The Trip – Part 11: L.A.
Leaving Joshua Tree National Monument behind, we followed I-10 into LA. We were a bit apprehensive about the freeways and traffic, for which this city is well known. Our destination would, however, offer us a brief respite from sleeping on the ground.
We planned to visit two families that Kathy knew, Kathy and Les Pryor, and George and Mary Starek. The two Kathys had been childhood friends and classmates and the Stareks were friends of Kathy’s parents.
Fortunately it was not rush hour as we wended our way through the concrete maze until we made it to Cerritos, a suburb of LA, where Kathy and Les lived with their child and dog. They kindly put us up for a few days and showed us around town.
One of our trips was to see the Queen Mary, which had been retired from service in 1967 and moved to Long Beach to become a hotel and tourist attraction. Having never been on a ship like this we found it very interesting to walk the decks where many a rich and famous person had walked during times of peace and many a soldier had walked during World War II.
While there we were also able to get some work done on the car. I don’t remember whether we needed tires or needed a brake job, but Les took us to their garage to have the work done. Then we headed off to Sunland to visit the Stareks. They lived in an apartment complex with a swimming pool in the courtyard. At the time this seemed very luxurious and “southern California” to me. Looking back at the old photos today it looks to me like a budget motel. One of the things that I do recall from our brief time with the Stareks is that Super Bowl VIII was played and the Minnesota Vikings lost to the Miami Dolphins. Being a Green Bay Packer fan, I was pleased to see that the Vikings did not take the trophy.
As with our Thanksgiving stop in Los Alamos, it was nice to visit friends for awhile. We didn’t want to overstay our welcome so when we were well-fed, well-rested, and had freshly-showered bodies and clean clothes, we bid adieu to the City of Angels and headed north along the coast. Our goal was to follow Highway 1 as far as it would take us.