On the way to my hotel, I saw the big "HOLLYWOOD" sign, for a moment out the taxi window. I had been to Los Angeles a couple times before, never liked it and never saw that sign before. It was fairly groovy. At the hotel I got the bad news that they had mistakenly allowed the guests in my suite to have a late checkout, meaning that I was supposed to wait more than 3 hours or take a lesser room. It was 1pm and I was more than tired- which was my own fault for procrastinating about packing the night before and staying up too late before my early departure. I needed a bath and a nap before I picked up my rental Z3 from New Century at 5pm. This was seriously cutting into my nap time. They decided instead to upgrade my suite, which meant at least an hour wait for them to prepare it. I settled in in the lobby with the book I wanted Fred to sign. "All the Rage" by Ian McLagan. Fred is a character and they mention him a couple times in the book. He is feeling pretty ill these days, he is my major reason for coming to the City of Angels. There was a band milling about the lobby, waiting less patiently than I, and kind of annoying me with their attitude. I read on. After an hour or so I turned to the slightly familiar gentleman wearing the "Elvis Live" laminate and asked what band he was with. I wasn't terribly nice about it. He explained that they were Elvis's band, playing shows with a film of Elvis. Trying to make up for my gaffe, I told him about the book, written by the keyboardist for the Stones and the Faces, and looked up "Elvis Presley" in the index. We turned to the pages about Elvis, and this gentleman saw his name, James Burton, on the page, along with some of his friends, and was kind enough to autograph the page for me. Just as we started to catch up, his transport arrived, and my room was ready. It was the first of many near misses on this trip. So, off I went to my room, ordered food, drew a bath and set up for the next 16 hours. The room was actually 2 large rooms, dining table, kitchen living room... not fancy but HUGE. The windows faced a freeway and the sound of cars and traffic was constant. The alarm clock was broken as were a couple other things so it was another hour or so before I could get settled. I pushed back my pickup time at the car dealership to 6pm, tried to squeeze in a nap, took a 5 minute bath and ended up dressing wet for Wendi, the friendly car agent who picked me up to take me to the dealership. I was well prepared for the rental Z3, I brought everything I could think of, V1, Linux, (my stuffed penguin companion), tape of the Rolling Stones, Shag Mag 63 and of course, Chrome Stone Guards. I grabbed one of the 2 Charcoal Gray Talkabouts I am (regretfully) selling for the Malibu Boxster AudiTT ride, figuring that it would better match my Steel Gray rental, and besides, someone may want to buy it after the run, saves me carrying it home and sending it later. They had told me they had only one Z3 to rent and it was Steel Gray.

4 Goin' West Part 1 ~~ Part 2 ~~ Part 3 ~~ Part 4 ~~ Part 5 ~~ Part 6 ~~ Part 7 ~~ Breakfast of Champions Part 8 ~~ Part 9 ~~ The August 5th Malibu Canyon German Roadster Rebellion Part 10 ~~ Part 11 ~~ Part 12 ~~ Part 13 ~~ Part 14 ~~ Part 15 ~~ Part 16 ~~ Part 17 ~~ Part 18 ~~ Part 19 ~~ Part 20 ~~ Part 21 ~~ Part 22 ~~ Part 23 ~~ Part 24 ~~ Part 25 ~~ Part 26 ~~ Part 27 ~~ Part 28 ~~ Part 29 ~~ Part 30 ~~ Part 31 ~~ Part 32 ~~ Part 33 ~~ Part 34 ~~ Stockton, San Francisco and Getting Home Part 35 ~~ Part 36 ~~ Part 37 ~~

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