Day 1 Week 1

Well I finally arrived at LAX at 10.10hrs on Thursday 15^th of March US time. Friday Aus time. It took a full hour of standing in queues to get through customs and immigration. All visitors to the US now have to have all their fingerprints and photo taken so it really slows down the whole process.

I met a lovely lady on the plane in the seat next to me. Her name is Mai Bloomfield and she is a folk singer.  She was returning home from a 3 week tour around Aus with Adam Cohen, the son of the legendary singer Leonard Cohen.   She was so helpful, she wrote out 4 pages of info and advice for me to see and do while I am here.  She gave me here contact details in case I need to get bailed out or something if I get into strife.

After exiting the customs hall, I was walking up a fairly steep ramp and there was a little old Mexican lady pushing a baggage trolley with about 4 or 5 bags on it.  Obviously struggling a bit and everyone was just powering past her.  I grabbed the handle of the trolley and offered to help and she smiled and said “Gracias” I pushed it to the top for her and gave it back when it levelled out.  She appeared most grateful so I felt I had done my good deed for the day.  

I got into Tucson at 1700hrs and met my mate David.  Really good to catch up with him after about 15 months. We went over and picked up my hire car and wouldn’t you know it, I got a much bigger and better car than I expected. It is a Dodge with a leather interior and only 7,000 miles on the clock.  It is beautiful! Karma must have been thanking me for the little old lady.

David drove the first 70 miles to his home in Sierra Vista to give me a chance to get use to the traffic on the right side of the road.  OH MY GOD!!!  Everything is flipped. I am literally going to have to learn how to drive in traffic again.   It is sooo different.  We had a quick tour of the town before going for dinner at  a restaurant called the Golden Corral.  It is like our ‘Sizzlers’ on steroids.  So much choice of all you can eat.  It just went on and on.

I am staying in a Holiday Inn tonight and tomorrow that David is shouting me.  Very, very nice room and facilities. 

Tomorrow we are heading down to the Mexican border to see some illegal aliens running through the desert.  After that we are going to Tombstone to visit the OK Corral etc and then back up to Tucson so see the aeroplane boneyard and a few other things.