U S A '9 3

(A journal by D. Maxwell)

 

Part 2

8/9/93 (Wednesday)
01:00 I am in bed. I think I'm getting a cold/flu, I've had a sore throat for a couple of days, but now it feels bad. I don't think I'll have a good night sleep . I have already started coughing a bit, hopefully it will pass soon. I'm glad my teeth have been good, although now that I have mentioned it they are bound to start acting up. Today is our last full day in San Francisco. Tomorrow morning we leave for LA. It is a nice city but the hills are too steep, and I can't get used to all the blacks, especially at night, they make you feel uncomfortable (you can thank American TV shows and movies for that). Darren asked me if I could live here, even if it was flat. I instantly said no. I'd miss home to much, and all my friends are there. Besides the Americans don't turn me on that much anyway, although the women are stunning. Well it's time to begin a restless and cough induced night, nigh nigh.
09:50 I'm awake, I feel rather crappy, but at least I slept OK. I can feel my cold getting worse, I wish I knew how I got it. Darren and Justin are still asleep and Shane has not returned which is not surprising. I have decided today to buy a leather jacket for $99, about $129A, which is pretty reasonable, anyway time for a shower.
10:40 Shane rang, he said that he was returning here when the motor bike he was on got a flat tyre, so he will be late. Justin, Darren and I have just finished brekkie.
15:15 Shane returned and Darren and I rolled up the posters. We all went down the road and I bought the jacket for $108 (including the f***ing tax!) We wandered back so Shane could pack. It is all very relaxing and I feel like a stroll, but I hate the f***ing hills. We also confirmed the car, a Ford Tempo which has the same weird seatbelts the Pontiac had, darg! Anyway, that's all.
17:20 I've finished the last of my washing and had a little feed, later we shall venture into China town, for a sticky beak. I've packed everything except my toiletries and this journal, otherwise I am ready. The other 3 are still at it, I appear to be the only organised one.
18:30 We've just sorted out our phone bill. F*** me drunk! Mine is $110 Sh**, I didn't think it would be so much. Now I'm a little down, my budget is way out of wack, and at this rate, I'll have to fly home early. I don't know if I can survive at this rate. I will no longer be able to call Kaths any more. It costs too much. I sent a letter today, the next one I write will inform her of these developments. What a sh**. Justin's bill is over $200, so between us we are pretty depressed. At least he well be able to sell stuff to Sansweet and make some dosh back. I have about $800 left to live on. I've already handed over $150 to Shane for the car and I have allowed $150 for the next 6 days for accommodation which leaves about $800. We all think that we shan’t be spending big at the Grand Canyon which will bring me back to a reasonable amount.
19:05 I decided to read this journal up to the Ranch. A lot more detail was included in my earlier entries than what I have now, sorry about that.
21:55 We all went for a walk around Chinatown. It was nothing special, very commercial and hardly authentic, we looked around and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant, which was very cheap. A $3.25 rice was a very large serve, impressive. We walked to the pointy Transamerica building down the road from the restaurant. On the way back, Darren walked into a street pole while looking at a hotel sign, it was very funny. We found Star Wars signs, Imperial Bank, Old Republic Building, Cantina and Temple (of Doom) hotel, rather unusual.
   

