That day we all spent pretty much at the hotel, waiting for Bill to get back and just resting.
When Bill did get back we went to a travel agent to book passage back to Los Angeles. We decided to splurge and go home first class on Pan Am. All eight of us (don’t forget George.)
Our plane would not leave for a couple of days so we had time to explore downtown Buenos Aires.
The hotel was in a very fancy area, many expensive shops and restaurants. We went in and out of quite a few of them. One thing I did not realize until we traveled was how good stores smelled in the USofA. Next time you go into a mall take a sniff. Of course this was also one of the older sections of the city - but- all the stores had a moldy smell. And most of them had cats - again to keep the rat population down. It was strange to go into a fancy ladies dress shop and find a couple of cats roaming around. They also left their smell.
And did I mention while in Argentina we discovered a couple of fast food places that served hamburgers, fries and cokes. One was Pumperknick, the other Che Burger. Pumperknick was the Argentine equivalent of Burger King and Che Burger was McDonalds just with different names.
So for a few days we spent our time roaming around and fighting the elevator. We found out it went to the floors in the order the buttons were pushed i.e. 4,2,5,3 !! Also it had a mind of its own - sometimes it wouldn’t work at all other times it would stop between floors. When this happened the people stuck in it would yell “ANSENSOR!!!!” “ANSENSOR” this meant help we’re stuck in the elevator and someone would come running to push buttons to try to get it to work. This went on all hours of the day and night.
We called home and let my Mom know when we would arrive and we called the storage company to make sure all was okay with our furniture in storage. Thank goodness it was.
We were all getting anxious leave.
February 13th 1979 - The day arrived when we would take the final step of our journey. We all dressed comfortable as it would be 24 hours before we reached Los Angeles. Bill was wearing jeans a loose shirt and his black Stetson (one of the last original ones made before Stetson sold out to another hat company.) The rest of us were pretty much the same, jeans, loose shirts and jackets. Randy had on his gray Confederate army hat.
Time to go. Nestor and Nellie came with their car and the ticket agency provided a limo and a van. Most of the luggage was loaded into one van; the other van carried the rest of the luggage and all the boys (George was with Randy.) Bill and I rode with Nestor and Nellie. Total we had 47 pieces of luggage, this included the seven overnight bags that Pan Am gave us when we bought our First Class tickets, a couple of suitcases we brought with us and all the new ones we had to buy in Buenos Aires.
We all pulled up in front of the airport, Bill and I got out - Nestor would park his car - the kids piled out of the van and the van drivers and porters started to unload the luggage.
Bill slung a couple of the overnight bags over his shoulder, Paul had his and Gils and John carried his. John Mc and Randy stayed to watch the luggage.
Bill approached the ticket counter and presented all the passports and picked up the tickets. By then we had all caught up with him.
It was time to board the plane. Good byes to Nestor and Nellie and then we walked out to climb the stairs to the plane. Bill went up the ladder first followed by a couple of the kids. He still had the overnight bags slung over his shoulder. As he entered the plane he turned to his left to go into the First Class section. The stewardess jumped in front of him blocking his progress and loudly said, “This is the First Class section, you need to go the other way.”
Bill stopped, looked at her and held up our tickets. “I believe these are First Class tickets.”
She looked down at his hand and turned pale. “Oh, yes Sir, they are sir. May I help you to your seats sir.”
Needless to say we were treated like kings on that part of the journey. We would change planes in Brazil.
Randy had George in a plastic soap container in his shirt pocket, after we changed planes he took him out of that and put him on top of his head under his hat.
It was a pleasant flight from Buenos Aires to Rio. We had an hour or so before we had to catch our next plane, it would take us to Los Angeles with a couple of stops in between. As we were sitting and waiting I happened to look at Bill and remember his hat. “Bill where’s your hat?”
He felt his head and got a horrified look on his face, “Oh my God, I left it in the bin on the plane.” He went flying up to the counter to ask if it had been found, or if the plane was still there. They said he could go back to the plane and check. Of course when he got to the plane the cleaning crew was already at work and the hat was no longer there.
When he got back to the terminal he placed a lost claim, but of course nothing ever came of it.
Now it was time to board our last plane. No problems this time. It was a very long flight so we were very glad we had room to stretch and move around. During the flight we were served meals in a private dining area with real linen tablecloths and napkins. And the food was good.
Our next stop was in Honduras at Tegucigalpa, the capitol city. That was an exciting landing. You fly in over the mountains then drop into the airport. And I do mean drop. We had a couple of hours lay over there. Then back in the air for our last leg.
Finally we landed in LAX.
We disembarked and much to my surprise a couple of the kids bent down and kissed the ground. “Hooray, we’re home again!” from John.
