2014 - Day 14 - Third USA Trip - Happy Veterans Day. Lets Cruise!

Today is Veterans Day in the USA - which I guess is the same as Armistice Day at home.

Leaving Palm Springs, I rang Nicco given that it might be the last time I have the opportunity to call before boarding our cruise ship.  We won’t have access to phone in international waters and the thought of leaving my youngest alone in the USA scares me to death.  Not for him, but for all Americans.  He spent his first night in Las Vegas last night and I wondered if he might have woken up in a gutter somewhere, or worse…..in some hooker’s bed.  Neither to both (at least that I am aware of) as he sounded reasonably ok.

As I chat to him on the phone, I will be stuffed if we came across yet another sign (on top of the missed 2 yesterday) for Joshua Tree National Park. I desperately tried to get my camera on my phone to work however it would night whilst a call was in progress.  I barked down the phone that I would call him back in a minute, hung up, and launched myself at the camera.  Of course…..I missed the damned sign…..a-freakin’-gain.   I stayed perfectly poised for the next several minutes before conceding defeat. I was not going to get a photo of that sign on this trip.  Good excuse to come back again I guess.  Not that we really need another one on top of Walmart.

 
We made better time than expected getting from Palm Springs to L.A and head straight to Long Beach where we would be dropping off our hire car and getting a cab to the cruise terminal.  This allowed us plenty of time to get something to eat and fill up the car, and even a quick stop at Petsmart! Lord what a strange area of Los Angeles.  You know those funny looking hammer things that go in and out of the earth where there is an oil well?  Well they had several of them within the suburb.  One beside a bank (maybe that’s how they get their money eh?); one beside a supermarket (perhaps for something in lieu of “Bryl Cream”?); and one beside a gas station which doubled as a McDonalds (perhaps the first is self explanatory and they also use it to cook the Maccas in?). 

Getting the cab to the cruise terminal was, in the least, interesting.  When advising where we wanted to be taken to, the Indian cab driver had no idea where it was.  We were in the same suburb as it so one would have thought that a cab driver knew where ships departed from.  Apparently not.  I had to google the address for him on my phone.  Next he advised *insert perfect korma accent here* “I dun naw wherr dat is.  Yoo naw?”.  The Bear and I looked at each other thinking that our large amount of luggage and Australian accents might have been a give away but apparently not.  After advising that no we did not know, the Bear suggested that he use his GPS.  “I dun naught huff wun of dem”.  We just looked at each other again, and the Bear passed him ours to use.  We never travel without one. 

The cab we were in was a mini van as that is what we required with our amount of luggage.  We had to sit in the back of it to allow our luggage a chance to fit in and this meant sitting on a bench seat.  This is all very well and good unless you are three parts dwarf such as myself.  Whilst the Bear could stretch out and compensate for the lack of shockies using his long legs, my legs just dangled in the wind and I gripped onto my seat belt for grim death.

When we got to the cruise terminal approximately 15 minutes later I actually wondered if I had in fact died and had gone to heaven/hell as there were zillions of bent over grey headed people wobbling around with walking frames and in wheelchairs.    We clearly had arrived at the Pearly Gates although I did question why the hell I would be there as I know that I will be going south.  Unfortunately for me, I had not died and gone to heaven.  These people only a heart beat away from the afterlife were also arriving for the same cruise.   We desperately searched the crowds for somebody….anybody under the age of 100 but alas…..our search was fruitless.  We weren’t going on the Love Boat…..we were going on 2000 Shades of Grey!

I sought comfort in the fact that if the boat was going to do a Titanic, we would at least be first to the lifeboats, but as we soon found out, these crotchety old people treated the buffet like the old red light specials at Kmart.  Not only could they move quickly when they wanted to, they were prepared to kill to get first taste of the shrimp! Instead of the air being filled with glorious chatter and laughter, we had the sounds of teeth dropping and squeaky wheels of walking frames.   We hadn’t even left port yet and I was looking for ways to jump overboard.

Getting up to our stateroom I was glad to be away from the oldies that made my own parents look like teenagers.   Our luggage was delivered shortly after arriving up there and I thought that perhaps once we had our possessions around us we might feel a little better.  We had worse news to come though.  A can of coke that was in one of our suitcases (so that we could put some in the fridge in our stateroom) had exploded.  Worse still, it was in the suitcase that housed the purchases from the Honda Centre…..in other words…..Alyx’s Ducks merchandise.  I just about had a mind out as we dove in to try and save her prized possessions.  Fortunately I had wrapped the coke up reasonably well, and had protected her Ducks merchandise against any type of disaster and it did not sustain any damage.  All of my boxes of medication didn’t fair so well but that was fine.

Heading down to the mandatory emergency drill procedures session, I took note of all of the doors on the way.  As a lot of you know, I have no issue at all with flying, but stick me on a boat and I shit myself.  If the Titanic sank then so can any damned dingy.  Alyx’s advice to me was to check out the doors because that’s what Rose floated on in the movie.  And yes....I am saying this tongue in cheek.  I still looked at the doors carefully though…..just in case.  I didn’t find a wooden door that would suffice however found a coffee table that would do just fine if the need arises.

Am feeling very homesick tonight.  I miss my dogs, I miss our cats, I miss my kids, I miss my home.  Thank heavens for the Bear.  Again…bless him.   Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.