Relaxing and stressing days

Status:

Days on the Road: 74
Travelled Km: 14503
Location: El Paso USA

-----------------------------------------------


Well, well. Now I spend the last few days in El Paso. But actually I forgot to write something about LA. That kind of passed my attention since my experience in Las Vegas. I had a great time there.
My Host, Lucas, turned out to be my saviour from before I arrived to way after I left. It once more proved that, even if there are some bad people in the community, Couchsurfing is just more than wonderful. I was staying in North Hollywood which was kind of a clean district. LA was very huge. From where I was staying it was about 30 Km to the beach and still I was in the middle of the City. I guess to check out all LA you would need a couple of years. Lucas took me for a wonderful 100 mile journey in and around LA and to all the spots a Tourist has to go. I went to downtown as well and had quick visit at "Food&Fashion District" which is basically just a small city within the city just about Clothing. I think it was crazy but I guess some people would love it :) I also went to Long beach which I liked a lot. All in all, LA is big, to big for me, I could not live in a city that big.
I also was taken to my first "All Vegan" restaurant in my Life which was a delicious and overwhelming experience.

From Phoenix I made my way to El Paso to visit my friend Nina from Germany. She was here to visit her parents and they welcomed we like the best Couchsurfhosts :D It is kind of a Vacation within the Vacation here. But on the way here something bad happened. The car I was riding to Houston which had some minor problems along the way stop working. It started when I was 26 miles out of El Paso when I turned over to enter the coordinates in to the GPS. When i wanted to start driving again the Clutch stopped working in the first gear. I just would randomly get grip and the car would jump forward. I parked the car and checked everything I could. Water and Oil where still good, and I started to drive again after one hr. because I basically was standing in the middle of the dessert and nothing around me. I pulled into the next Gas station about 22 miles out of El Paso, and called my friend. She came over with her dad to escort me for the last piece. While I waited for them the car cooled down for about one hour, and afterwards it felt better. But when we arrived it it was bad again. Two days latter her Dad managed to get an appointment with a good friend who is a mechanic at a shop to have a look at the car. Even the car cooled down it was bad right away. But when we exited the Highway and i stopped at the traffic lights the Car just went of and would not start anymore, of course on a big Intersection. After 15 min and many attempts to get it to start again someone pulled over offering to tow us. So he took us the last mile to the Shop. We met the mechanic and after a quick look it was obvious that the clutch was burned and the car would most likely not drive anymore like this. It would cost about 1000$ to repair and same amount to ship the car back to Houston. Since I had not the money to repair or the time to wait I had to leave the car behind. Tomorrow I will be on my way to San Antonio Hitchhiking again which will give me a nice Sunburn again. :)