We collected all of our luggage and went up to the customs line. The clerk took one look at the stack of baggage and shook her head. “Do you have anything to declare? she asked.”
“No,” replied Bill. We have been traveling for over a year and this is just our personal stuff.”
She looked at the pile again, opened on bag full of clothes, closed it, looked at the rest of the stack then turned to us and said, “Okay, just pass through.”
So off we went.
My Mom had arranged for several relatives to meet us and lug all of our stuff to her place.
The next few days were spent in renting a house and getting our stuff from the storage company. Then registering the kids in school. As I mentioned before John and Paul went into the grades they would have been in if we had not left. Gil was kept in the same grade he was in when we left. John Mc went to his parents home then moved to northern California to work. Randy bought another motorcycle and looked for a job.
And so ends our saga. It took us 13 months from when we left in the motorhome to drive the length of the Pan American Highway from Nogalas, Arizona to Mar del Plata Argentina.
Bill and I are both retired now and have been for a number of years. We have a 40 foot motorhome for just the two of us and during the summers we tour the United States. One summer we drove the Alcan Highway to Fairbanks Alaska. One summer we drove into southern Baja. We have spent a couple of winters in Mexico.
We have lost track of John Mc, Randy is a confirmed bachelor and restores classic cars and builds choppers. John has been married for 22 years and has 3 kids, he and his wife work in the tile business and enjoy boating and off roading. As a jarring note after I wrote this John died in a camping accident in December of 2006, he was 41. Paul has been married 19 years and has 2 children. He works in the video business. Gil is now married with a little boy, he has a power boat on the Lake Mead and owns a maid service in Las Vegas . Our oldest son Dennis, who didn't go with us lives and works in a little town in the mountains in Central California.
When Bill did get back we went to a travel agent to book passage back to Los Angeles. We decided to splurge and go home first class on Pan Am. All eight of us (don’t forget George.)
Our plane would not leave for a couple of days so we had time to explore downtown Buenos Aires.
The hotel was in a very fancy area, many expensive shops and restaurants. We went in and out of quite a few of them. One thing I did not realize until we traveled was how good stores smelled in the USofA. Next time you go into a mall take a sniff. Of course this was also one of the older sections of the city - but- all the stores had a moldy smell. And most of them had cats - again to keep the rat population down. It was strange to go into a fancy ladies dress shop and find a couple of cats roaming around. They also left their smell.
And did I mention while in Argentina we discovered a couple of fast food places that served hamburgers, fries and cokes. One was Pumperknick, the other Che Burger. Pumperknick was the Argentine equivalent of Burger King and Che Burger was McDonalds just with different names.
So for a few days we spent our time roaming around and fighting the elevator. We found out it went to the floors in the order the buttons were pushed i.e. 4,2,5,3 !! Also it had a mind of its own - sometimes it wouldn’t work at all other times it would stop between floors. When this happened the people stuck in it would yell “ANSENSOR!!!!” “ANSENSOR” this meant help we’re stuck in the elevator and someone would come running to push buttons to try to get it to work. This went on all hours of the day and night.
We called home and let my Mom know when we would arrive and we called the storage company to make sure all was okay with our furniture in storage. Thank goodness it was.
We were all getting anxious leave.
February 13th 1979 - The day arrived when we would take the final step of our journey. We all dressed comfortable as it would be 24 hours before we reached Los Angeles. Bill was wearing jeans a loose shirt and his black Stetson (one of the last original ones made before Stetson sold out to another hat company.) The rest of us were pretty much the same, jeans, loose shirts and jackets. Randy had on his gray Confederate army hat.
Time to go. Nestor and Nellie came with their car and the ticket agency provided a limo and a van. Most of the luggage was loaded into one van; the other van carried the rest of the luggage and all the boys (George was with Randy.) Bill and I rode with Nestor and Nellie. Total we had 47 pieces of luggage, this included the seven overnight bags that Pan Am gave us when we bought our First Class tickets, a couple of suitcases we brought with us and all the new ones we had to buy in Buenos Aires.
We all pulled up in front of the airport, Bill and I got out - Nestor would park his car - the kids piled out of the van and the van drivers and porters started to unload the luggage.
Bill slung a couple of the overnight bags over his shoulder, Paul had his and Gils and John carried his. John Mc and Randy stayed to watch the luggage.
Bill approached the ticket counter and presented all the passports and picked up the tickets. By then we had all caught up with him.
It was time to board the plane. Good byes to Nestor and Nellie and then we walked out to climb the stairs to the plane. Bill went up the ladder first followed by a couple of the kids. He still had the overnight bags slung over his shoulder. As he entered the plane he turned to his left to go into the First Class section. The stewardess jumped in front of him blocking his progress and loudly said, “This is the First Class section, you need to go the other way.”
Bill stopped, looked at her and held up our tickets. “I believe these are First Class tickets.”