9/9/93 (Thursday)
00:00 I have been snoozing for a while, now time for sleep, ciao.
08:20 I'm awake, sort of, over the past few days I've been getting tired very easily, I am a little concerned, but it could just be this city, anyway we'll be gone in a couple of hours and our adventure will continue.
09:00 I am now ready to go. I have showered, had some brekkie and got dressed. Now I wait for the others, Shane is writing a letter to another San Francisco hotel who thought we were staying with them, Justin's father got billed for the room, so Shane is writing a letter to try and fix it up. The last thing to be packed will be this journal.
11:20 After some drama we've got the car, now its time to go, bye bye San Francisco, it's been good.
20:35 Well what a funny day, we crossed the Oakland Bay Bridge for the fun of it and returned the same way, since highway 101 connected to the Oakland Road. We got a bit lost but eventually ended up on Route 1, which follows the coast. The trouble was, there was no coast. It was all hills and trees yay! We finally got to Monterey Bay and the aquarium where Star Trek IV was filmed. The displays were good and I took pikkies of the Star Trek areas, it was expensive $10.50 to get in, but was very interesting and quite enjoyable. Any way, after we left it was turn to drive. I took some time but we finally found the coast and supposed twisty scary bit. It was really no drama, we cruised along for a few hours, when the fog rolled in as did the dark. Now it got spooky. A huge drop was next to us, it was dark, foggy and we were all alone in a strange country, freaky. Shane took over the driving and we stopped at a motel for the night just outside San Simino in a room costing $49 per night, which was exxo. Anyway we'll probably go for dinner soon and place has a pool in it where Shane and I might go for a dip. Well that's it for the day.
23:10 Darren, Justin and I went for a feed up the road in what looked like the only restaurant amongst a sea of hotels. The meal was very good and the prices were also. We came back to the main room and played a few games of pool. I won every game against Justin except the last one. After that, Shane and I had a swim, very pleasant. The whole place has a good atmosphere, anyway, Justin has just left the bathroom so I'll have a shower now.
23:25 I'm in bed, in town who's name I don't know, in a hotel with a name I can't remember and is yet another night without my baby. Oh I just discovered the name of the hotel is Cambria, well there you go.
   

10/ 9/93 (Friday)
08:50 We're awake. I had some freaky dreams early on, but managed to sleep OK. My cold is still with me which is annoying, anyway time to get up.
10:30 After brekkie, a game of pool against Justin (I won) and hit of tennis, we're off.
22:55 Guess where I am? At Steve Sansweet's home on the Hollywood hills. We drove to LA with no problems, although even as far as 50 miles out, the traffic on the 5 lane freeway on the other side of the road was heavy. It stayed that way for the remainder of the trip. We were still able to sit on 100K's until our turn off to Steve's place. The instructions sent to us by Steve via a fax to the Grosvenor were very good and we got here with no problems. We were introduced to Steve and Bob (his friend) and entered his home. A very nice moderately sized place. I am now sitting is in a corner where the glass cabinet next to me contains a lot of old tin robots, plus a couple of Star Wars figures, including the figure models and on my right is the stand up Star Wars video game. The balcony looks over some of LA and is very impressive. We had pizza for dinner and the whole place is very relaxing. unfortunately we leave tomorrow for Josemite, although in the morning we are going to a movie prop fair which should be good. Justin, Shane and Darren are sorting out their stuff to take for the next 7 days. I have all my stuff ready in my channel 7 bag, packed since San Francisco, talk about organised! Steve's place is very modest, no 100 inch TV or 2000 watt Hi-Fi, which is very surprising. It is a 2 bedroom home with a large loungeroom and kitchen bar, very comfortable. EXCEPT, the Star Wars collection on Earth is on two floors below it. We have declined a look until we return with more time and film. I am feeling happy, at the moment and all is well. I will probably not write much until tomorrow night. Josemite is an 8 hour trip, so I can't see much happening then, however, I might take the journal in the car with me if the need to write comes up, until then, bye.
   

