08/23 Return RV and Long Beach

After a relatively comfortable night (despite the location of the "overnight place" on Highway 1), we get up early to pack our things (how do we get everything back into our suitcases?) and to clean the mobile home. We give away the rest of the toilet paper, firewood and milk to our Swiss neighbors who still have their entire vacation ahead of them. The kids pay a quick visit to the beach.

On the descent, we might try to use the campsite's dumping station, but unfortunately a ranger caught us just as we were about to clear the barrier to the side. For reasons of liability, he doesn't want to let us drive a single minute, despite repeated requests. Well, Americans stop - the law (and the right) is above everything (unless you were president and have the wherewithal), the fear of lawsuits is too great. The pragmatic way of thinking falls by the wayside.

We drive back north to Thousand Oaks and after a long fuel stop (the tank holds about 40 gallons, so 150 liters, costs about $235) we return our RV to the Road Bear base in good time. After reporting our dumping problem, we even generously don't have to pay extra fees. After a short tour, the vehicle is taken back and we are already sitting in the shuttle to Los Angeles Airport. The drive takes forever as always (constant traffic jams in LA). At the airport we take over another rental car for the next 2 days.

We decide to use the afternoon and so Dani comes to the long-awaited visit to her "teacher shop" (lots of great "teacher things" that we don't have here) and then we make our way to Long Beach to do that there museum ship "Queen Mary" to visit. The ship is great (similar to the Titanic) and was the largest passenger ship in the world at the time. We take part in a "hounted tour" of the ship, where allegedly heard paranormal activities (read: ghost stories) are told. The kids don't get much out of it because the guide tells the stories in English that is very difficult to understand.

The drive to the hotel near Universal Studios takes an hour and a half (LA is still in a state of massive traffic chaos). We've booked tickets for the studios for tomorrow, we're all very excited.