September 13                LOS ANGELES, Super8 Motel, LAX     ($67.00 inc bkfst)

A flight from Spring to Autumn, to gain a day and revisit our favourite Super8

This was the third time we had made the transition across the International Date Line and across the Equator, all in one flight. Today, our ageing Air New Zealand 747 (400-series) took off from Auckland, full, just before 8 in the evening. About 12 hours later it landed in Los Angeles at around 1 in the afternoon – on the same day.

Rows of heavy looking immigration officials waited for us, crouched behind their desks,  their computers, their electronic fingerprint-takers with their digital cameras lined up for a mug-and-iris-shot. We felt slightly intimidated until the whole airport, including our immigration line, was plunged into complete darkness, just as it was coming up to our turn! 30 seconds later, emergency lighting cut in, but it was nearly 30 minutes before the computers, fingerprinters, cameras and immigration officials recovered! Suddenly they looked very human and very vulnerable! When we approached the desk, our man was even ready for a joke. Are you married? Yes. To each other? Yes! And we got our 90 days visa-waiver – more than enough on this occasion.

After collecting our bags and passing the scrutiny of Customs, we found the line of free-phones and rang our favourite motel, the Super8 on Airport Boulevard. We stayed there in 2001 to reassemble our bicycles before starting the ride to Key West and we spent New Year there in 2003. The courtesy van appeared in 5 minutes and in another 10 we had a room with the usual comforts (and 24-hr tea or coffee from Reception).  Planes landing at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) use our bathroom window as a marker on their final approach which, since there are planes about every minute, gives the whole occasion a real feeling of being 'on the road'. See www.the.super8.com for details of the motel chain.  

After a few hours recovery time, we ambled down Airport Boulevard to the Burger King (the only place to eat within walking distance) and were reminded how much better such food tastes on its home territory. Try the Mushroom and Swiss Cheese Burger followed by Hershey's chocolate pie, then start healthy eating tomorrow!

September 14     LOS ANGELES, DOCKWEILER RV PARK     ($28.00)     10 miles

We collect our home for the next 7 weeks and camp between Airport and Ocean

Waking uncertain as to what day it was, let alone what time, we collected the complimentary 'continental breakfast'. Unsure which continent breaks the fast with orange juice and sweet sticky buns, but it was welcome nevertheless.

'Happy Travel Campers' sent their courtesy van to collect us from the motel, driven by a charming Austrian student who is soon due back at Salzburg University. She whisked us expertly through the frenetic LA traffic for 15 minutes, back to the Hollerith family's home and business in the Hawthorne area. Gabi and Klaus talked us through the finer points of the 22-ft Jamboree motorhome, which looks remarkably familiar! Built on a Ford E350 chassis, it is a newer and shorter relative of our own 27-ft 'Rosie'.

Gabi encourages hirers to leave any unused non-perishable groceries behind when they leave, and invited us to help ourselves from her campers' cupboard to a few items to start our store cupboard off. What a nice idea!

Our next stop was at the nearby supermarket, 'Food4Less', to fill the cupboards and make lunch in the car park. No height barriers or size limits here (large vehicles for large people!) Then we drove a short distance north on highway 405 and east on 105 (straight past LAX) to the Pacific Ocean. Barry is of course very familiar with driving the Ford E350, complete with a big V10 engine, left-hand-drive, automatic transmission and cruise control, but the LA freeways (5 lanes of busy traffic in each direction) demand all his attention (and that of the co-pilot/navigator, using the GPS to get us to the Pacific Ocean!)   

The Dockweiler RV Park, between the wide Playa del Rey beach and Vista del Mar esplanade, is an enormous parking lot set in 3 rows parallel with the shore. Each site has a full hook-up (water, power and sullage). The facilities are minimal, the showers unusable, but with ocean view and absolute beach frontage we had plenty of neighbours.

Being a State Park (Dept of Beaches and Harbors), there is a list of 32 Regulations.  We liked rule 6: 'All RVs, camping vehicles and trailers must remain on wheels at all times. Size limit is 37 ft. NO EXCEPTIONS.' The price is $32 on the front row, $30 in the middle and $28 at the back (with an equally good view of the sea!)

It was wonderful to face the ocean, backs to the airport, and watch the rival attractions of pelicans landing and jumbo-jets taking to the skies to cross the Pacific Ocean! Once unpacked, we crossed the cycle-path to the beach (the very one we had cycled towards San Diego at the start of the ride to Florida). Today we simply walked and photographed the sunset, flooding the sky at about 7 pm. 

The 'Jamboree' RV is very comfortably equipped, with a long settee opposite the dinette, large fridge/freezer, gas oven with 3 rings, microwave, air-con, gas heating and hot water and a superb washroom across the back with generous toilet and shower space. However, losing 6 feet of motorhome means losing the fixed double bed at the rear. In this 22-ft model, the main bed is up above the cab – comfortable enough when lying down (in fact, the ceiling is too close to allow sitting up). Guess we'll get used to it!