Harlingen, Texas

Well here I am at last. I have finaly arrived. And who was a very tired possum when she arrived ? No prizes for guessing if you said it was me ! Oh what a long long journey.
I left Perth at 11.20pm and arrived in Melb. at 5.40 am,and had six and a half hours sitting in the Airport there. I was so tired I couldn't even be bothered looking in the Duty free shops.
My first dis-appointment was the plane when we boarded at 12 noon.It wasn't the A380 Airbus !! It was some other crappy plane the next size down from the A380.And I must say I had a very uncomfortable seat. It was an ailse seat as I asked for, but it had a type of vent blowing hot air straight onto my feat and using half of my foot space. The plane wasn't full but more experienced travellers soon grabbed the decent vacant seats. The was a middle vacant seat next to me but I didn't want to crowd the young man sitting by the window,so I left it vacant. After what seemed an endless journey,(no-one to talk to) we arrived in Los Angeles some 15 hours later. By this time I was feeling lousy. The food on the flight was disgusting and Qantas should hang their heads in shame. Even the young man sitting next to me agreed about that,so it's not just me being finnacky. I am not looking forward to going home with Qantas!
My next shock arrived when I found I had to travel to the Westin Bonaventure Hotel by a Shuttle Bus going all over the place dropping people off at various places. And then to find at the end of my trip on the Shuttle it was going to cost me A$16 plus A$1 for each piece og baggage. There went $20 of my American Dollars!!!!
The hotel was beautiful, the room very basic. I quickly had a shower and settled in and waited for Gladys and Rick to arrive. I wasn't sure what time they were coming and I wanted to be ready when they did. I was very tired and felt a bit unwell from the Breakfast Qantas served and when my body started to shake I knew I had to have a 10min. sleep if nothing else. So I dozed for awhile but didn't sleep. When Gladys and Rick arrived I felt a bit better, I had stopped the shaking,but still felt a bit sick. Rick was hungry so he found a place for us to eat. I found it hard to even look at the food but thought I had better eat something,so I had a serve of Rock Melon and Dew Melon. Far to big a serve, and I couldn't eat half of it! From there Rick took us around Santa Monica. I saw places I had only seen on the TV, like Rodeo Drive and all the exclusive shops where I could hardly afford to look at the windows !! I made a comment to Rick and Gladys about not seeing any customers,and asked how many customers would they have in a day do you think. Rick was very quick with his reply " They only need one with the prices they charge". We also saw the Tar Pits which bubble up tar all the time. They are right there in a Park and Museum in the heart of Santa Monica. Then Rick drove us around the streets where the likes of Lucille Ball and the various stars of yesteryear lived. Beautiful homes and I would love to know who lives in them now.They try to keep them looking original.When Rick and Gladys dropped me back at the Hotel around 5pm I headed to my room and was asleep by about 6pm. I woke a couple of times through the night but was soon asleep again and by the time it was 9.20am when the Shuttle bus picked me up to take me to the Airport( Another A$20) I felt reasonably human. We went to the Airport via a very long route picking people up but it gave me a good opportunity to look at some of the seedier areas of LA. And all I can say is......Thank God I live in Perth !!
I arrived in Harlingen via Houston at about 7.30pm and was very happy to see Pat and Reg waiting for me. We talked out heads off until late last night and today has been a settling in day for me.
A little nap was in order for me this afternoon,so while Pat and Reg have gone to do a bit of shopping I have napped and written this entry in my blog. Now for the bad news !!! Before I closed my eyes to nap,I lay thinking about putting the photos on my blog and it hit me that I had not packed the piece of string that connects my camera to the computer !! Oh dear,what a calamity.I had not even thought of it before I went away at all. So at this stage of the game there will be no photos until Pat and Reg take some with their camera. I will have to wait until I arrive home, unless I can buy the connecting string for my camera, to put the photos I have taken onto this Blog. Woe is me !!!