So I've been a bit slack lately in writing in this blog. So going to try catch up soon. Anyway here's the next arc of our adventures.
One would think that
leaving the hotel, checking out and going to the airport is
relatively simple. Especially when you have the number of a taxi
company and a great plan to get there. WRONG! Soooo wrong. Life likes
to throw curveballs at you and this was one hell of a curve ball. We
checked out alright and even booked a taxi alright. The problem came
when the taxi did not come in the few minutes that were promised us.
Nor did ringing again help, as the operator was one grumpy soul and
shut me off as I was asking a question. After about 30 minutes we had
booked a taxi with another company I get an automated call saying
that the original company had no taxis available. Yeah thanks for
letting me know!
So getting to the
airport now about 45minutes late, the taxi driver drops us off.
Little did we know the plane we were catching was code sharing with
another company and we had to walk ALLLLLLL the way around to the
otherside of the terminal. Time of walking – 10 minutes. But hurray
though! We finally made it! Just in time to get our boarding pass and
be told we missed baggage check in. oh yay so much fun. But but there
is still hope, as the lady there says to go to additional information
line and see if they can help us. Another hour of waiting and finally
we make it to the head of the line. Where one person has been there
with a line of about 30 people. We head to the counter and we go to
her... I think we've missed our flight. As the plane was boarding and
we still havent cleared customs. Apparently it's all our fault so we
cant get refund we cant even go on the next flight as theyre all
booked out. Hurray! With this in mind after some debating we decided
to cancel our flights and see if we could go to some of the other
companies. Walking around we found that they had hiked up the prices
by a 100%. Everything was now at least doubled. The only good offer
we had was from Virgin America – same price but it was first class,
unlike all the other ones which were economy.
I think we sort of gave
up after a while and decided to just stuff it and go road tripping.
It's all fate I guess. We ended up booking on the go, booked hotels
while we went from the airport to the car rental to stop at some
midway town. Bakersfield in California and off we went to Hertz again
to find a car. I think it was for the best in hind sight. We
definitely got to see more of America this way, and not from just the
sky but down there seeing how life actually was. Hertz originally
wanted to charge us $700 for a Dodge challenger but thats a bit
expensive so we ended up with a camry. Bigger then the Cruze, a lot
more power but it was heavy and not as nimble or fun to drive.
I guess as I said, it's
all destiny... this whole road trip thing. Driving along though you
realise how beautiful the land actually is. Nice rolling hills and
plains to all side. Punctuated by farms and other signs of humanity.
One straight road that cut through the scene... It was strangely
beautiful. One thing that really confused me though was the lack of
speed limit that was adhered by the people on anyone. At first we
stuck to it – travelling at around 100km... but soon enough we were
following others to travel in excess of 140km... and people were
still passing us! So ridiculous.
So reaching Bakersfield
we found that we were in the middle of nowhere. A town that seemed to
have been plopped in the middle of the state for no reason at all. I
mean ok there probably was a big agricultural industry or something
but all the places we passed seemed like hick towns full of red
necks. But as funny as it sounds, we found a great resort hotel in
Bakersfield, and there were also a few others around that were just
as spectacular. The main road was lined with a giant shopping strip
full of restaurants and shops. In fact it was more a shopping town I
guess. We didnt find an In and it is a family restaurant which has a
waiting staff of all young pretty girls in tight tshirts and short
shorts. It seems very odd to I guess objectify the girls and bring
kids to a place like this... but hey this is America, and if it works
for them who am I to complain. One thing though, the girls were
really really nice. They gave us a lot of tips for Vegas and even
came and took pictures with us to remember Bakersfield. I really
liked it here. Maybe it's the fabled Australian accent working
wonders hey...
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