Meeting our “Wagon Masters” but not on the trail yet

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Our penultimate evening in Tucson and Anthea (our lovely #2 daughter) and Todd (#2 son-in-law) met us for a meal at one of the better Denny’s diners. She was on an “overnight” in Tucson in the middle of one of her trips, as a Flight Attendant for Sky West, and Todd joined us straight from work.

We’d already packed, amazingly without panic, except for the morning we left! Due to leave at 08:00 for the airport, Howard got up at 04:00 and brought me the usual cup of tea. Then we realized that we might need more space, so Howard had to find the smaller case in our basement, (as they call the bottom compartments of the RV) to replace his and we hurriedly repacked.

The tickets were booked with Alaska Airlines but we flew with American Eagle operated by American Airlines with a flight attendant from Sky West. Not unusual apparently. Todd kindly drove us to the airport and we kindly loaned him our truck to drive there and back and he’s also going to look after our rig for two months and sleep there about once a week.

Arriving in Los Angeles at the Hotel early p.m. we met our Tour Leaders, known as Wagon Masters, who’ll be guiding us for the next two months. This will be our first group tour (it’s not something we normally like to do), but we travel at our own pace and have the freedom to stop whenever we want and visit other places en route. We can be adventurous with optional events if desired, at additional cost, of course, e.g. bungy jumping, climbing across the top of Sydney Bridge, sky diving, para-gliding, riding on a jet boat, etc. There are events for the non-adventurous too.

There are 15 couples all together including Tim and Ellen, both ex-teachers, whom we met some years ago and liked immediately and were thrilled that they wanted to join us on this adventure. We’ll each have our own 22’ motor home (camper van) rental otherwise our friendship might not last!

What happened to the sunshine in LA? It’s a cloudy and a cool 60F (15C) today. This a.m. we had a two hour meeting with everyone to discuss the journey and ask questions about the trip and introduce ourselves to the group. Ten of us are now going out for lunch then later heading to LAX via shuttle bus at 17:30. The time difference is 19 hours between here and Auckland. It’s already April Fool’s Day there.

Crossing the International Date Line and being in the southern hemisphere, we land on the 2nd April. Another day another continent.

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Photos

Anthea
checking her schedule

American Eagle
coming in for us to board

Howard
waiting for the shuttle bus in Los Angeles

5 guys at "5 Guys"
From left to right;
Dean, Doug, Tim, Bruce, Howard

Comments

[Elisia]

So exciting!!
We're so excited for you and this marvelous adventure that awaits. I can't wait to read more about it and see some photos of the "land down under." Loving your blog, Mum. Nicely done! xo

[Mel and Howard]

Thanks so much Honey. Just found the messages tonight. It's taking me a while to learn how it all works. Hope to add a map later on. So glad you like it so far. Lots of Love, Marmee

[Tim Janicki]

Great!
Thanks to Anthea, I found your blog! It looks great!

[Mel and Howard]

Thanks so much Tim. I love keeping up with you on FB too, as does Anthea - you've got some great photos. Mel