Los Angeles

Well, we drove 400 miles in 7 hours yesterday, and finally arrived in Los Angeles. This brings our total distance travelled to 3,300 miles in 8 days. OS II held up pretty well, and its seats were pretty damn comfortable. I just hope driving out here wasn't too much stress for its aged body.

Our drive yesterday was pretty uneventful. My mom and I drove this same route some time ago in OS I, and we tried to relocate some of the places that we stopped at on that trip. Our most memorable stop was the result of OS I's lack of A/C. We were driving out in the summer and it was damn hot out. My mom started to feel a little ill from the extreme heat, so we pulled over at an old diner that was originally built to serve the soldiers that were stationed at a desert training facility that General Patton had set up to prepare for fighting Rommel in the deserts of North Africa. This diner hadn't seen much action in years, and the only other patrons were a mom with two small kids. Anyway, as I said, it was damn hot out, and so the other mom's son decided that the best way to cool down was to stick his head in the toilet bowl. No joke. He came out with his head soaked in water, and when his mom asked what he had done, he answered.

We weren't able to locate the diner that this happened in, but we didn't try very hard. We did see a sign for a Patton museum, so I assume it was near there.

We stopped for lunch in Palm Springs, at a Roadfood destination that Nat and Melody went to on their (first) honeymoon, Sherman's Deli. The food was great, but the scene was even better. It appeared to be mostly retirees from NYC. Sitting next to us were three aged dudes, very tan and very flamboyantly dressed. The dude who ended up paying for everyone's meals was wearing lots of gold jewellery and an (intentionally) see-through white long sleeve shirt.