THE ODYSSEY BEGINS

After an almost seamless experience, we are comfortably settled in the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel described as being five blocks (¼ mile) from LAX. I say described as because, while the shuttle bus was easy to find and conveniently brought us here, it was a much longer ride than 400 metres, an easy walk. Perhaps the ¼ mile is as the crow flies and the very busy roads follow a circuitous route.

Having said that, it suits our purpose perfectly for a bit of rest and recuperation and we have arranged a taxi to take us to the motorhome tomorrow morning.

All flight arrangements worked perfectly apart from a bit of excitement as we checked in at Brisbane. The first leg was with Cathay Pacific, a JAL codeshare. When we checked in the attendant appeared to be very helpful and competent until she told us that there was no airline agreement between Cathay Pacific and JAL and that we would therefore need to collect our bags at Hong Kong, go through immigration and then check back in. There was no chance of doing that in the time between flights. Fortunately a more experienced attendant came to our rescue after we expressed incredulity at that and our bags were waiting for us on the carousel after we cleared immigration at LAX.