When we arrived at L.A. Airport on the first day of May, there was a strange feeling of not being welcome. We had to wait almost an hour to pass the immigration staff and customs.
And the crazy traffic in front of the airport didn't  ease that grumbling feeling in my stomach.

But after renting a car and driving a couple of miles, I felt almost at home. 
Now my wife tells her friends at home in Germany about my driving: " Kurt drove and found his way, just like he has been away from California only for three years."
I myself felt like a bird, knowing the directions to fly but wondering why things looked different as I had them in my memory.

I found every place I have been. 
With one exemption: Morrison Machine Company, where I found my first job in 1960, was covered up by a new freeway.

I even found two people I have met, when they were just kids: The son and the daughter of my latest boss in 1966 (Mr. J. L. Pauly).
I have to admit, I forgot their names and I wouldn't have recognized them on the street. But seeing them behind their office desk, I could easily recognize Chris (even if I had to ask him for his name). But I didn't recognize his sister at all.
There was no similarity between that skinny girl in 1966 and that beautiful lady I found. Maybe that change was the reason I forgot to ask for her Christian Name.  
And please, dear Lady Pauly, if you read these lines, don't get mad at me saying "skinny".
But when I was a young lad, my friends at the company of your father had a hard job, trying to get my eyes opened to the pretty girls of California.
Otherwise I probably would have got stuck in that Sunshine-Country.

Even though no one answered my letters and e-mails prior to my journey, I really found two People I had known as Kids!

The servants, especially in restaurants, are as courteous and helpful as I have ever found in any country.

It was an easy-driving in California traffic.
It is not only that streets are wide and have plenty of lanes to get ahead at, it is that any bigger road that is crossing shows a sign up between the lightning poles with its street-name.
You always know where you are.

And they are doing something for their
bicycle-riders.
It is not even that there are marked "BIKE"-Lanes on the road. But it is the way how they are located between the PARKING-Lane and  the running traffic.
Bikers are always in sight of cardrivers and their space will not be used for parking (as is done in Germany!).
But that is not all. I've seen plenty of busses with a bike-rack up in front. Only, where are the bikes? I didn't see any.

The song "It never rains in Southern California" told the truth. During our three-week-visit, there were only two rainy days just about 75 miles south of Sacramento.

On our journey we have seen the amazing
Sequoia-Trees on our way through Sequoia-, Yosemite- and Kings-Canyon National Park, the Cable-Cars of San Francisco, the snow of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Las Vegas in Nevada and sundown and sunrise at Grand Canyon in
Arizona.

We could feel the snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and smell the heat of the dessert in Gila Bend.

We have seen part of San Diego in California and Tijuana in Mexico.

It was the most remarkable journey
in my life.

I don't intend to bore you with a detailed description of our journey.
If you like to get more information just give me a hint via e-mail.