USA 1

hello,

sorry it took me such a long while to write the first post. we flew to the states on june 23 and are happy ever since:-)
the air india flight was pretty amusing. when i arrived in frankfurt (jessica had to take a later connecting flight from duesseldorf) and wanted to check in, i was told our plane was still in bombay, and it was unsure when and if it would take off. so the expected delay was five to eleven hours.
well after checkin we requested some drink and food vouchers and got them - worth 24 euro per person - we thought. we decided to go to mcDonalds first and ordered after checking with them they accept vouchers. the food was prepared (we were really hungry) but when they saw the vouchers were issued by air india, they snapped the food right back and away from us, saying air india would never pay their bills. hmmmmmm. we started wondering if an airline that cannot pay their food bills can pay their mechanics.
In the end it worke out in our favor, however: upon complaining with air india they sent us to a nice rooftop biergarten with pizzas available where we spent the next hours and where our voiuchers were gladly accepted.
we finally took off with a six hour delay, had emergency row seats and nothing else to complain about. upon arrival in Los Angeles we took the SuperShuttle to the gated community where our van was awaiting us. it was after 1AM when we finally made it there.
The next morning we left after chatting with Mark (the Pfohl-family friend who stored the van for us) and headed north along the coast. The van seems to be running great. And a poptop roof is simply great. It sets up in a few seconds!
For the next days we traveled north on Highway 1 along the windy California coast.