Monday, 8. September 2008.
Today I wake up really, really early (can't remember when I last woke up this early in my life, let alone on vacation) and leave with Pero who gives me a ride to the nearby train station. I'm riding a train to downtown Los Angeles in order to pick up a car that will take me all the way to the West Coast.
What's this car story? Well, there's a company that gives you a car for a certain amount of time (usually 7-10 days, depending on the destination) and during that time you can use this car for travel as long as you deliver it to the given destination. Sounds confusing, doesn't it?
OK, let's put it this way. Imagine you are moving house from West Coast to East Coast, let's say San Francisco to New York. You ship your belongings via a freight company, take a flight yourself, but what about your car? Well, you give your car to this company that offers you the cheapest delivery rate, because they don't put your car on a truck (even though this is possible too, but costs more) but give it to a person that then delivers it on their behalf. The person is usually someone (in this case me) that is travelling to that destination, likes driving and would rather save money for the car rental. You get the car completely for free (they even give you a full tank of gas that you're not obliged to give back) and only pay the gas needed to reach the destination. This way:
a) You save the money of the car rental
b) the delivery company saves on not having to pay a driver and not having to pay for gas
c) the owner of the car saves on the car transportation fee
Basically, it's a win win situation for everyone.
I used this service twice, back in 1996 and had no problems whatsoever. Drop me a line if you'd like to know more.
So around 8 am I'm at the train station catching my ride to downtown LA. By 10 am I'm at the
company's offices in downtown LA waiting to get my car.
It takes them forever and I wait for at least 2 hours before they finally send me to pick up the car. Once there I realize the car is full of junk. The lady that was moving (from LA to Baltimore) put tons of stuff into the car (Cherios, napkins, medicine, clothes, walnuts, toiletries,...) and there's absolutely no space in the trunk and at the back seat.
I have a bike to fit somewhere so I get back to the office telling them I'm unable to take the car because of all the stuff that is in it (by the way, prohibited by the company's rules). The guy that runs the company comes with me, realizes he may never find someone to drive the car across the country simply because there's no space for anything in the car and calls the lady asking for authorization to take out everything that is on the back seat.
We go back to the car and I help the guy go through all the stuff, selecting personal belongings from food and toiletries. He keeps the personal belongings in the car truck and moves the other stuff to another car. What he's going to do with that I have no clue.
So finally, at around 2 pm all the paperwork is done and the car is ready to go.
I first drive to Huntington Beach. There I find a bike shop that gives me a box to put my bike in and then I go record shopping at one of my favorite record stores in California - Vinyl Solution.
I find some good stuff. The store owner is even nice enough to give me a discount and a couple of 7"s for free, but my credit card refuses to cooperate. I manage to pay part of it in cash, but there's still about a hundred dollars of difference. The credit card swiper doesn't recognize my card. I try the ATM machine near the store, nothing. Finally I remember of Paypal and fortunately they both have a Paypal account and a computer with the internet connection in the store, so I manage to sort the things out. Happy like a little kid I get back on the highway and head towards Aliso Viejo.
By 7 pm I'm back at Pero and Dijana's. We get ready and drop by Native Foods, a vegan restaurant just about a hundred yards from their house.

You can eat good food at Native Foods in Aliso Viejo.

Pero and Dijana outside Native Foods in Aliso Viejo.

It's a nice little chain of 4 stores in Los Angeles and vicinity. They serve delicious vegan dishes and cakes and even have nice mugs with their logo on them. I buy one as a souvenir and we indulge in good vegan food. Pero is proud to admit their diet nowadays is mostly vegetarian and knows that'd make me happy, as I'm probably one of the most diehard vegetarians he knows.

The food is there. Yummy!

We finish in time to drop by Home Depot and choose a laptop for myself. The technology is so much cheaper in the States plus the exchange rate between the dollar and the euro is quite convenient for Europeans right now, although the rate isn't as good as at the beginning of my trip. So I get myself a nice 17" Toshiba for mere $ 500 (about 380 euros).
We get back to their apartment and chat the night away about his plans, business related and not, until sleep crushes us both.