SAVANNAH DOES LA

15 May 2013: Day 1 of 43 – Los Angeles CALIFORNIA (State 1).

Today 172km, Total 172km.

Paris, John, Maureen and Di officially became Bubba, Gump, Thelma and Louise when they drove out of the Dollar Rent-A-Car yard at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in their shiny, new, jet black Ford Mustang Convertible complete with Tom Tom and only 3,200km on the clock! Gump drove the awesome foursome to the Hilton Hotel in Costa Mesa, some 61km away as he was the only one who slept on the 12.5hr flight over from Brisbane. Customs was surprisingly quick even though they now scan all your fingers and take a photo of you. Di “Louise” won our pack-a-thon competition with an amazing 8.5kg bag that looked like an oversized day pack.

Our hotel rooms were not ready so we did what everyone else does in LA town – we hit the shopping malls – two of them - to stock up on Road Trip essentials. 

After dropping Louise off at the hotel, Gump drove Thelma to visit Roberta and Ronnie (uncle-in-law) in Irvine, while he and Bubba visited Aunt Marion Golfos at the Sea Cliff Assisted Living Center in Huntington Beach. It was like old times. Aunt "Bertie" now 81 explained to us her extraordinary rescue from the Nazis by Dutch heroin "Marika" who is just turned 100!!!


 
John had first met Aunt Marion with his brother Nick, Paris and his sister Kathy in 1987 on their first ever trip to the USA. Aunt Marion’s late husband Lester is my dad’s first cousin and was a Porsche dealer having sold one to John Wayne. Aunt Marion is almost 92 and still knows how to cut-in and dominate the conversation – a real treat! It was like learning from Yoda – her memory was great and she thrilled Bubba and I with stories of the Greeks in post war LA. We did not want to leave this “exclusive” with

Aunt Marion but had to make tracks across peak-hour LA and pick-up Thelma to make it back to the hotel with enough time to scrub up to meet Jim Golfos (Aunt Marion’s son and our second cousin), his wife Brenda, his daughter Kim, her husband Marty and their three great kids: Nina, Ryan and Griffin. It was a blast. We scoffed down gourmet burgers, gallons of trendy boutique wheat beer made in LA and talked late into the evening back at Jim and Brenda’s. A non-stop LA day bringing our opening balance to 172km thanks to our trusty Tom Tom talking lady which we affectionately named “Savannah”...