4.4.2012 – 4.4.2012  17 °C

Day 1 of the Ultimate Road Trip of the US proudly brought to you by yours truly and parents! Yep this time, no solo travel for me its family in tow, for the next 5.5 months!!

Our tour started strangely as we are not on the same flight! I boarded my plane a day earlier to M&D and enjoyed the opulence that is Qantas Business Class. This little black duck decided to use her FF points and upgraded from her usual pleb status to something slightly more comfy for the 12 hour flight from Brisbane to LA. I’ve got to say that the only bonus of travelling Business Class is the food! The “lie flat” seats are not what they are cracked up to be! I’d have rather sat up all night as the “bed” was decidely lacking in flatness and softness… try lying on a rock hard bench for 12 hrs and see how your lower back feels…….

However, the food and beverage selection more than makes up for uncomfy beds! My lunch ran like this:

* entree= pumpkin soup with a selection of warm crusty breads!

* mains= rack of lamb with mashed pumpkin and warmed barley/ cous cous thingy

* desert= chocolate and hazelnut torte (desert also came with a selection of fortified wines…)

Aaah the opulence of Business Class food.. everything else about Business Class is not worth the dollars you spend.. I think I’ll stick to pleb status and won’t bother investing in the future on the upgrade!

After arriving at LAX I made my way to the hotel and spent the first couple of hours just waiting for my room to become available.. once it was available I spent the rest of the day sleeping! I woke myself mid afternoon and went for a wander around the local neighbourhood to the supermarket to buy a couple of snacky foods before heading back to the digs for some internetting and of course more sleep!!

For this trip, I’ve decided to run a competition… I’ve bet M&D that at some point in the trip we need to buy one meal that feeds all three of us (you know how the US meal size is double ours…) and I’m also going to list a “song of the day” (as you always have to have car music when driving along) so today’s-

Song of the Day= John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane”

Here concludes the first part of Part I of the Ultimate Trip, Peaks, Plateaus and Prairies! Stay tuned because, tomorrow the old’s will arrive so I’ll be spending the day out of the room giving them the chance to sleep which will mean I’ll check out the Kodak theatre and ‘walk of fame’!