California day 1

August 1

Last night at check-in the motel clerk gave me the number of a taxi service that could take us to the rental agency to pick up our van. Once we were organized, I called the taxi service and they sent out a driver. I tried to hand in the motel key, but no one was at the reception desk so I put it through the key drop, and we were off. Our driver's name was Eugene Kelly. He had to go through life being teased about being "Gene Kelly," with all that goes with such an association. Enroute, Razelle suddenly realized that her walking cane had been left behind in the room. Eugene used his dashboard device to find the motel's direct number. I called it from the taxi but there was no answer. We reached the rental agency and paid Eugene. I called the motel a few more times over the next half hour but still no one answered. We were a bit nervous about this, but knew that as soon as we had our van we could go right back to the motel and, hopefully, retrieve the forgotten cane.

We'd arranged with the rental agency to pick up our van at 10:30 AM, but it wasn't ready yet when we got there. Within ten minutes, however, the van was driven into view. It was dusty from just having been returned by the previous renters, who Razelle says were a couple of Asian men (I didn't see them myself; I was too busy calling the motel.) The maintenance crew then set about cleaning all the windows inside and out and sprucing up the interior. I walked over to the vehicle and was struck by how simple it was. I saw no ports for electric hook-up or water hook-up. The length and height were less than those of our caravans in Australia. It looked a little worn. I went to tell Razelle to be prepared for a lesser van that what we'd called home during our Australian experience. Inside I saw only a small refrigerator, no sink and no cabinets. She looked at me with a withering look that said, "What have you gotten us into?"

After about half an hour of cleaning activity, I was led out to the van and asked to inspect it for pre-existing damage. I was given papers to sign that had clauses on how to treat this vehicle. There were things written there I'd never seen specified on the website. I also learned that this dark green van was 10 years old. I signed, drove it over to where our bags were stacked and we set forth on our new "adventure on wheels" in America with a feeling that this wasn't what we had expected.

Here is a URL that shows the exact same vehicle we are driving (the license number is even the same):

http://adventuresonwheels.com/fleet/aowapplications/vehiclelistings.asp?categoryID_list=39

I got through to the motel by phone once and the man who answered said he'd check our room for the cane. By the time I reached the motel in our van, he'd found it and was holding it for us behind the reception desk. Whew, that was one problem that had been resolved! We are constantly trying hard not to leave things behind or have costly mental lapses. This was one of those moments when we'd failed at that, but recovered with a happy outcome.

About this time we received a call from my cousin Julia. She had a house full of guests, but offered to feed us supper and give us the use of her shower and bathroom. We just needed to sleep in our van. We had turned down the equipment the rental agency wanted to add to the package for an additional fee, so with the help of our GPS we began looking for places to buy bedding and kitchen stuff. Julia suggested Bed, Bath and Beyond, but when we told her where we were calling from she said, "Target is right there. They'll have all you need." She was right. Razelle and I had fun looking for colors and prices we wanted to spend. We furnished the van with these items then drove to Julia and visited with her and all her house guests. Her brother and nephew, who live in Israel, were visiting, so for us, this new contact will have long-term significance. Julia is married to my cousin Bryan. Their daughter (also my cousin, obviously) was also there as was her 2-year old daughter; a wonderfully precocious child who knows lots of songs and sings them well.

Bryan came home from work and we had our reunion. We spent the evening reminiscing and catching up on current events within the family. Bryan had family photos on the wall with our mutual relatives in them, some of whom go so far back that neither he nor I could identify them. I also spent part of the evening planning for the next several days in the LA area. It looks like a possibility that we will take a guided tour of the Hollywood area.

Tomorrow we will visit a few more key locations to bring the camping experience up to speed. It will be more cramped in there, so we have to find a solution to storing our belongings in the space below the bed, which is not all that big and doesn't compare to the storage we had in Australia. We also have to figure out how to find places to camp in the LA area, so a visit to the AAA is in order.

Razelle and I were tired after all that had transpired today. We organized our bedding for the first time and tried to sleep in our van on the street. It was our first night in these new surroundings. The weather was warm enough even after dark to be uncomfortable. Cars passing in the neighborhood roused us. But eventually, we succumbed to our sleepiness. We were in California! This is what we found here. There is a lot more to California we hope to discover. That will come in due course.