Friday, 24 - Sep - 1993

Although my alarm was set for 07:15, I slept until 08:10! I must have been tired. I had a hostel breakfast (for USD 2.00) comprising cereal, a pastry and some orange juice. At 09:30, a group of us left for Disneyland (45 miles away), paying USD 15.00 to the driver. He told us that Los Angeles was 75 miles in length! That is almost the same distance between London and Bristol!

We arrived at Disneyland at 10:30. While queueing at the entrance, a group of Australians started celebrating! Sydney had been chosen to host the Olympic Games in 2000! I paid my USD 30.00 (£19.61) entrance fee and took the monorail to Tomorrow World. Once explored, I started walking along Main Street, to take the train around the site. I was surprised at the size of the complex; it was a lot smaller than I had imagined! Unfortunately, some of the rides were not working. During the afternoon, I visited a number of locations, including Mickey's Toontown, Frontier Land and Tom Sayer Island; as illustrated in the following photos.

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There was a street parade at 17:00, that had an Aladdin theme (the following three photos), after which, I went and watched a stage production of Beauty and the Beast (from 18:00 to 18:30). After that, I walked back to Main Street and noticed that a lot of people had taken their place along the kerb, presumably getting ready for the Festival of Lights.

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Joining the group from the hostel, we positioned ourselves at the railway-station-end of Main Street and waited for the procession to pass by.

At 21:00, the lights started going out and the Main Street Electrical Parade started (see the following four photos). It was spectacular, with all the main Disney characters: Micky and Minnie Mouse, and Snow White, etc. The parade finished at 21:35 and we made our way back to the Disneyland Hotel and waited until 22:00 for our lift back to the hostel. We arrived back in Santa Monica at 22:50 and by 23:00, I was in bed - knackered!

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Sunday, 26 - Sep - 1993

I had a lie-in this morning, even though I had another nightmare - I was being chased by a tax man; he was after my life! I eventually left the hostel at 10:30 and walked to Santa Monica Boulevard to take a #4 bus to Downtown Los Angeles. [I was going to take a #434 bus, but the #4 route went along Santa Monica Boulevard to Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.] I arrived at Broadway at 12:30, all for the cost of USD 1.10 (£0.72).

A few shops had Game Boy games in them, but like Santa Monica, the selection was poor! What I did notice was that about 98% of the shoppers were of Mexican origin. For lunch, I had a Burger King "Double Whopper and Cheese Burger" and Sprite for USD 3.80 (£2.48); and very filling it was too! I left Downtown LA at 14:00 and arrived back at Santa Monica at 15:30. After freshening up, I set off for Venice Beach.

What a walk, but it was worth it. There were fortune tellers, palm readers, numerologists, etc. with their stalls, as well as shops selling cheap T-shirts and sweatshirts; but they were seconds! There were many people running, cycling and rollerblading. There was even an area for muscle men to show off! On my way back, I stopped at a stall to see how much body fat I had. [I think that is known today as Body Mass Index?] The measurement was 16%, an increase from 13% when I was working at S.W.I.F.T. (in La Hulpe, Belgium). Before leaving Venice Beach, I wanted to see a Califonian sunset. Much to my dismay, fog started rolling in from the sea! Therefore, I started walking back via the Santa Monica Pier, but there was not a lot to see.

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I checked out of the hostel and dashed around to the post office to send a few postcards back to Europe. I saw an American Express office, where I changed a USD 100 travellers cheque into cash; no commission charge! On my way back to the hostel, I called Thatcham, using the 'magic number'! My ex-wife gave me first refusal of buying the house, as she wanted to move into a cottage. As much as I would have liked to, in my then situation, I could not afford it.

I arrived back at the hostel at 10:00 and joined the group for Las Vegas. We only had to wait a few minutes before the minibus arrived. There was 13 of us, excluding Nick (our driver). We left at 10:15.

We had a lunch stop (salad) at 12:15. At 12:50 (20:50 CET) using the 'magic number', I called Linda (one of 'the crowd' in Bruxelles). She was pleasantly surprised to hear from me. If I wanted to, she offered to put me up upon my return to Europe. She had recently lost her job, and the car that went with it! I then called Peter. He suggested I look for a Game Boy cartridge that contains up to 150 games!

We arrived at Las Vegas (Nevada) at 15:30 and once checked in, I headed for the pool for a while, to cool off. At 17:45, I called my cousin Leslie in Toronto. She said that Suzanne (her daughter) was no longer living with her. The two of them had had a bust up! I said I'd call her again when I had arrived in Vancouver.

Wednesday, 29 - Sep - 1993

Thursday, 30 - Sep - 1993

I awoke at 08:45. The news was that we were leaving at 11:00 instead of 12:00. Our first stop was at the Hard Rock Cafe, where I bought an embroidered sweatshirt. Some time later, on the Interstate 15 road, we passed the Mojave Desert (at the head of Death Valley), with some interesting mirages, and the sign for Zzyze Road! At 14:00, we arrived at Barstow, where we stopped for lunch. On again, and some of the sights that we saw included a dust devil when we crossed the state border into California, a sign pointing to the 'famous' Route 66, and (huge) camper vans towing cars!

I awoke at 07:30 and went for breakfast, but it was not being served that morning. Therefore, I went to McDonalds for a Big Breakfast and orange juice for USD 3.50 (£2.29), plus 2 x USD 8 vouchers for use at Universal Studios. Back at the hostel, the minibus arrived at 09:00, and we arrived at the studios at 09:45. I headed straight for the Back to the Future ride; finally getting in at 10:30. It was very good!. After that, I went down the escalator to E.T., then to Backdraft, and The World of Cinemagic (with special effects). I jumped onto a tram for a ride around the site. Then in order, I watched the Star Trek Adventure (at 14:10), Adventures of Conan (at 15:30), the Wild, Wild, Wild West Stunt Show (at 16:20), and finally Miami Vice Stunts (at 17:00).

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I, and others in the room, were woken at 01:30 by some (Swiss) imbecile, demanding that he had the lower bunk, by turfing out it's occupants! The other room occupants started saying "Sort yourselves out and stop waking everybody up!" and "Go and sort it out downstairs!"

I awoke again at 07:00, was showered and checked out by 07:50, and made my way to the bus stop in 4th Street. The fare was 50 cents; I had 53 cents in coins! The bus arrived at 08:30 and arrived at the LAX Transit Centre at 09:10. At check-in, I was asked to pay USD 25 because I had changed the date of my flight!

I walked to Gate 121 and waited to board CP 504 (Seat 17D on a Boeing 737). I thought: I shall be pleased to leave this smog! We left the gate at 11:25 for the 2½ hour flight to Vancouver. As we flew over them, the girl sitting at the window pointed out Yosemite National Park and Mount St. Hellen to me.