We were in LA and had seventeen days left before we would fly home and the trip would really be over. It seemed like a long time at first, as long as many peoples traditional holidays but we had a lot to do and were kept busy most days.
We were overwhelmed by the generosity of the boys Daniel and Tom who offered to have us back at their place in New Port Beach and when we arrived we couldn’t believe the little set-up Daniel had created for us in the garage. He had pumped up an air bed and made it up with sheets and pillows, there was a couch and a table all toped off by fairy lights on the ceiling. It would be our home and base for the coming weeks with Daniel and Tom as well as ttheir wo other flatmates Josh and Christina. Did I mention that the complex had a pool, a hot tub and tennis courts; these people were living the dream and we were pretty happy to be there with them!
We were overwhelmed by the generosity of the boys Daniel and Tom who offered to have us back at their place in New Port Beach and when we arrived we couldn’t believe the little set-up Daniel had created for us in the garage. He had pumped up an air bed and made it up with sheets and pillows, there was a couch and a table all toped off by fairy lights on the ceiling. It would be our home and base for the coming weeks with Daniel and Tom as well as ttheir wo other flatmates Josh and Christina. Did I mention that the complex had a pool, a hot tub and tennis courts; these people were living the dream and we were pretty happy to be there with them!
On day one we decided to go to the supermarket as after all this traveling around America Will and I had had more than our fair share of burgers and 50 cent puddings and now we were both feeling a bit fatter for it, Will especially. We joined the Californian juicing band wagon and brought a whole heap of fruits and vegetables. They only had a blender back at the house but we made it work and enjoyed some slightly thick and lumpy ‘juices'. Most were tasty but a few we had to force down. Will drunk only juices for over a week but I still had a few proper meals.
We also did a bit of touristing around while in LA. On our third day we spent hours in traffic to drive over to Hollywood for a look. There we found the Hollywood sign for a few photos and went for a stroll down Hollywood Boulevard to see all of the famous stars that make up the sidewalk. We did our best not to get ripped off by any of the hustlers that were all over the place harassing you for this or that but Will got sucked in by one guy and ended up paying a $10 'donation' for a rap CD. We also drove down the flashy Rodeo Drive and spotted a few very expensive cars but nobody famous. Attempting to google a few famous peoples addresses found us lost in the maze of homes on the Hollywood hills in search of Gorge Clooney’s pad but we didn’t find it and felt like we should have just coughed up and paid for a tour on one of the open toped minibuses we saw driving round everywhere.
For the rest of our first week in LA we sorted out all of our accumulated belongings and listed the Dodge on Craig’s List. With no expectations of it actually selling we also searched for car wreckers and had great fun at a supermarket haphazardly driving a shopping trolly straight into the Dodge much to the worry of some on lookers who must have thought we were a little crazy. We also went on quite a few bike rides and runs to the beach with Scout to keep up our healthy campaign as well as playing a few games of tennis. I guess I should also mention that I had a job interview that week and a few days later I received a job offer. It wasn’t exactly where I wanted to be but it was a good job and money was what we needed, so I gladly took it.
Over the weekend Daniel had a big party planned for his birthday and we were invited to celebrate too. The boys started the Saturday off with a trip to the donut shop where Will and I couldn’t resist and brought a maple bacon chocolate covered donut each! Next it was off to Nostrum Rack (an outlet clothing store) so they could buy some new digs for the party. It was quite cute watching Tom and Daniel shop together they were like an old married couple. Before returning home we stopped in at Costco and were blown away at what you could buy there, let alone how much you could eat just by visiting all the free food stalls! Will and I were wishing we had discovered Costco a long time ago. We brought some corn chips, salsa, sausages and of course plenty of alcohol. Back at the house our garage bedroom was transformed into a party room complete with an all American beer pong table (we would spend the night in the loft of Daniel's room). Later all dressed up in our new clothes Daniel ordered the biggest pizza that we had ever seen, one slice was still bigger than a dinner plate! Then people started arriving and we got lost talking the night away to all of Daniel friends and playing beer pong, it was a really fun night even for Scout who was so popular he crashed out by ten!
The next morning we all felt a little grey but Tom and Daniel knew just the cure, a bike ride to the beach; stopping in for some delish breakfast burritos on the way. It was like we were living in an American movie set riding our bikes through the classic Californian beach streets with vibrant people everywhere.