11/9/93 (Saturday)
00:00 We've struck a snag. The Grand Canyon is further than we thought. After having a peak at Steve's collection, we discovered that the Grand Canyon is over a day's travelling from Josemite. A decision has now been reached, we will drop Josemite and go straight to the Canyon instead. It is looking promising, so far the trip says we go to Las Vegas, stay overnight then go to the Grand C. It's seems a goer, now we are spending some time in Vegas, this trip is going to be exxo and I'm am happy. Anyway, time to say ciao.
09:15 After having difficulty getting to sleep, I am now awake.
18:15 What a day! After having brekkie, we took a trip in Steve's Lexus (lovely car) to a collectors fair in Pasadena. What a fair it was, from the very outset, we all knew we would not be able to buy all the stuff we wanted. It was at least 8 times bigger than any collectiphilia. The range was huge, boxed Batmobiles for $175, with only $90 on me, I bought what I could. I eventually borrowed $20 of Darren for the 2 DUNE guns. We all spent up big. I wish I could have gotten more. There were so many things that we had never seen before. But we got what we could, even though so much was left out. I am satisfied but I still think of those things that eluded me. So much of it. Anyway, we came back. I had 25 cents left to my name. We went for lunch which was nice and returned to look through Steve's collection. There is too much to take in, also not all of it is on display, most of it is stored, so it is difficult to look at. I am in my favourite chair while Shane is playing bits of the Star Wars radio play he bought finally on CD, Darren is drawing pikkies and Justin is with him.
23:30 We all went to dinner. Thai food which was nice, Bob and Steve paid for us, we came back here watched a bit of 'Trading Places' and are currently watching the Star Tours opening video. It won't be long before we hit the sack.
23:50 I'm sleeping on the couch tonight, which already feels more comfortable than the bed. Tomorrow we shove off for Vegas. I don't feel overly tired so I hope I sleep well tonight. If only my cough would go away.
   

12/9/93 (Sunday)
09:30 I'm awake after a very good sleep, the others are also up.
10:50 Soon we shall shove off for Vegas, we had a very good and pleasurable brekkie.
11:50 We're off to Las Vegas.
13:00 We are now on route 15 which well take us to LV, it is still very hazy but reasonably clear. Our highway is 4 lanes wide, originally it was 5, these freeways spaghetti everywhere and it really quite amazing how many there are. Their overpasses can be 4 lanes high, over one another, incredible. Already the countryside is fairly arid and flat with hills to our right.
13:30 An amazing realisation, Shane discovered he was doing 130K's (82MPH) the problem is that people are still passing us! we've settled down a bit now to a reasonable 112K, it was a bit of a shock. Our Ford Taurus has 85MPH (140KPH) max on its clock, yet at a high speed it seems to be capable of doing a lot more. We haven't seen any speed limit signs either. The yanks like going fast. 2 Taurus's past us while we were peaking out, amazing.
13:35 A speed limit sign 65MPH (105KPH).
16:45 We are now in Las Vegas. The hotel we went to stay at is full (Excalibur), so we are now trying the Polo just across the road, The hotels here are huge.
17:30 We've checked into a hotel, welcome to Vegas. We are now waiting for Star Trek TNG to come on TV at 18:00
   

13/9/93 (Monday)
00:40 Next Gen finished and we all went for a walk to the casinos, They are enormous, we went for a detailed look at Caesar’s Palace. Amazing, it stretches on forever.
19:00 Continuing with last night. The casinos are so big, we walked through the shopping arcade part of Caesar’s Palace where all the stores look like real shops, and the roof is painted like the sky, very impressive. We had dinner which was OK. While we were there, a statue display of Caesar came to life and started talking to the people amongst thunderstorms and things. Very interesting. After dinner Justin went back to the hotel while Darren, Shane and I kept on looking at the shops. Darren bought and Excelsior model in a shop with all these great holograms, which were really good. Eventually we left Caesar’s Palace and went to Mirage next door. I have to go back to C. Palace to pick up some Batman stuff. on the way to Mirage, we were literally bombarded with pamphlets on massage parlours and prostitutes, it was so surprising that Shane started laughing, it was amazing. Anyway, outside Mirage is a huge water fountain, every 15 minutes it turns into a volcano. Which it did, a fireball blew out from the too and fire ran through fingers in the water, very impressive and quite hot, considering the temperature of Vegas is quite warm. We went into the casino where they have 2 white tigers on display. They were asleep, but the video they played of them was interesting. We returned to the hotel after that. I am feeling that I want to go home. I am tired and with all these buildings' air conditioners, my cold is getting worse. I think I kept a couple of the others awake with my 'snoring'? Christ, I must be bad if I am snoring. Anyway, at 09:30 I got up, now it is time for brekkie.
09:45 What a lousy breakfast. 1 dohnut and a coffee, it's too heavy for the mornings, Justin and Darren went to get something for the servo next door. I don't blame them.
12:45 We went for a wander up to the bank and the casino shops. I spent $80 on Batman stuff and I am happy. There is an official cowl there for $40. I've checked my cheques, it looks like the cowl is a goer. Some great news, I have checked my Traveller's cheques, I have 15 $50 cheques, and we are only going to be in the US for another 11 days, making me a $200 profit, man I can go crazy in LA.
17:55 Shane Darren and I have just returned from the Hoover Dam. We drove up there, took some happys and went on the Dam tour for $2. A very enjoyable day, we shall rest for a while, before going out for our last dinner in Las Vegas.
23:30 Dinner was excellent, great value for money, a chokky milkshake, big bowl of spag, soup, chokky sundae all for $8, very good. We went back to the hotel picked up the car and went to Excalibur, the funny thing was, I found some real Batman rubbish all drastically reduced. Excellent, so I picked them up. Darren and I continued to Caesar’s Palace to pick up the cowl, we quickly hurried to Mirage to photograph the volcano, it was so bright my flash didn't go off. After that we headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow we leave Las Vegas, it's been good but 1 day was enough.
   

