Just wanted to post my tip to LA/Hollywood this past weekend.
We got at the airport at 12:30ish. Plane leaves at 2. We find a seat. My wife has never been on a plane and I haven't been on one since 8th grade. The flight kinda freaked my wife out but she was ok (she wanted a window seat too). I'm a big guy so the room wasn't the greatest but I dealt with it. To ease the discomfort I had 2 Rum and cokes.
Plane lands in Phoenix and we stay on for the hour trip to LA. We arrive there at LAX at 5:00 (their time) and Ryan (guy who I'm buying the car from) meets us out front 10 minutes later.
Traffic in LA is fucking horrible. It makes be think twice about the traffic here in Ohio. He's 10 miles from his place and it took us a good 40 minutes to get from the airport to home.
The drivers out there are fucking insane. Cutting you off left and right and are just downright crazy.
We arrive at the mansion. He's renting a room 3 miles from the beach for $700 a month from this lady and the house is 6000 sq feet. The house is worth a cool 4 million. The kitchen alone is probably half our upper portion of the house. We stayed in the "library" as they called it.
Saturday we were trying to figure out what to do. Lori wanted to see the Hollywood sigh and the walk of fame and such. So we headed up there. An hour later (yeah the traffic and drive sucks out there) we arrive there, park in the garage and go walking around. Tourists up the ass everywhere. I'm taking pictures of as many signs and names I could see. One thing is funny though. The black folks were hovered around the Michael Jackson star and taking pictures and the Chinese were all around Bruce Lee's star. We were there maybe an hour if that and then left for the Hollywood sign.
Drive another 1/2 hour to get to the sign. He takes us up to the observatory there where we can't find a spot to park. It's packed. Lori and I jump out real quick and grab a few shots while Ryan is in the car waiting. Get back in and then we leave to go to the Tar Pits.
Won't talk much about this but it was pretty neat. Old Sabertooth tigers and Mammoths along with Sloths (if you've seen Ice Age it's pretty neat).
Left there, went down Rodeo drive, blah blah and then left Hollywood.
We were extremely tired so we went to bed at 9 pm and got up at 6 to be on the road at 7. Ryan signed the title over to me and we were on our way.
The drive through LA wasn't too bad for a Sunday morning. Then Arizona was cool because it was 75 mph and you could go 85 easy. It just sucked on gas mileage because of all the hills. We get to New Mexico right around 7 pm and hit up some Applebees around the corner for some beer and food. I couldn't sleep that night so I couldn't go to bed until midnight and I had a wake up call at 6 am.
Monday was the worse day of driving because I was so tired. I had Lori drive for about 5 hours and on the next fillup I took back over. NM was also 75 mph which helped. The sunrise coming up over the mountains was very cool.
We arrive in Joplin Missouri around 7 pm as well and grab something to eat and hit the sack early. Get up again at 6 am leaving at 7 and we're home by Tuesday 7 pm almost on the nose.
The car did great. I averaged 24-25 mpg from LA to NM and once we got out of the hills it went up to 28.
The other thing I noticed out there. I'd say 9 out of 10 (in hollywood) owned a Benz or a BMW. There were a few times where we went miles without even seeing a Domestic car. Then go go 1 mile outside of LA and it was gang land (not kidding either). One block it was the mexians, then the next block was the Chinese, then the next block was something else.
I also worse my Ohio State shirts out there on Saturday and thought I was going to get shot walking around there (we passed the USC stadium on the way home).
Anyways.. there's my story. The drive wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I love driving so I kinda liked it. If I had the chance to do it again for this kind of deal I would do it in a heartbeat.
I totaled up the receipts from gas and such. I paid $240 for gas (Ryan filled the tank up before we left LA). Food was somewhere around $200 and Souvenirs were about $30 (yep I'm a cheap ass) and the hotels were paid for already and so was the plane tickets.
Here are some pics. I'll post a few random ones but if you want you can see the 108 photos on the account.
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/buck531/Drive%20from%20LA%20to%20Ohio/100_1124.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/buck531/Drive%20from%20LA%20to%20Ohio/100_1072.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/buck531/Drive%20from%20LA%20to%20Ohio/100_1076.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/buck531/Drive%20from%20LA%20to%20Ohio/100_1158.jpg
Rest of the pictures.
http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/buck531/Drive%20from%20LA%20to%20Ohio/