By the following Tuesday (or day nine) Will had managed to sell the Dodge! Some crazy guy from Chile wanted it and because he was Chilean he could buy it legally and everything. Will told him about all the problems it had but he was more interested in hearing about our trip in it. The guy spoke of his dreams of driving down to Chile himself and now he had apparently found the perfect vehicle. The guy was super nice and after a long hot day going to the embassy to transfer the ownership he even took Will to a little real deal Chilean restaurant and brought us a big box of genuine Empanadas! But best of all the guy was happy for us to keep the Dodge until we flew out in eight days time. Winning! What we didn’t tell the buyer was that we were actually going to drive it 780km to Flagstaff, Arizona for Overland Expo that weekend...
By the following Tuesday (or day nine) Will had managed to sell the Dodge! Some crazy guy from Chile wanted it and because he was Chilean he could buy it legally and everything. Will told him about all the problems it had but he was more interested in hearing about our trip in it. The guy spoke of his dreams of driving down to Chile himself and now he had apparently found the perfect vehicle. The guy was super nice and after a long hot day going to the embassy to transfer the ownership he even took Will to a little real deal Chilean restaurant and brought us a big box of genuine Empanadas! But best of all the guy was happy for us to keep the Dodge until we flew out in eight days time. Winning! What we didn’t tell the buyer was that we were actually going to drive it 780km to Flagstaff, Arizona for Overland Expo that weekend...
Before heading to Overland Expo on our “final ever road trip in the Dodge” we deviated south to the city of San Diego to catch up with friends Eric and Jessica. They were the couple that first put us in touch with the guys in New Port and we originally met them way back in Peru. They had now both taken jobs in San Diego and had a nice apartment there. The one and a half hour drive to San Diego took twice as long as it should have due to the massive wildfires raging in the hills nearby the interstate. We saw plenty of fire trucks and helicopters buzzing around it was all quite exciting as well as a little scary. We arrived in San Diego around 3pm and while I was keen for a look around Will simply wanted to chill out at a local park and wait until Eric and Jessica got home from work at 5pm so thats what we did. 5pm rolled around soon enough and we eventually found the right apartment then enjoyed a lovely alfresco baked salmon dinner. It was always great catching up with people we already knew as we didn’t have to explain as much. We stayed the night at their place then after checking the fires hadn’t progressed any further and yet another hug goodbye we hit the road for Overland Expo.
It was a long hot seven hour drive to Flagstaff Arizona where the nicest place to be was inside the air-conditioned Dodge. When we did finally arrive at Overland Expo we were blown away by how many decked out vehicles there were and thought to ourselves, are these all overlanders or just extremely expensive weekend toys? After checking in and collecting our free traveller passes we went looking for a place to camp. Immediately we met kiwi couple Ben and Emma of Flightless-Kiwis who had been in touch with us before they left NZ and were just starting out on their own Pan-American adventure. We chatted for a bit then planned to meet up again later. The camping field was filling up rapidly as hundreds (if not thousands) of vehicles rolled in and began setting up their campsites. We parked up and went in search of our other friends, it was an epic reunion when we found them all parked in the featured vehicle section! We had not made the featured vehicle cut but Brenton from Ruined Adventures and Luis from Lost Word Expeditions quickly convinced us we had to be there with the rest of the gang. So after sneaking the Dodge past the orange road cones, we settled into the featured vehicle section. It was filled with other real deal overlanders and really it was where we were meant to be.
It was a long hot seven hour drive to Flagstaff Arizona where the nicest place to be was inside the air-conditioned Dodge. When we did finally arrive at Overland Expo we were blown away by how many decked out vehicles there were and thought to ourselves, are these all overlanders or just extremely expensive weekend toys? After checking in and collecting our free traveller passes we went looking for a place to camp. Immediately we met kiwi couple Ben and Emma of Flightless-Kiwis who had been in touch with us before they left NZ and were just starting out on their own Pan-American adventure. We chatted for a bit then planned to meet up again later. The camping field was filling up rapidly as hundreds (if not thousands) of vehicles rolled in and began setting up their campsites. We parked up and went in search of our other friends, it was an epic reunion when we found them all parked in the featured vehicle section! We had not made the featured vehicle cut but Brenton from Ruined Adventures and Luis from Lost Word Expeditions quickly convinced us we had to be there with the rest of the gang. So after sneaking the Dodge past the orange road cones, we settled into the featured vehicle section. It was filled with other real deal overlanders and really it was where we were meant to be.
Over the next few days we meet hundreds of different people and saw all sorts of overland rigs, we dreamed about what we would what now, how we would have done things differently and participated in a few Q&A’s which were quite funny. Everyone was so concerned about trivial things but all they needed to do was get out there and do it. Not go to classes such as: Paranoid or Practical? Real Life Tips for Security on the Road or Overland Adventuremobile Building vs Buying. The classes we liked the best were those from the legendary Life Remotely crew. They were cooking classes using techniques from life on the road and once the cooking was done everyone got to do some eating! They even did a full on Argentinian BBQ which had the punters drooling all day as it sizzled and smoked over the fire.
