Welcome to our first blog post. Our original plan was to fly to Sydney and spend 3 nights with Rob’s parents in Sydney before flying to LA. Unfortunately,  Ros came down with a gastro bug which meant we had to skip our visit to the Sydney parents, but we finally boarded our flight to Los Angeles.

We were not holding high expectations of the airline, having not flown Delta before. Instead of the window seat we had been promised, we found ourselves sitting aisle and middle seats near the back of the plane. As I said into my seat, I smiled at the woman sitting close to the window. She stifled a sniff, then turned her head and I heard a muffled but deep and very moist cough, then she slumped further down towards the window.

We made a collective silent groan as we anticipated 13 hours wearing masks through the flight. Rob had noticed that the flight was not full, and he asked the friendly flight attendant if we could move seats. When she finally grasped the situation, she kindly offered the ailing woman a mask, and promised to try to relocate us once the flight was underway. As we waited, I stole regular glances across to the hunched figure beside me to check she was still breathing! True to her word, the stewardess found us aisle seats across from one another ‘as far away from the coughing lady’ (in her words) as she could!

The rest of the flight went smoothly, and we both caught snatches of sleep before landing in LAX.

We were pleasantly surprised at immigration. As we had landed at 6am, we were one of the first flights in to LAX and the queue to be processed was shorter than our previous experiences. Although we had to answer a few more questions this time, the agent we spoke to was friendly, and Robert had anticipated the questions, and had all the papers prepared at his fingertips. We were politely welcomed to the USA.

After taking a shuttle to LA Union Station, we walked the short distance to our hotel and left our bags in the lobby. Just across the road from the hotel is the main post office. We waited till 9am but the doors were locked and a security guard informed us that it wouldn’t open until 10. After wasting another hour, we strolled back and were redirected around the corner to the side of the building where there was a short line of people waiting in front of a high iron security fence. The delivery service was through a  ‘window’ in the wall. Although opening time was 10 am, there was no sign of any activity until  after 10.45. The window glass was almost completely opaque. You had to bend low, peer in, and show your ID. Then, a lady inside would find the parcel (if you were lucky), and she would carry your parcel all the long way to outside and hand it to you through a gate in the security fence. With half a dozen people in front of us, we spent about an hour in idle chat. Happily, both our parcels had arrived safely, and we added them to our gear (now in our room) at the hotel.

Back to the train station, where we bought swipe cards and boarded the metro to Burbank where we hoped to purchase food supplies, some for the first sections, and the rest to make up boxes to send to various stops on the trail. As the train moved away from the station, we were approached by the conductor who asked to see our tickets. Not our swipe cards. We were let off paying,  but instructed to buy tickets for our return trip!

From Burbank station, we took an Uber to the REI store where we purchased 22 freeze dried meals, earning a 10% discount and using a credit that we had earned on a previous US visit. Next stop Walmart, where we bought snacks and a lighter for our stove.

After lunch, we reversed our journey – Uber, then train (with tickets), then back to the hotel. We could barely keep our eyes open, so we ducked out for a light snack for dinner. After heads on pillows, it took no time to fall asleep, and we both slept pretty soundly for about 12 hours.

The morning was fine, and we were hot after just a short stroll to Starbucks for breakfast. Despite filling a trolley at Walmart yesterday,  we still needed more lunch makings and snacks to make up our supply boxes, and we managed to buy these from a nearby pharmacy, which had a better supply than the small grocery store!

Boxes secured and backpacks packed, we were ready to post the parcels and then install ourselves into the waiting room at the station. Tonight we will board an overnight service from LA to Lordsburg,  New Mexico.