Los Angeles, California, USA

On arrival, it was straight to the hotel in downtown LA and reserve a rental car for the next day. I slept the afternoon away after a quick shower, and woke up again at 9pm. I went down for a drink in the hotel bar before heading out to explore the city. Los Angeles was a shock! There was no one about on the streets and very few bars or clubs open! I walked for ages around the city centre, thinking “What a boring city! I’m glad I don’t live here!”. After midnight, I finally found a bar open, ordered a beer and asked the barman why LA was so dead after dark. “There have been riots here, and over 60 people died. That’s why things are a bit quiet!”, he replied.

I wanted to experience a well-designed roller coaster, so the next day I picked up the rental and headed out of LA to Six Flags Magic Mountain. The highways in Oman and Kuwait had been spacious and well-maintained, but this was my first experience of a six-lane highway! I arrived at Magic Mountain at about 1pm and realised that I would have to choose carefully because I only had enough time to take in three rides. The first one I chose because it looked similar to a traditional roller coaster from the old days. It was called ‘Colossus’. A fun ride, but nothing to write home about. The next one was called ‘Freefall’ and just involved being taken up in the air in a giant elevator and then dropped down to earth again (with a gentle landing, thankfully!).

Last but not least came ‘Viper’! By now, I was feeling that this roller coaster thing was just a walk in the park, but I was still intrigued by the queues waiting to enter a ride called Viper. There were two lines of people; one very long with a group of three beautiful girls at the back of it, and the other long without any other attractions. Of course, I joined the longest queue to see where it was going. By now, I knew that this would be the last ride before I headed off to explore Santa Barbara before returning to the hotel.

The queue took more than 45 minutes, but when I finally got to the end of it I realised that it was for places in the very first car! There was a guy next to me who asked me if I’d ridden Viper before; I explained that I was a first-time visitor to the park, and he told me that he was a veteran of over 30 Viper rides! Apparently, at the time, this ride had the highest number of loopings within a corkscrew construction of any roller coaster in the world. The ride was FANTASTIC!!! And in the middle of one of the looping corkscrews, my new acquaintance nudged me with his elbow and pointed above us. What I found out after we got off was that he was pointing to one of the cameras taking photos of all of the Viper participants. I had to buy a printout of the photo as it showed clearly just how much I was enjoying myself!!! The guys in the second row didn’t seem to having such a good time (I’m front left in the yellow t-shirt)! 

My heart was still throbbing happily when I returned to the car and navigated up to Santa Barbara. I didn’t really know what to expect, having chosen the destination based on hearing about the town on tv, but after exploring for a while, I realised that it was starting to get late and decided to return to LA. The drive back was memorable! I followed the coast road, but as I approached the city again, there was a blanket of mist, which turned to impenetrable fog which made driving very hazardous! I had never experienced fog that thick before while driving, and it was a relief to finally descend into the bowl in which LA is built and leave the smog behind me!

The next day, at LAX airport, I realised that more people spoke Spanish around me than English! This didn’t present me with any problems because I’d done my homework learning this language while I was living in Barcelona. My itinerary now involved a short stopover in New York, followed by an onward flight to Brazil.