On the second day Will and I signed up to drive a few different brand new vehicles through the purpose built off-road course. It was totally awesome and we couldn’t understand why more of the others didn’t have a go. In the end we both drove a Range Rover Sport, a Jeep Wrangler and a V8 Dodge Powerwagon pickup through the course it was so much fun, I even managed to get the Range Rover a little stuck on the mud slide until the fancy electronics kicked in and had me on my way. We would have loved to have driven our Dodge through the course if only it wasn’t so broken, and lacking, and… already sold. Will reckons if it wasn’t sold we would have just thrashed it for fun on the course until it was no longer. It would have made a good end to the story for the grandkids.
By Sunday we were done looking at expensive vehicles we couldn’t have, but otherwise we had had an incredible weekend catching up with old friends and meeting others we had until then only known though online traveling forums. The Overlanding community was alive and well and we were so glad to be apart of it.
Our long drive back to LA was going well until once again one of our worn tyres gave up the fight. It was excruciatingly hot outside and we were lucky to just make it off the interstate and come to a stop in the shade of an underpass. Without our jack (which had gotten crushed in Alaska) we would have to rely on the kindness of others to help us out. That or walk under the burning sun to the nearest mechanic or gas station. We attempted to flag down a few vehicles but had no luck; twenty minutes later a Desperate Housewives type family towing a boat pulled over to offer a hand. The guy got their jack out and sort of tried to help but his cleavage bearing wife was stressing out about being late to pick up a new puppy so they left and said they would call AA and stop to help again on their return. After the family drove off an old guy it a beat up truck pulled up and asked what the problem was. Turned out he lived not far away and he went off to go grab his sons jack. He returned a few minutes later with a big mechanics jack and before long we were back in action it was our 13th flat of the trip. Please let there be no more!
Our long drive back to LA was going well until once again one of our worn tyres gave up the fight. It was excruciatingly hot outside and we were lucky to just make it off the interstate and come to a stop in the shade of an underpass. Without our jack (which had gotten crushed in Alaska) we would have to rely on the kindness of others to help us out. That or walk under the burning sun to the nearest mechanic or gas station. We attempted to flag down a few vehicles but had no luck; twenty minutes later a Desperate Housewives type family towing a boat pulled over to offer a hand. The guy got their jack out and sort of tried to help but his cleavage bearing wife was stressing out about being late to pick up a new puppy so they left and said they would call AA and stop to help again on their return. After the family drove off an old guy it a beat up truck pulled up and asked what the problem was. Turned out he lived not far away and he went off to go grab his sons jack. He returned a few minutes later with a big mechanics jack and before long we were back in action it was our 13th flat of the trip. Please let there be no more!
Back at Newport Beach on Monday Will went and got another tyre for the Dodge so at least it did have a spare if the new owner got a flat which was highly likely given how worn they all were. The buyer was pretty understanding of it all though considering the latest tyre was also a size smaller than all the others and yet a size bigger than the spare. Meanwhile I lounged my lily white Alaskan body by the pool feeling very pale next to Christina’s golden Californian tan.
On the 20th of May or day sixteen Will and I left Scout at the house and went to Universal Studios. We had planned to go last week but I wanted to wait until the Jurassic Park ride re-opened. It was a whirlwind day of fun at the theme park where we made it our mission to see every show and go on every ride as efficiently as we could and hardly waited in any lines. We both thought the Transformers ride was out of this world, it was so good it was hard to tell the difference between what was on the 3D screen and what was real as we were shot through different sections. The Water World stunt show was just as good as I remembered it being fifteen years ago and little had changed in the Studio Tour but we still really enjoyed it. By 3pm we were ready to leave, it was after all Scouts last day with us until back in New Zealand.
On the 20th of May or day sixteen Will and I left Scout at the house and went to Universal Studios. We had planned to go last week but I wanted to wait until the Jurassic Park ride re-opened. It was a whirlwind day of fun at the theme park where we made it our mission to see every show and go on every ride as efficiently as we could and hardly waited in any lines. We both thought the Transformers ride was out of this world, it was so good it was hard to tell the difference between what was on the 3D screen and what was real as we were shot through different sections. The Water World stunt show was just as good as I remembered it being fifteen years ago and little had changed in the Studio Tour but we still really enjoyed it. By 3pm we were ready to leave, it was after all Scouts last day with us until back in New Zealand.
