Austen's Travel Blog

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West Coast USA - Day 1 - LA

October 11, 2008

Arrive at Heathrow to find that BMI doesn’t fly to the US. They use United, would have been nice of them to tell us in advance. Get two seats together in their own row next to the window to Chicago.

Have a 6 hour layover in Chicago where we walk up and down the passenger drop off as there is no other place to walk and we don’t have time to go into the city.

Finally arrive at LAX 20 or so hours after we began.

Very pushy salesman at the Hertz counter, manage to avoid buying any extras, but end up paying for the sat nav we’d reserved. Booking confirmation form was very misleading. Pick up SUV and have to exchange because it won’t start since the battery is flat. Finally get a Silver Ford Explorer and make it out of the parking lot.

Drive to motel on the Sunset Strip. Room is nice and has a walk in closet! Get to bed at the ‘normal’ time only to be woken by drunken guests and car alarms - nice area.


Agile and DevOps enthusiast and enduro fan with an interest in home automation, cool tech and endurance running.