'Road trip' I collected the car and as ever they charged me more than they had quoted despite the number of times that I had asked them to confirm the price. It was $53 for the rental and $26 for the insurance per day. Never mind they were nice and efficient, especially at sealing the deal. The car I ordered was a small car. I got a Chevrolet Malibu, which is an American small car. In England we would call it a family saloon, about the size of a Vectra.
Mx and I set the ground rules early. I forbade her from talking, unless I was on the wrong side of the road. She freely admits that she witters. She also has an infuriating habit of saying 'this is nice' wherever we go. I have an infuriating habit of saying 'It's alright' in my typical unemotional way. To this end we made a deal that every time she says 'this is nice' she pays me a $ and every time I say 'It's alright' I pay her a $. I think I'm gonna be rich.
Having reacquainted myself with the right/wrong side of the road/car we headed out of LA down Sunset Boulevard until we picked up the Pacific Coast Highway (route 1) at Santa Monica.
We stopped of in Malibu to fill the car with petrol/gas. It cost $18.50 to fill the tank. I guess it will start getting cheaper now we've got Saddam. From Malibu we got the best view of LA, in the rear view mirror. Malibu itself was a little disappointing. It was rather busy and obviously over used.
Further up the coast we stopped off at Zima Beach which was far nicer. The view from the road is pretty stunning although it is spoilt by man. There is a large air force base and off sea oil rigs and plenty of towns en route.
We stopped in Oxnard for an IHOP. The road system is intensely frustrating. How can you be travelling along one route then suddenly find yourself on a different route without having turned off the original route. You've got to keep your wits about you. I just wish they'd put proper junctions on the freeways. Also directions to towns are few and far between. They name the junctions after major routes in the town, unfortunately every town has a Roosevelt Drive, it's just a shame you don't know which town you are in! They seem to rely on the fact that everyone is local. Almost all the cars that pass have California plates. We don't, we have Maryland. That's why everyone is trying to run us off the road.
We later stopped in Santa Barbara. Although this is a very nice place I was still slightly disappointed in it. I guess that I just expect places that people speak highly off to be immaculate. Nowhere I've ever been to has ever been immaculate (apart from Fleet), particularly in America. Maybe I need to lower my expectations.
Having seen no sign of Michael Jackson (he's got more pressing matters apparently) we took the cliff drive out of Santa Barbara. Don't they realise that I'm from Dover (sort of). These aren’t proper cliffs.
We made it through San Luis Obispo to a very small seaside town called Caycuos and found a traditional US motel. The Dolphin Inn actually exceeded my expectations and all for a bargain price of $45.
We had a nice trip up the coast singing (sort of) away to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, My Xmas album, Kevin (Bloody) Wilson (Mx turned her nose up at this), my special compilation and the Smiths. We made some pretty strange noises on the way and if we didn't know the words we just made them up.