The following morning we were up early and drove across town battling to keep the wobbly Dodge straight on the highway to meet the man from Pacific Pet Transport. The pet exporter had two dogs to export that day and we literally couldn’t believe it when he said both of them were called Scout and both of them were Golden Retrievers! The other one was going to Australia so we really hoped they didn’t get them mixed up. It was a sad moment saying good bye to Scout and we couldn’t wait to see his big brown eyes back in NZ.
Back in Newport we felt a bit lost without our constant companion but there was no time to waste we had to get packing! The packing wasn’t going so well though and it became evident that we would need another checked bag. Thats after already buying two extra checked bags brining our total to five plus our two already overloaded carry on bags. Will brought another online and we borrowed the neighbours travel scales to make sure we were within the limits.
That afternoon the Chilean guy came with his son to pick up our Dodge. $1,200 dollars and a few photos later and our home for a year and a half was gone for good. It all felt very surreal. For our final evening of the trip we went out with the boys and their friends for epic 60 cent chicken wings and $10 cocktails it was loads of fun and we couldn’t have had a better last night in LA. Cheers Guys!
That afternoon the Chilean guy came with his son to pick up our Dodge. $1,200 dollars and a few photos later and our home for a year and a half was gone for good. It all felt very surreal. For our final evening of the trip we went out with the boys and their friends for epic 60 cent chicken wings and $10 cocktails it was loads of fun and we couldn’t have had a better last night in LA. Cheers Guys!
Despite having all day to pack the last day of our Kiwi-Panam adventure was a mad rush; by 5pm we had every bag packed to within a few grams of the limit, had tidied up the house and then loaded everything into Daniel’s BMW. It was a 45 minute drive to airport according to google so with over an hour we thought we would have heaps of time but we had forgotten about rush hour traffic. Daniel promised us we could still get there in time but then we realised the BMW was low on gas and it was possibly my fault… I had taken the Beamer out that morning for some last minute shopping. I needed a dress to wear to a friends wedding back in NZ the following week and I’d found an awesome one but that was besides the point right at that moment. Daniel took it all in his stride and pulled into a gas station and filled up calm as ever then proceeded to weave in and out of traffic to get us to the airport on time. He pulled up perfectly outside the correct terminal and after a incredibly sad good bye to a guy who had become a genuine lifelong friend we ran inside.
We checked in and with relief the combined total of our bags came in at only a few hundred grams under our total limit. One lady made me weigh my carry on which was, quote “substantially over the limit”. She told me to take some stuff out which I pretended to do and then in the rush I stuffed it all back in and moved on. We then watched our bags get x-rayed and then opened and searched. They had quite a time pulling all our bits and pieces out to get to the bottom of one bag only to discover the snow chains and in another they were undeterred by five layers of plastic bags to discover it was maple syrup in the bottle we had carefully wrapped. We watched to make sure they put everything back in and then went to find our gate. The flight was already boarding and before we knew it we were onboard the Air New Zealand 777 homeward bound! Only then did it start to sink in the trip was done, finished, over. In thirteen hours time we would be home, back to the real world but also back with our families. I morned the loss of our simple freedom but we had many things to look forward to back home. We were excited to say the least.
A feeling of euphoria swept over us as we walked through the arrival gates and we had the Go Pro rolling as we set eyes on both of our families for the first time in one and a half years. We both gave everyone a big tight hug and Mum and I blinked back a few tears but finally we were home!
Rochelle & Will
We checked in and with relief the combined total of our bags came in at only a few hundred grams under our total limit. One lady made me weigh my carry on which was, quote “substantially over the limit”. She told me to take some stuff out which I pretended to do and then in the rush I stuffed it all back in and moved on. We then watched our bags get x-rayed and then opened and searched. They had quite a time pulling all our bits and pieces out to get to the bottom of one bag only to discover the snow chains and in another they were undeterred by five layers of plastic bags to discover it was maple syrup in the bottle we had carefully wrapped. We watched to make sure they put everything back in and then went to find our gate. The flight was already boarding and before we knew it we were onboard the Air New Zealand 777 homeward bound! Only then did it start to sink in the trip was done, finished, over. In thirteen hours time we would be home, back to the real world but also back with our families. I morned the loss of our simple freedom but we had many things to look forward to back home. We were excited to say the least.
A feeling of euphoria swept over us as we walked through the arrival gates and we had the Go Pro rolling as we set eyes on both of our families for the first time in one and a half years. We both gave everyone a big tight hug and Mum and I blinked back a few tears but finally we were home!
Rochelle & Will