She looked down at his hand and turned pale. “Oh, yes Sir, they are sir. May I help you to your seats sir.”
Needless to say we were treated like kings on that part of the journey. We would change planes in Brazil.
Randy had George in a plastic soap container in his shirt pocket, after we changed planes he took him out of that and put him on top of his head under his hat.
It was a pleasant flight from Buenos Aires to Rio. We had an hour or so before we had to catch our next plane, it would take us to Los Angeles with a couple of stops in between. As we were sitting and waiting I happened to look at Bill and remember his hat. “Bill where’s your hat?”
He felt his head and got a horrified look on his face, “Oh my God, I left it in the bin on the plane.” He went flying up to the counter to ask if it had been found, or if the plane was still there. They said he could go back to the plane and check. Of course when he got to the plane the cleaning crew was already at work and the hat was no longer there.
When he got back to the terminal he placed a lost claim, but of course nothing ever came of it.
Now it was time to board our last plane. No problems this time. It was a very long flight so we were very glad we had room to stretch and move around. During the flight we were served meals in a private dining area with real linen tablecloths and napkins. And the food was good.
Our next stop was in Honduras at Tegucigalpa, the capitol city. That was an exciting landing. You fly in over the mountains then drop into the airport. And I do mean drop. We had a couple of hours lay over there. Then back in the air for our last leg.
Finally we landed in LAX.
We disembarked and much to my surprise a couple of the kids bent down and kissed the ground. “Hooray, we’re home again!” from John.
We collected all of our luggage and went up to the customs line. The clerk took one look at the stack of baggage and shook her head. “Do you have anything to declare? she asked.”
“No,” replied Bill. We have been traveling for over a year and this is just our personal stuff.”
She looked at the pile again, opened on bag full of clothes, closed it, looked at the rest of the stack then turned to us and said, “Okay, just pass through.”
So off we went.
My Mom had arranged for several relatives to meet us and lug all of our stuff to her place.
The next few days were spent in renting a house and getting our stuff from the storage company. Then registering the kids in school. As I mentioned before John and Paul went into the grades they would have been in if we had not left. Gil was kept in the same grade he was in when we left. John Mc went to his parents home then moved to northern California to work. Randy bought another motorcycle and looked for a job.
And so ends our saga. It took us 13 months from when we left in the motorhome to drive the length of the Pan American Highway from Nogalas, Arizona to Mar del Plata Argentina.
Bill and I are both retired now and have been for a number of years. We have a 40 foot motorhome for just the two of us and during the summers we tour the United States. One summer we drove the Alcan Highway to Fairbanks Alaska. One summer we drove into southern Baja. We have spent a couple of winters in Mexico.
We have lost track of John Mc, Randy is a confirmed bachelor and restores classic cars and builds choppers. John has been married for 22 years and has 3 kids, he and his wife work in the tile business and enjoy boating and off roading. As a jarring note after I wrote this John died in a camping accident in December of 2006, he was 41. Paul has been married 19 years and has 2 children. He works in the video business. Gil is now married with a little boy, he has a power boat on the Lake Mead and owns a maid service in Las Vegas . Our oldest son Dennis, who didn't go with us lives and works in a little town in the mountains in Central California.
We advertised the motorhome. It was only in the paper for a couple of days when they called us to let us know several people were interested. They suggested we take the motorhome out to their house and they would let the people know it could be seen there. And so we did.
The second person who came to see it wanted it. He was married with a couple of kids and was an engineer. His family fell in love with it and it would be perfect for them as they wanted to travel around South America. He agreed on the asking price and left a down payment that day to take delivery when the paper work could be completed and the motorhome delivered. It would take him a while to raise the money and then he and Bill would drive the motorhome to Mar del Plata to do the paperwork.
So we went back to our “place” and started to pack. And pack. And pack. When we left California it was with the thought that we would live in Argentina so we took a lot of our smaller household items with us. Such as dishes, pots and pans and linens. And I wanted to keep them - in other words bring them back with us. We also had our clothes and a few things that we had bought as souvenirs. So we bought a couple of suitcases and packed them. Then we bought a few more suitcases and packed them, and then more. The funny thing was every time we bought another suitcase the price had gone up from the day before. (A not so funny sign of the inflation there at the time.) As we filled a suitcase we stored them in Bill’s cousins’ empty apartment. The stack got bigger and bigger.
We did give away several things. A couple memorable items were the kids FisherPrice toy peoples and some larger Tonka trucks. We gave them to a couple of the families in the apartment building. Their children were so pleased with everything, it made our kids feel good instead of bad.
Finally we were all packed up and ready to go. Our reservations at a hotel right downtown were made and we had loaded all of the suitcases in the motorhome.
