Day 3: Entering LA

Funny thing about the desert, it pretty much stays hot all the time, no matter if the sun is up or down. We left Needles around 8:30a and not surprisingly, it was already 80 something degrees outside. The actual drive to Los Angeles wasn't bad at all; just more driving through the desert in a furnace-like heat with the windows down because for some crazy reason I thought it would be a good idea to sacrifice comfort for gas mileage.

I don't really remember what time we got in to the "LA area," because one finds it pretty much impossible to determine when one enters the "LA area." Los Angeles itself isn't that big, but the sheer number of suburbs that surround downtown LA make the "LA area" fantastically humongus. As in: It's so big it's not really that funny because I'm being completely serious about how big this place is. We drove through the city for a good hour and twenty minutes before we even got close to the exit we were supposed to take to get to our apartment. Yes, over an hour of driving along the northern edge of the metropolitan area just to reach our exit. We switched highways 5 times (I think) along the way; yes, this place is huge.

In a twist of irony, even though the city itself is gigantic, the lanes on the freeways are stupidly narrow. Narrow enough for it to be really difficult to keep my Budget truck in one lane. Narrow enough that I white-knuckled it for 67 miles. I can say that without a doubt, this was the worst part of the trip. Megan didn't mind it so much, but then again, she was in a tiny little car and could maneuver her way through the congested traffic without too much difficulty.

Nevertheless, we found our exit and managed to find the apartment. We got turned around once on the way (totally my fault), but after we got the truck straightened out, Megan went on ahead and found the apartment building. We parked behind the building in an alley and got the truck unloaded in a few hours. Well, I got the truck unloaded in a few hours because Megan accidentally locked her keys in her car while she was renting a dolly at the Budget rental place. In her defense, it had been a stressful day and I probably would have done the same thing; in fact, I'm surprised it hadn't happened already considering the amazing number of random things that have happened to us thus far.

We took the truck back at 5:30p and finally got the stupid thing out of our sphere of responsibility. The Budget truck guy was nice enough to stay late for us, for which I will be forever thankful. We spent most of tonight unpacking; in fact, that's all we did after we got rid of the truck. I suspect it'll be more of the same tomorrow.