14/9/93 (Tuesday)
08:55 I'm awake.
10:50 We're on the road, just past Hoover Dam, I'm driving and we're stopped in a traffic hold up. Gloria Estefan is on the radio. We are now in Arizona, and are standing still on the road in a cue of cars.
12:00 A car accident right in front of us, specco.
15:05 Welcome to Arizona. We have taken a room in a hotel after a long hotel cruise. it isn't much, but it'll do.
16:20 We've just returned from lunch, it was very cheap which was good, on the way back we checked out a few Indian shops, this place is not as exciting as Vegas, but at least Batman Animated is on TV
22:40 We've just returned from dinner, which was OK. It was in the restaurant next to our hotel, the meal was 50/50 but afterwards we went to Makkas for a drink. We had some fun chatting with the drive through ladies which was enjoyable. After watching Batman Animated, I had a snooze for a while, now I am writing postcards, by the way, earlier on before dinner, we drove just out of town and entered a camp ground to do some stargazing which was good. We saw a meteorite and the Milky Way was very clear. Good stuff.
 

15/9/93 (Wednesday)
08:30 We're up. I slept well and I think my cold is getting better. I didn't cough much last night which is good. I’ve had my shower and we are nearly ready to go
20:50 What a day. We drove to the Grand Canyon, sussed our the gift shops then cruised over to one of the lookouts, man the thing is big. We all took heaps of photos, then we went over to one of the trails which we went down. Justin and I didn't go all that far, although the other two did. We took more photos and enjoyed the view. Justin and I returned to the top, we drove to servo for a drink, then returned to the parking lot to wait for Shane and Darren. I snoozed in the car waiting for their return. Once they did, we went and had lunch, my teeth are really starting to act up. Cold drinks are making my left side very sore. Anyway we left the National Park to a big cinema down the road. Imax cinema, a huge square screen at least a few stories high, here they showed a movie about the Grand Canyon. Excellent, the big screen made it feel as if we were travelling though the Big G ourselves. A very good production and excellently photographed (sound by Sprocket systems). After the movie finished we quickly went back to the Big G and one of the lookouts as the sun set. We took the last of our photos before we headed off. We decided to pop into Makkas on the way back. Once again we chatted with the drive through lady as the girl in the truck behind us got embarrassed by tooting her horn at us accidentally. Anyway we've come back. tomorrow we're off the big hole at Flagstaff which was used in Starman (the big meteorite hole in the end). Anyway we'll check it out and take more photos. It's only 78 miles away. I picked up a T-Shirt for Kaths at the Big G, I hope she likes it.
   

