I loaded up the car and found a post office to post off the last parcel home. A quick look through an Antique shop turned up nothing to add to my collections and I then found a dinner and had an early lunch and turned the car onto highway 1 for the run down to Los Angeles.
It was another hot day for driving but being on the coast helped keep the temperature down to about 90 degrees. Following the cost provided plenty of photo opportunities and some nice places to pull over for a break. I stopped at Avila Beach which looks like a good weekender type place for people coming up from LA. It was quite during the weekday I was there but it is a real beach side holiday spot.
Back on the road I was passing plenty of farmland growing crops and then started to come into the larger city's like, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara. There were once again a lot of wind farms for electricity as well.
I came into Los Angeles onto a 6 lane each way highway. I pulled off the freeway to fill up the car with petrol and I drove it through a $5 car wash to clean it up. Whilst paying for the petrol I found two coke cans that were different and I put them into my luggage full as I had nowhere to keep them if I emptied them.
My navigation system directed me straight to the Hertz depot at the airport. You leave the car and get onto a shuttle bus provided by Hertz that takes you directly to the terminal you need to get to.
Going through the security check I was stopped and made to open my carry on case. They had noticed two large cylinders with something in them that they could not distinguish. It was my two Pringles cans full of casino chips I was carrying home. Once I explained what they were I was okay to proceed through to the boarding area.
I arrived three hours before the flight so I had plenty of time to relax and read.
The trip home was quite good. The plane was only half full and I managed to have three seats to myself so I was able to lie down and sleep across the seats. The steward on the flight noticed my Beer Can Collecting polo shirt and passed comment on it. I explained to him what I had been doing on my holiday and asked him if they had any of the special James Squires beer cans on the flight. He said they did and told me to come up to the galley after the dinner had been served. I was able to get two sets of the three cans from him plus I mentioned I also collected Qantas memorabilia and later during the flight he bought me two bags of all the different give aways on the flight. It was a good haul for my collection.
The plane arrived back in Sydney on time and customs was quick coming through so I was out of the airport in about 45 minutes. I had to wait about 20 minutes for the shuttle bus before heading home.
It was a great trip. Meeting family and friends in Singapore and England, a great time in Dublin at the Guinness Brewery and watching the Gaelic Football and Hurling. The USA section was brilliant, Firstly the Canvention, what an eyeopener. I made a lot of new friends, got some good items for my collection and generally had a ball. Vegas was fantastic, it is a place I will want to go back to. Then driving through Death Valley, Yosemite, San Fransisco and down the coast to LA. Really it is to hard to pick a favorite of all of the things I did.
Everything went to plan. My Internet bookings all worked out, people were so friendly, the collecting was superb.
Cant wait for next years trip, as I am planning on going to the Canvention in the USA again. It is in Springfield Illinois.
