DAY TWENTY - Wednesday 4 May 2011: GOODBYE!

This post wasn't meant to exist because today would just consist of getting to the airport and flying home.  HOWEVER.... all was going well - sun was shining, we had a walk in the morning after throwing out more stuff that we'd accumulated along the way. All that was left was the trip to the airport and the flight home.  We'd already booked the 'super' shuttle on the internet - $37 paid up front and they would pick us up at 2pm - 2.15pm to go to LA International Airport. All very simple.

waiting for the cab in the hotel lobby... calm before the storm?

 Car arrived and in we jumped.  A couple of miles into the journey the driver said he'd had a phone call to say he'd picked up the wrong passengers. Ha ha... what a laugh we had. Then he got another phone call and he said we weren't the right passengers so we would have to pay $65 for the trip. No question according to him. We explained that we'd already paid and that there had obviously been some mix up. He was supposed to pick up passengers from room 207 and we were room 204.  This is when it started to get ugly!  He insisted we would have to pay $65 or he would take us back to the hotel.  At this point I think I saw Neal's head explode and he turned into somebody with a steely determination NOT to pay any extra money even if somebody ripped out his finger nails.  The driver and Neal were, at this point, eyeball to eyeball yelling at each other. Neal accused him of kidnapping us and we were going to ring the police - the driver swerved off the road and said he was taking us back to the hotel whether we missed our flight or not... obviously time for a sensible person to step in - but where could we find one??  Oh yes... that was me (strange I know). As the driver is leaning into the back of the car shouting to Neal "hit me, hit me" (anybody who knows Neal knows that's the last thing in the world he would do)...and as the driver has a very thick accent and it sounds more like "heat me, heat me" and Neal is looking a bit confused about that but shouting "you are taking us somewhere against our will and that's kidnapping - you'll go to prison for a very long time"... I thought it was about time to ring the cab company (California Express) to see if there were any sane people around.  We finally agreed to pay $20 as a compromise so the driver could stand down without losing face and without being accused of kidnapping his passengers, and Neal could return to his normal colour.  The sulking driver still whined all the way to the airport that he wouldn't make any money out of it. Neal apologised for losing his temper and tried to shake hands but he didn't want to know.  It cost us extra money and we're convinced it's some sort of scam but at least it was $20 and not $65 and we got our flight on time!  Phew...  I thought it was all going too smoothly!

And so goodbye to California - it was a blast (as they probably said in San Francisco in the 70s) .... Over and out x