16/9/93 (Thursday)
08:40 I'm awake and already had a shower. Last night after I finished my journal entry I decided to sleep. Justin turning the channels on the TV came across TNG which had only just started (Defector) So we watched that. Then I went to sleep. I didn't cough at all, so I must be on the improve. My budget is doing very well, I have 11 $50 cheques ($550) to see me through the next 8 days, so I'm pleased I'm $150 ahead in my dollars, so I can afford to lash out in a phone call to her. Anyway, we are almost ready to go to brekkie, at least the place we go to has cereal, which is one good thing.
17:45 Well brekkie was nice and cheap. We left the hotel for the crater. We stopped on the way at the Walnut Canyon where the Indians built their homes in cave walls. It was very interesting and we took a couple of pikkies. After that we went to the crater. It was great, it was a lot bigger than it looked, and it was very windy. We went on a rim walk which took over 1 and a half hours, it was great stuff. All the way round, Darren and I were making reference to the aliens who landed here, on the opposite side of the entrance and museum, we found 2 old rundown miners huts, so we explored them, despite passing one Chinaman, we never saw another soul on the trip. It was a lot of fun, and I took a lot of photos. Darren and I agree that this place was more interesting than the Grand Canyon because of its cosmic value. We looked at the museum and we bought some stuff at the shop. We were pretty tired especially Shane and I who walked the Walnut Canyon trail. I sped back to the hotel so I could have a snooze. Justin had a problem with the dunny overflowing and woke me up. Some Sci-Fi show is on the tube which the others are watching.
20:30 We went and had dinner at a local Asian Restaurant, then went to Safeway, Justin said he saw a Batman thing which I went and got. I’ve picked up a collectable in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Williams Arizona, I’m doing well. I wrote 3 more postcards before going to dinner. I forgot to mention that returning from the crater, we passed a house that had been blown off the trailer transporting it, due to the high winds. We didn’t stop for a peek, but it was pretty amazing to look at. Anyway, we are now waiting for Deep Space 9 which may or may not be on TV at 22:00 tonight, hopefully it will be. Tomorrow it’s back to LA, Justin, Darren and I are glad, I’ve seen enough countryside and hot desert plains and am looking forward to seeing a city again, even if it is LA. The last leg of the holiday begins, and possibly the most busiest. We’re tuned into TNG (Hunted) so we’re watching that. Shane gave me some cream for my sunburn which I got at the crater today.
23:00 Justin wanked with a torch, a very enlightening experience. As you can guess, we’re mucking about in bed again. Now at this moment Justin has a torch in the cot, Reid is in the bed with him cowering by the door and Shane is recovering from a big laugh, and leaning against the wall. Funny stuff.
   

17/9/93 (Friday)
08:15 We’re awake, after lots of funny buggers last night, time to pack and go.
09:30 We’re packed and ready to leave Williams and Arizona for LA. The trip is supposed to last 8 hours, so it will be a long haul, At least we will be in a city, I’ve had enough of the countryside, although that’s all I will have for at least 7 hours of today. Ho hum. In one week and a day, we will fly home.
11:50 We’ve been to Kingsmen for a drink. Darren is trying to make Justin think we are in Phoenix, since he fell asleep on the trip.
15:40 We’re about 2 hours from LA. At home it’s about 08:00 Saturday. Some sad news has come our way, at about 13:45 at one of our stops, we had to remove our flag from the aerial. It had frayed and faded, so to keep our pride, we took it off, now we are just like any other car on the road.
17:35 We have arrived at Steve’s place.
18:40 Great news, Kaths sent me another letter, we all went down the road for some Mexican, when we returned Bob was here. I was given the letter straight away, now I am happy.
23:40 We had a Chinese dinner which was nice and watched a movie called ‘Consenting Adults’ which was good , but not flawless. What made me write this entry was Steve’s (who went to bed a couple of hours ago) dog, Obi. He is over 15 years old and is half deaf and blind, and has kidney problems. They put a nappy on him at night and it was cute to see him waiting patiently as Bob applied it to him, very sweet to see. We are preparing to hit the sack, and are going to Universal Studios for the tour tomorrow, hopefully to buy a lot of Star Trek stuff.
   

