Rhonda Bracey: At Random

The Hertz counter at LAX didn’t have a Mazda6 as I’d requested, so I ended up in a Chevrolet something-or-other. I wanted a Mazda6 as that will likely be the next car we get—we currently have two 10-year old Mazdas and are really happy with them, so this was to be an opportunity to take one for a long test drive.

However, on hearing me mention that I was going via San Francisco, the lady at the Hertz counter suggested I try exchanging the car there. Well, I could do one better than that—Orange County (John Wayne) airport which is about 6 miles from where I’m staying in Corona Del Mar! I called the Hertz counter at John Wayne when I arrived at Bill’s, but they didn’t have a Mazda6. The helpful lady suggested I call back the next day. So I called this morning (Saturday) and got one! So down to the airport to do the exchange.

Erin at the Hertz Gold counter was most helpful and polite, unlike the usual treatment you get at LAX. However, Erin did say that Hertz LAX did 2000 rentals just on Monday, so I guess they get a bit frazzled by people wanting something that isn’t available.

… where the big jet engines roar”

… and the Customs and Immigration and baggage situation gets worse by the year.

There are two lines at Immigration—one for US Residents, and one for Visitors. But the Visitors line is filled with two types of Visa holders—the green Visa Waiver scheme people (like Australians, Brits etc.) and the white form people (like the entire plane loads from Korea and Chile who arrived just before we did). The white form people took at least 5 minutes each to process—some, 10 minutes; the green people took less than 2 minutes to process. Why don’t they create a Visa Waiver line and a white form line? It would save a lot of frustration…

And how come baggage comes out randomly? I checked both my bags in at the same time with the same person who put them on the conveyor at the same time, and got the first one quickly (that’s because of the LONG lines at Immigration). Had to wait AGES for the second. Both had “First class” tags on them (not “Business” as I expected), yet came out with the “Economy” bags.

And then there are the unlabelled long lines for the final check by Customs before you’re through. No-one to supervise the line, no-one to tell you you’re in the correct line, no big columns of green and red to indicate ‘nothing to declare’ or ‘something to declare’. As an aside, while I was waiting in the last line before getting out into the ‘fresh’ LA air, there was a woman at the Customs counter whose bags were being searched. She had plates of food wrapped in foil, raw meat wrapped in plastic, other food in plastic containers. What *was* she thinking???

BTW, I think that “Immigration” is the correct name for it—not one person in authority appeared to be a caucasian American. All the officials seemed to be from somewhere else, just based on their physical appearance.

I’m in the last stages of organising my trip to the US, and had firmed up some dates when I’d be driving from LA to Portland. Anyhow, I’d only JUST sent out a couple of emails to friends/family along the way when my good friend in Boston IMs me and asks when I’ll be in/near San Francisco.

Reason: She’s running a training course there from 10-13 March, and wondered if I wanted some driving company from SF to Portland! How cool is that!

As it happens I intended lobbing into SF on or around the 11th or 12th and leaving on the 13th. So we’ve got it all sorted—I’ll share her room in SF for one, maybe two, nights, we’ll go to the Berkeley STC Chapter meeting on the evening of the 12th, then hit the road after she finishes training on the 13th. We should have enough time to drive up the coast (and avoid I-5), arriving in Portland on the 15th.

How good a fit is that? Thelma and Louise—watch out!