Phew what a day!

Sacramento > San Francisco > Los Angeles > Las Vegas

We started in Sacramento at 4am and arrived in Las Vegas about 5pm.

We had to get up early for a 8.30am flight to LA. First we had to drive from Sacramento to San Francisco.

Thanks again to Zelle and Dave for getting us up early and driving the two hour journey. Then we caught the United Airlines flight to LA and arrived at 10am.

Then the excitement kicked up a gear. We picked up a Mustang Convertible for a  self drive to Las Vegas.

I was very nervous about driving. There was a number of firsts for me:

• First time hiring a car
• First time driving in another country
• First time driving a left hand drive
• First time driving a convertible

First we had to negotiate the LA freeways. Getting in the right lane for the exits was the key. I missed a few exits (blame navigator Jane). The GPS got us back on track though.

Once we left the busy freeways and got on the open road my confidence grew. I started changing lanes and overtaking the people driving non-convertible non-sports cars. Suckers!

I was surprised how fast people drive here. The speed limit for the freeways in 65mph (105kph). Most people were going faster than that. I was told to keep up with the traffic and found myself doing 80mph (129kph) most of the way. Once, when the traffic was clear, I pushed it and brought up the ton. 🙂

The landscape and climate changed quite considerably in the 420km trip. LA was quite cool and overcast. The landscape changed from urban to hills then to barren desert.

Thanks to Courtney Griffin from Flight Centre, Galleria for organising the car and hotel in Vegas.

I loved the trip. Driving was great fun. I was exhausted by the time we reached Vegas though. That didn’t stop us going out onto the “strip” that night.

More about Las Vegas later.