18/9/93 (Saturday)
09:00 I’m awake, I slept on the couch like the last time, very comfortable, and much better than the Williams hotel.
21:00 OK, time to start the day’s events. We got up and had brekkie, after we all showered and got dressed and finally headed off for Universal. Following Bob's written directions we got there without any problems. $5.00 to park the car then an escalator to the entrance. $29 to enter but we had $3 discounts which were helpful. We went inside, big and impressive. I bought a 24 film for $6 which was expensive, so I limited my photo taking. The place was set like a large movie lot, we went to Starbase, the Star Trek shop. It was small but interesting, we didn’t buy anything deciding to return later. We went to the Back to the Future ride. The queue was long and it zig zagged in a small area, it was a clever way to cram a lot of people into a small area and keep them moving. TVs above us played stuff to keep the crowd entertained. We eventually got into the standby area, which had us separated into groups of eight, we were put into a room with displays all around when the instructions were played to us, we then got into the actual Delorian itself, a video monitor on the dash told us what was happening then all went black, when the screen ahead of us began the tape, I was astounded, every square3 inch of all around us was taken up by the visuals, the story was hard to follow but we rocked and shook as we pursued Biff in the stolen Delorian. The ride was amazing, and the feeling of movement was enhanced buy our car tipping and shaking, very impressive and quite realistic. I couldn’t stop laughing the whole way, although the feeling of motion sickness does become evident, it was great. We got off and said that we could not wait for Star Tours. The Back to the Future ride was great, but Star Tours is more kindred. After we left we went on the tram ride through the back lots. It was very good and quite interesting. The earthquake, King Kong and the spiral tunnel were all terrific. I took about 20 photos on this trip, hopefully KK and earthquake will turn out, it was great to see all the fake buildings and bridges and Jaws popped up from a lake and scared Shane. I enjoyed it a lot and it was a fascinating trip. King Kong was in a studio simulating an attack on a city, he was quite large and he shook our tram as we went past, the other guys didn’t like it, but I thought it was really good, the lights and sounds were fab. Earthquake we parked in a subway when our tram rocked a lot and flouros were flickering eventually the roof fell in as did a truck parked on the road above, as well as power lines. On our other side a flood poured in while on our side an oncoming train jack knifed and crashed, excellent, this was very well done, I was impressed. The tunnel, we parked in a cylinder tunnel make like ice, the tunnel started revolving making us feel like we are spinning, very giddy stuff and everyone was moaning. This could get anyone sick, although we weren’t moving. Anyway the trip finished, then we went into the ET ride for George Ivanoff. This was great, we entered into a forest set up at night. It was really pleasant, tall trees and bushes and even atmosphere, eventually the crowds moved onto the actual ride which was a bicycle style cart and we went through the forest with car headlights popping out everywhere (we are supposed to be carrying ET to his home planet) with yelling and noises, eventually we took off an looked down on the a great model of the town complete with moving cars and all at night, excellent. We got to his home planet which was very colourful and cheering, the ride finished with ET saying bye to everyone of us by name (when we entered the ride, we had a card given ton us with our names programmed into the bicycles) when it finished we had some lunch then we popped into the Lucielle Ball museum which was nice. Then we went to the cinemagic display which showed how spekky effects and audio effects are created, it was great, very enjoyable and interesting. They showed how some Back to the Future scenes were done, the shower scene from Psycho and a scene from Vertigo and how sound effects were done in a scene from Harry and the Hendersons. Very good. The Backdraft ride had broken down so we went back up to the shops and began the spending spree. I bought a few things as did the others. I spent $80 most of it on Kaths. Since I couldn’t find her name on anything spelt her way, so I got a Hollywood Universal T- Shirt and had her name sprayed onto the back, although her long hair will hide most of it. Hopefully she will like it. Once we had finished our big load of shopping it was rolling onto 6 o’clock, so we left for Steve’s. We arrived here and showed Steve and Bob all our purchases, the Darren Justin and I went to Makkas for dinner. Now we are watching My Cousin Vinnie which has been going for 15 minutes, time to start watching bye.
23:40 The film has just finished and was very enjoyable, I thing we’ll be hitting the sack soon.
   

