pokies. But we made it to the correct reception, checked in and then had to recover the car and the baggage.
Once we had located our room we went for a stroll around Vegas and to find somewhere to eat. We had dinner at the Hash House a-go-go in Harrah's. Awesome food and greats service.
When our orders arrived, they were massive - even the people at the next table asked if they could take photo's they were so impressive. Funny that eating dinner at 10.30pm and the place was packed. We ordered the fried chicken on waffles and a side salad between us and we didn't even finish it.
We finally went to bed at 1.00am. We were buggered. Night all. There were so many highlights today, we couldn't pick one.