The man that was buying the motorhome was supposed to meet us at our “spot” about 7:00 in the evening. He didn’t come and he didn’t come. All I could think of was that he had changed his mind and there was no way to notify us.
Well our buyer finally showed up around one a.m. He’d been delayed by a family emergency. He had the money and was ready to take possession of the motorhome. This caused a slight problem. First - we had loaded all of our luggage in the motorhome and needed to take it and us (me and the kids) downtown to the Florida Hotel where we would stay until we left for the states. Second - Bill would not let the gentleman drive the beast as it was still in our name. He couldn’t drive it until all the paper work was done and the paper work had to be done in Mar del Plata.
So we finally arrived at the hotel around 2:00 a.m. and had to lug all of the stuff out of the motorhome and into the hotel where it would be stored for us until we were ready to leave. A very sleepy clerk finished checking us into our rooms and Bill and the buyer left for Mar del Plata driving the motorhome. The kids and I started up to our rooms. Bill and I had a room on the third floor, the kids were on the fourth floor. Did I mention that the Florida Hotel was a VERY old hotel? The elevator was a brass cage with a wooden floor.
We all got in, Randy punched the 4 button, I pushed the 3 button. Up we went to the 4th floor and stopped, right past the third floor! The boys got out and went to their room, I pushed the 3 button and nothing happened. I pushed again, nothing happened, I was about ready to try to get out when the elevator started to move. The third floor finally - I was very happy to make it to my room and get a good nights sleep. Poor Bill was driving a couple hundred miles to Mar del Plata and it had started to rain again.
The next day all went well in Mar del Plata, the money was handed over and the paper work was completed, it now became the buyer’s problem to finish registering it. Bill caught a plane back to Buenos Aires
The second person who came to see it wanted it. He was married with a couple of kids and was an engineer. His family fell in love with it and it would be perfect for them as they wanted to travel around South America. He agreed on the asking price and left a down payment that day to take delivery when the paper work could be completed and the motorhome delivered. It would take him a while to raise the money and then he and Bill would drive the motorhome to Mar del Plata to do the paperwork.
So we went back to our “place” and started to pack. And pack. And pack. When we left California it was with the thought that we would live in Argentina so we took a lot of our smaller household items with us. Such as dishes, pots and pans and linens. And I wanted to keep them - in other words bring them back with us. We also had our clothes and a few things that we had bought as souvenirs. So we bought a couple of suitcases and packed them. Then we bought a few more suitcases and packed them, and then more. The funny thing was every time we bought another suitcase the price had gone up from the day before. (A not so funny sign of the inflation there at the time.) As we filled a suitcase we stored them in Bill’s cousins’ empty apartment. The stack got bigger and bigger.
We did give away several things. A couple memorable items were the kids FisherPrice toy peoples and some larger Tonka trucks. We gave them to a couple of the families in the apartment building. Their children were so pleased with everything, it made our kids feel good instead of bad.
Finally we were all packed up and ready to go. Our reservations at a hotel right downtown were made and we had loaded all of the suitcases in the motorhome.
The man that was buying the motorhome was supposed to meet us at our “spot” about 7:00 in the evening. He didn’t come and he didn’t come. All I could think of was that he had changed his mind and there was no way to notify us.
Well our buyer finally showed up around one a.m. He’d been delayed by a family emergency. He had the money and was ready to take possession of the motorhome. This caused a slight problem. First - we had loaded all of our luggage in the motorhome and needed to take it and us (me and the kids) downtown to the Florida Hotel where we would stay until we left for the states. Second - Bill would not let the gentleman drive the beast as it was still in our name. He couldn’t drive it until all the paper work was done and the paper work had to be done in Mar del Plata.
So we finally arrived at the hotel around 2:00 a.m. and had to lug all of the stuff out of the motorhome and into the hotel where it would be stored for us until we were ready to leave. A very sleepy clerk finished checking us into our rooms and Bill and the buyer left for Mar del Plata driving the motorhome. The kids and I started up to our rooms. Bill and I had a room on the third floor, the kids were on the fourth floor. Did I mention that the Florida Hotel was a VERY old hotel? The elevator was a brass cage with a wooden floor.
We all got in, Randy punched the 4 button, I pushed the 3 button. Up we went to the 4th floor and stopped, right past the third floor! The boys got out and went to their room, I pushed the 3 button and nothing happened. I pushed again, nothing happened, I was about ready to try to get out when the elevator started to move. The third floor finally - I was very happy to make it to my room and get a good nights sleep. Poor Bill was driving a couple hundred miles to Mar del Plata and it had started to rain again.
The next day all went well in Mar del Plata, the money was handed over and the paper work was completed, it now became the buyer’s problem to finish registering it. Bill caught a plane back to Buenos Aires
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Returning to the United States After Driving From California to Argentina in our Motorhome