19/9/93 (Sunday)
01:35 I’m finally in bed, Darren and I have been having a D&M on the balcony, Shane and I had a talk after Steve and Bob went to bed, Shane is talking with Justin outside still. It’s been an evening of D&M’s.
09:50 I’m awake after another wonderful sleep.
22:20 Today’s been interesting and relaxing, we hung around until the afternoon when Bob, Shane, Darren and I went to the local video store and the Galleria shopping plaza where we went to the Warner store, Disney store and a local toy shop. I spent about $40 on Batman stuff and a couple of TNG cards for Kaths. I scored very well on Steve’s pinball machine. I was able to score in the top 5 (Commander) with 221,000,000 and I got my initials into the memory of the machine. DAG top stuff. A Star Wars dealer to see Justin and a friend of Steve’s turned up, we had a lovely dinner on the porch and talked shop. I made a toast to all Star Wars collectors present and future, Steve added "and to Star Wars" hear hear. Steve’s Star Wars machine is playing up so I’ve stopped on it. Justin and dealer are trading still and Shane and Steve’s friend are going through the ranch slides, tomorrow we head off for a Hollywood tour which should be good. It has been a relaxing day and quite enjoyable. Darren, Shane and I got dressed in our Imperial Officer uniforms for dinner, very cute. Also I re rolled the posters, mine are now in a tube ready to fly home with me. All I have to do now is box up the collection and I’ll be ready to go, but I can’t do that until I’m certain I am not going to buy any more.
23:10 It’s amazing to watch Justin and Chuck do business. I think Chuck has chosen some of Justin’s figures about 14 in all, and Justin is getting stuff from Chuck of the same value, the lounge room has Star Wars stuff all over it and they are dealing in big figures. Mint Darth Vader figures $70, Imperial shuttles $210 boxed, nothing is cheap.
   

20/9/93 (Monday)
02:05 Chuck and Wade have finally left, we have spent the past couple of hours talking about Star Wars things, they are very nice guys and Wade really knows his stuff. We’ve made our beds are ready to snooze. What a day.
10:55 I’m awake and up, Steve and Bob left for work hours ago, so it’s just us. LA is very overcast and dreary.
18:25 We eventually got sorted out and left for Hollywood. We found the Walk of Fame easily, parked the car and went for wander. We sussed out a few souvenir shops. I bought a T-Shirt for my father, Kaths, Janet and their folks. We saw about 35% of the Walk of Fame, we went to the Chinese Mann theatre, where we saw the cement impressions of C3PO, R2-D2, Darth Vader and George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. We went across the road to buy film and went to the Hamburger Hamlet for lunch. They had a great mural of Indy Jones and Steven Spielberg on the Raider’s set, very nice indeed, we all took a photo of it. This place is apparently George Lucas’s favourite food place in this city. Anyway after lunch we took our photos at the theatre, then walked the Fame. Darren and I took photos of the cement impressions by the Star Trek cast, we found stars for Ricardo Montalban, Levar Burton, George and Gracie which were next to each other, and I was pleased to find Gloria Estefan for Kaths, so I took a photo of that. We wandered a bit, found and excellent military store where Darren bought more naval things for his uniform. We all bought lots of souvenirs, when we were finished we came back to Steve’s, Darren and I went out again hoping to look at more Walk of Fame stars, but couldn’t find a parking spot so we decided to cruise up to Beverley Hills instead. The houses were excellent, and the cars very upmarket. We had a ‘Star Map’ but decided to return here for dinner not wanting to be late, but it was very interesting and much nicer than LA itself. We went to the 90210 zip code area, but couldn’t find any signs with the number on it. Darren and I returned home, Steve and Bob were watching ‘Sister act’. We are all relaxed here, Steve and Bob have just left to buy Bob a new car, then we shall all go out for dinner.
20:35 Steve and Bob have not yet returned. I had a snooze for a while and have begun packing while I can, the case is full of T-shirts, books and uniform, while the bag is empty in the guts but the ends are full. This is going to be a sh** to take home (all the junk I have accumulated).

 

 

 

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