We said goodbye to the seals and rolled over to Los Angeles, where our first thing was to watch a real Hollywood movie! We watched the Zombieland Double Tap, the movie was very good too, though the cinema itself was not that much of an extra experience compared to Hungarian cinemas.
The only positive thing was that the entrance and exit of the cinema halls were all in one place, so if you feel like sitting in another movie, you should go for it, or maybe not…
On the other hand, it was very expensive, and even though we were in a small room, they couldn’t clean it, but we had to sweep away the food left over from the seat, which was quite disappointing. Surely there are more authentic, cleaner cinemas in Hollywood, but we saw prices only twice as expensive as that, thanks, no thanks.
Hollywood itself is not extraordinary; lying at each corner is a homeless person, not a very good experience. Dirty, smelly, not quite as bleak as you imagine. And the Hollywood inscription can only be seen from very far away, which is also quite disappointing.
And Los Angeles is so big we didn’t even want to look at it, we just rolled over, we even skipped the beach and decided to go further south. Anyway, an average US metropolitan city, lots of homeless people, no normal traffic (no American place knows the concept of a green wave, every inbound street intersection has all the in
Stop traffic signs, the right hand is a million times better), warm and smelly. We could have spent a lot of money on all kinds of attractions here, but we’ll spend it on something else.
After LA, we decided to take a look down on Baja California, Mexico, and enter through Tiujana. The border was smooth, not stopped (people with campers have to pay tax anyway, fortunately we got away with it because we are wirh a minivan). I do not have a good opinion of this part of Mexico either, we were in stinky, ruiny and sometimes dangerous areas. We watched the ocean shore, and it didn’t convince us to spend more time here, but the return trip was closed because of a forest fire.
The situation was serious, with more people dying and houses burning in the area, and we had seen huge smoke and fires in many places. We saw burnt-out gorests even trees whose stump was still burning on the cable. It was a terrifying sight and we could only hope that there would be no trouble back, although we had to go another way. We did not see any new fires and the border went relatively smoothly, though they stopped and looked over the car. Fkrtunately only a few fruits were found and thrown out, because even though we bought them in the state of California, from Mexico you cannot bring vegetables and fruits into the states, and it is punishable. We were probably saved by the fact that the discarded fruits had the California sticker on it. The onion was never found, so much for a thorough search …
We set off for thousands of miles to Florida, so we just kept going for days. In Houston, there was a minor problem, the ignition switch lock surrendered (yeah, and we left the key and the lock did not like the spare key anymore), managed to fix it in a few days much more cheaper than in the service. After trying some real tex-mex it was easier to think … Finally we bought the part and I replaced it myself, it was simple but by the time we got to it (insurer, the awkwardly expensive service quote) some time had passed. Anyway, after that we went unhindered, hitting a terrific Brazos Bend Park with alligators.
By the way, we’ve flown through Florida to the following states: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Lousiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia. In Texas only, we’ve driven 1,500 miles, brutal distances! We also drove to New-Orleans, drove by, but we went on, as we longed for the beach. In the Gulf of Mexico we also found our calculations, in Tampa we found lukewarm water with a clear sandy beach. We went to the beach in Florida every day afterwards, down to Key West, driving through small islands, sometimes over miles of bridges. We reached the southernmost part of Florida, then drove back to Miami, where we dipped into the rippling waters of true Miami Beach!
We had the whole beach because the weather was quite turbulent, but we really enjoyed it. But nothing lasts forever, we reached Jacksonville in a few days where we had to say goodbye to Beluga. It is best to be on the beach in cloudy weather as no one is down at this time and you can paddle in the exciting waves from the wind. We cleaned the car and moved to the beach with a tent north of Jacksonville, hoping we can get rid of the car before we board the bus which will take us 1600km to New York City! Keep up with us, we’ll be home slowly!
