MrGrumpy Goes to Hollywood

MrGrumpy and MrLongIslandIcedTea took the Truck out towards the coast. As they did not have MrSatNav they were using MrsIPadNav instead. This was fine except for the fact they could not charge    it whilst out, the charger they had was duff.

They had breakfast at a diner and then headed up the coast past Huntingdon and stopped at Manhattan beach. Traffic and parking was quite bad, the did finally find somewhere and abandoned the truck. After a wander around and a pint the moved on, firstly having fun three (ish) point turning the truck out of the parking lot.

Venice Beach, basketball court

Next stop was Venice beach, parking options here were even less, they sat in traffic which was moving at a geological pace for about half an hour, before finally finding a parking lot with space.
Venice beach was not what either of them expected, the beach looked nice, but it was a major tourist trap, with more tat and MrLoonies per square meter than anywhere else MrGrumpy had been in the world (including Asia and Las Vegas).


Time was now getting on, after a bottle of beer in a bar they then decided to move on to find some food.  
MrsIPadNav was now running low on juice, < 10%, they headed for Hollywood, which was quite a distance away.


Again both on the way and when they arrived,  traffic was crawling and parking was scarce.  The did catch a glance of the Hollywood sign as they drove down Hollywood Boulevard. Once parked (MrGrumpy approves of valet parking with the Truck), they walked up and down the Boulevard. Once again they were quite disappointed, apart from the stars on the sidewalk is was just another tacky street, nothing special.


Finally it was time for food, they went to the Grill on Hollywood (which was hidden on the 3rd floor of a mall). 


The only problem now was navigating back to the hotel, MrsIPadNav was dead and they resorted to MrIPhoneDirections, lucky is was quite simple, follow the interstate for a while and a couple of changes.

MrGrumpy and the Monster Truck

After a morning of email and catching up with work stuff, MrGrumpy and MrLongIslandIcedTea called it a week and went for a round of golf at a local course. 
They hired a buggy, some clubs (which were a brand new, unused set) and a couple of drinks (non alcoholic), it was not long before they got to start.
MrGrumpy did not bother counting his shots as he had not hit a ball for several years. 
They were playing as a four ball, MrLongIslandIcedTea, MrGrumpy, MrTexasDon and MrMexicanBandito. 
MrGrumpy's first attempts at hitting the ball did not bode well for the rest of the round. All in all MrGrumpy had a few awful attempts but got round and only lost two balls into the hazards.

Back at the hotel they decided that a hire car would be needed, the trip to the golf was over $20 and that was less than ten miles, they both yet had to get back to LAX and SNA airports which would cost a fortune in a cab. The had called several places this morning and had little luck in getting any car (the did get quoted $440 for a chrysler 300), they went down to the lobby and spoke to MrRedShirt, he did have a Camero earlier for $105 / Day, which was gone now, all he had left was a truck, they asked how much... It was cheaper, $65 / Day, that was a bit more like they expected.

The truck turned out to be a brand new Black DodgeRam 1500 (1400 miles on the clock of the little 4.7L V8). In the evening they drove out to Javier's at crystal cove, the car park was very full, they finally found a spot and then had the fun of trying to park the huge truck... MrGrumpy did his best but they left it - semi abandoned at a jaunty angle in a space. As they walked over to Javier's they could tell it was quite a posh place, there were Bentley's, Ferarri's and a Lambo parked outside. Inside it was very busy, they decided to stay for a drink and find somewhere else to eat.

As they drove up the road they found a place on the left that looked alright so they did a MrBoyBand and pulled into the car park, MrValet took the truck away, which was possibly a good thing as the car park was not huge and it was now dark, the chances of MrGrumpy being able to park it were pretty low. Inside it was very busy, while they waited for a table they had a drink (Diet Coke for MrGrumpy as he decided to keep on driving).

Busy Day

MrGrumpy's day was pretty busy, work wise, then out for food and beer.

More details to follow.

Early morning, again

MrGrumpy woke on time (no thanks to his alarm app, he set the hotel alarm clock for 4:45am), he was out of the hotel heading for the airport shortly after 5am. After dropping off the rental car, he checked the flight info boards fo which terminal his flight to Santa Ana was leaving from. There was no flight listed to Santa Ana, he checked his flight details and resorted to looking for them flight number, he found it, flight 359 to Orange County... Not Santa Ana or John Wayne Airport, how was he supposed to guess that...

After a coffee and breakfast roll, he sat at the gate to await boarding for an 8:00am departure. At 7:30 the announcement came, boarding delayed due to an oil leak being investigated... 8:00am came and went, still no update, good job he was not on a tight schedule.

Shortly before 8:45am they announced the plane would not be going, but the were getting a replacement plane. MrGrumpy expected this would take ages, but to his amazement, it was only minutes before another plane arrived on the next gate.

It was 9:15am before the plane left for Santa Ana, in the end he was an hour late arriving.
He got a cab from the airport to the hotel, it did not look far on the map but it was still a $50 cab.

MrGrumpy had to wait a while to check in as quite a few people were checking out. The only room they had ready was an "Accessible room", not a major issue.
The rooms are fine, not great and there are additional charges for Internet, Fitness Center, Breakfast, Self-Parking, everything. 


The hotel is only a few blocks from Disneyland, MrGrumpy took a walk around the Disney Downtown stores, it was quite hot walking about but much less humid than the Dallas area.


MrMonaco and MrLongIslandIcedTea are flying into San Diego and driving up to Santa Ana, they should arrive sometime this evening.

Strike!

