... and fantasia begins

Bienvenidos!

The trip has been awesome so far with quite a few eye openers - there are a lot of stories already and here are a few:

The flight over -
The flight from Wellington to LA was below expectations. Qantas are awesome.

LA - GANG LAND -
You know how people told us our hostel was going to be dodgy? It was. The street we were staying on was right out of the US TV show 'COPS'. We were lucky not to get a 'cap in our ass'! But the hostel was cheap and had a lot of free stuff (like tots and cookies. But we didn't get any of the cookies because all the peeps hanging out there eat them all before any of the guests get any).

Jacky had an added bonus sleeping in a bunk above an older lady with a moustache who had problems clearing her sinus and throat at regular intervals during the night. There was also goldfish in cups kept in the room.

We decided to hire a car to get to Disneyland. We got a brand new US$22k wagon and set jacky in the drivers seat to tackle the 5 lane various freeways. We made it to Disneyland and back without any dents or bullet holes so a good trip all round.

Disneyland!
Disneyland by far exceeded expectations! The rides and sugar infused food were incredible. The queues were short and the Americans were adorned in XXL disney paraphenalia. Visiting Disneyland is a great confidence boost for those of us who have been eating too many pies.

Three things that really amazed us were:
1) The amount of people in wheelchairs who could walk without difficulty. We think this was a plan to queue jump as the whole family gets to move to the front of the line if a family member is ina wheel chair. We actually saw a girl walking around the airport who we had earlier seen in a wheelchair at disneyland.
2) The amount of people using mobility scooters because they are too fat and lazy to walk around the park (which isn't actually that big a distance). And worst of all, everyone condones it. A vicious cycle.
3) School age kids riding in prams. In ten years time, refer to point 2 above.

All this aside, this was Team Fantasia in actual Fantasia! It was the happiest place on earth and all our dreams came true. Including a hell of a fire works display and fake snow!

Dallas
We spent 5 hours in Fort Worth during transit to Mexico City. We were picked up from the airpost in a 1940 Oldsmobile by Jacky's dad's mate, out to show us the best of Texas in the little time we had. We saw long horns, real cowboys and cowgirls, went to a ranch, had margueritas and steaks as big as our heads and cruised along the freeways at an american pace rather than a kiwi pace. Thanks Burnett!

Mexico
Just got here so nothing to report as yet. Except this hostel is better than the gangster land one. And this computer is from the 80's when USBs were not invented so we can't post photos yet. Photos of Disneyland and Dallas will follow ...

Over and out
The Backpack Warriors
aka Team Fantasia

PS - Comments are welcome and expected.