MrGrumpy had another busy day at the CubeRanch, there was some interesting corporate goings on which distracted the office for most of the morning.
Lunch was Buffalo Wing Tuesday, MrGrumpy had some boneless wings (chunks of chicken in a spicy BBQ rub).
MrWhiteSox had arranged for MrGrumpy, SeñorDosEquis, himself and his mum (LadyKansas). MrGrumpy was running a little late from the office and the traffic getting of one freeway to the next was not helping. Lucky he made it just in time, MrWhiteSox's niece (LittleMissRR) works at the DrPeper ballpark and was kind enough to get us some complimentary tickets.

MrGrumpy found it fun, he basically understood the game and SeñorDosEquis (a local season ticket holder) explained the finer details.


There were a couple of good home runs and the Rough Riders are currently top of their league, but probably due to the presence of foreigner they lost.... It was still a good night out and MrGrumpy's first experience of US sports.


MrGrumpy arrived back at the hotel about 11pm, now he had to update this and get ready for an early morning. He has to leave the hotel by 5am (ish) for an 8:00am flight to Santa Ana.

In the Cube Ranch

MrGrumpy woke, not to the alarm at 5:45am as he expected, he just woke up and it was 5:58am. His alarm app was showing that the alarm was going off, but no sound was heard :(

Lucky he did not have a flight or anything this morning, he will ensure the proper alarm clock in the hotel works before Wednesday where he really has to be up at the right time.

The CubeRanch is not far from the hotel, it would be walkable if there were sidewalks and less humidity. This week is quite cool for Texas, only in the mid 90's F (about 35 C) but more humid that he is used to. It is expected to be over 100F by the weekend, which does not bother MrGrumpy as he will be southern California by then.

MrGrumpy drove to the CubeRanch, it is only a few blocks from the hotel, he was there quite early only Mr24HourFitness was there, he let MrGrumpy in and showed him around.

It was not that long before others arrived, first MrLLCoolHW, then MrWhiteSox. It is a big CubeRanch with very few people currently in it.

For lunch several of them headed off real Texas BBQ lunch, a beef brisket roll, BBQ sauce and BBQ beans, very, very tasty...

They day went quickly and MrGrumpy was one of the last to leave, by 7pm  he headed down to the Fitness center in the hotel, somebody was on the running machine so he went on the stationary bike for 10 Miles / 40 Mins.

Texas... the big one...

MrGrumpy was up at 4:00am, not really a problem as he had not really slept. By 4:20am he was waiting outside in the dark for the cab to arrive. 10 mins and $45 later he was at the airport, another $25 at checkin (for luggage), he was almost out of cash and he had not made it through security yet.
He checked in and went through security using his California driving licence, he did have his passport with him (just in case there was a problem).
5:20am time for coffee, flight leaves for Dallas, Texas at 6:20am.  

Once he landed, he checked how far it was to Plano, 35miles, 39 minutes, uhm does not sound like a cab ride.
Off he went to find MrHertz (as the office had not booked a rental car, and he had assumed the airport was not as far from the office/hotel). After a 10 minute shuttle bus ride, MrHertz said he could get the corporate rate (upon showing a business card), has asked for whatever with MrCrapNav (Herz AlwaysLost).
The MrHopeless managed to forget to put MrGrumpy on the agreement and had to redo all the paper work. He told MrGrumpy to goto bay 433 where he would find a Silver Sonata, off he went. Well at bay 433, there was not a silver Sonata, not even a Hyundai, there was a White Dodge something. He asked a passing MrIParkCarsForMinimumWage, he spend several minutes trying to compare the barcode number on the car and the agreement (finally MrGrumpy pointed out the last digits were significant not the first 4 which were the same).
Back at the desk MrGrumpy explained the silver Sonata was now white and a Dodge. MrHopeless apologised and fiddled with the computer, MrGrumpy said he would be happy with a free upgrade to a Camero or Mustang convertible like his car in California (he did not mention his was 13 years old). Anyway MrHopeless did upgrade MrGrumpy (for free) to a Nissan Altima 2.5s Coupe. This time the right car was in the right bay, but as he got close he could see damage on the rear quarter, "more hassle" he thought, now he had to fill in a form showing all the damage when he collected the car. He went round marking every minor ding and mark on the paperwork before he left.

After the usual fight with the UI, he left the airport and headed for the hotel. A couple of minutes later he was hunting for the lights and wipers, there was something on the windscreen he had not seen for months, yes rain... and in Texas, really not what he expected.
After the rain stopped and several almost wrong exits on the freeway thanks to MrCrapNav he got to the hotel, seems to be in the middle of nowhere right next to a freeway.

He checked in an managed to have a chat with LittleMissNaughty before he decided to take a drive out for the rest of the afternoon. While he was chatting he was searching for what is nearby, he found Southfork Ranch was only 5 miles away, that sounded like a plan and it was quite cheap (which meets MrGrumpy's criteria).

Taking Personal Shopping
to a new Level...

He went on the tour, it does not take very long, he found out that all the interior shots were done on a lot in California and even the outside shots used wide angled lenses to make the pool etc. look much larger than they actually are.
MrGrumpy was going to get some food there, but he was too late, last food was at 4:00pm, he tried at 4:05pm...

Back to the car, he again fought with MrCrapNav to search for restaurants, he found that the next town was called Allen, well he had to head there, other than somewhere called Grumpy it was somewhere he had to visit.


Once the PhotoStream catches up, MrGrumpy will add some photos, meanwhile this link is to the photos taken at Southfork Ranch.