Rodeo Drive, Baby!

Howdy, folks!

I LOVE waking up and having it pour outside!  Maybe it will even wash the car for us, as the rain we had the other day was the typical AZ rain that just stirs the dust around on the car and makes it look worse than it did BEFORE the rain.  The only problem with rain is it brings humidity and that reeks havoc with my fibromyalgia.  When I took that first step out of bed this morning, I thought I was stepping on nails!  My whole right leg was killing me, starting with that "fiery" feeling in my foot all the up to my thigh.  That nerve involvement is getting worse in that leg, I can feel it everyday.  And no matter how many neurontin I take now, it doesn't really help.  I'm on the maxed out dose, I think.  I've never tried Lyrica, wonder if that would help?  If anyone of you has tried Lyrica, let me know what it does for you.  You see the ads on TV all the time how it helps, but those are just ads.  I need REAL advice!  :0)

OK...here's another episode of "Down Memory Lane."  I remember when my folks first came to AZ, they were really excited (as was I) to visit California. We went to San Diego first (which I already profiled in a past post) and then moved up the coast to Los Angeles.  My dad has a thing for cemeteries, so naturally, we had to stop at Forest Lawn, outside of Hollywood, I think it was.  Speaking of Hollywood, poor Mom was driving down the 101 at top speed to keep up with the other drivers and I kept getting blurred pictures of the Hollywood sign.  So she must have driven down that about 4 times and I never did get a picture of it!  How frustrating!  I did get lots of other good photos, though, I 'd like to share with you. 

Here we are, shooting into LA on two wheels, I think!  The traffic pretty much determines how fast you go...but yet, it's always the out of state tags that get the speeding ticket!! Not that we got a ticket, but I've seen it happen a lot of times, out-of-state cars pulled over to the side of the road. We rented a car for this trip, a beautiful blue Ford Taurus, as we still had the "Thurderbird" and we didn't want to deal with the oil leak and it had just completed an across the country adventure and we didn't want to push it!.  We went on this trip as a special 24th birthday gift for me.  I always have loved California and my parents really did chose a special gift for me!

 

 Here my parents are, all tanned and really to go on the LA adventure scene!  Side note: this motel was really hard to find, as all the ones we went to where renting rooms by the hour if you know what I mean!  But the room here was very nice and we rented it for the WHOLE night, which probably shocked the check in guy!  Second pic above is me and my dear Mom.  :0)

And what's Beverly Hills without Rodeo Drive?  My ma was so involved with looking at the street with all the little shops that she almost rammed into the "Beamer" in front of her!! I hope that taught her a lesson...don't look at the sides of the street while driving!  Focus straight ahead at your object and when he brakes, you brake!!  My mom wasn't real receptive to driving comments, but I threw my two cents in anyway!  After all, we were in a rented car and MY name was on the application!!

My dad has this thing about cemeteries.  He loves 'em!  He even has a "Find A Grave" coffee mug that he ordered off of one his favorite grave sites.  A lot of the cemeteries in his book are beautifully landscaped.  And Forest Lawn outside of LA is no exception!  Here is the fountain that greets visitors right at the front entrance.  There is a security stop point there and it's always manned by someone.  You can purchase cemetery maps there, but it doesn't show where the celebrity graves are.  The guy at the booth said that would cause havoc!  He did give us a clue to a general location where some of them were buried.  My dad was particularly interested in where Marilyn Monroe was.

Here my dad is, way down at the end of a plot divider, looking at all the graves. He was like a little boy in a candy store....all these graves, so little times!!  He was sooo excited, in fact, he left his glasses on to of one of the plots by mistake and forgot to take it with him.  We had to search and backtrack where he had been - like the whole cemetery! - to no avail. So we left the name and address they could send it to if they ever were found.  (To our surprise, about three weeks later, they WERE found and mailed to us.  Some person found it and turned them in! Yay!)

Here I am by the grave of Andy Gibbs, from "The Bee Gees."  Dad loved taking pictures of us by celebrity grave plots.  I wonder about him sometimes!!  :0)

Here dad is, posing by Bette Davis's plot.  He's too cute with how dramatic he can be.  He was in his wearing pants all year round stage because his legs weren't tan.  How could they get tan covered with jeans?  His logic was something else!  :0)

Dad just insisted I get a pose by Bette Davis's plot, too!  He's a silly little guy!!

Mom posing by Freddie Prinze's plot.  He was from "Chico and the Man" series.  Doesn't she look good?  And that's for being about 100 degrees out with the humidity about that high, too.

Here I am again, this time by Liberace's grave plot.  It was almost as decked up as he himself was in life!!

My mom walking down the cemetery sidewalk, looking at plots in the ground.  My dad was still in the celebrity section.  They were having a funeral on the other side of the celebrity section and my dad would yell out, "Mother, come here quick. I found a movie star!"  The people in the funeral would pause for a moment and look over at dad.  Mom told him to be quiet, they are having a funeral!

Somehow, Mom got Dad back into the car, even though we never did find Marilyn Monroe.  Dad was almost positive she was buried in Forest Lawn cemetery.  Oh, well.  We did find a lot of celebrities we didn't expect to find, so I think it was a fantastic trip.  Now we are in our air conditioned rental car, heading back to the motel.  Tomorrow we head back to Yuma.  Boy, was that a fun birthday!!  One I'll never forget, that's for sure.

                                                                                                                     
Thank you, Mom and Dad for an excellent 24th birthday party (June 24, 1994).  I love you both dearly!!

Thank YOU, folks, for coming along with down memory lane and my birthday bash "Dad style."  Which that always includes a cemetery or two!  We later found out that Marilyn wasn't even buried at that cemetery!  I forget where she actually is buried at, but it isn't Forest Lawn that we were at!!

Hope you all have a great Wednesday and be sure to go blog hoppin' with linky down below.  Just add your site, "follow" with Google Friends the 1st slot (which is the hostess) and then whichever site appeals to you.  It is so much fun, don't miss out on it!!  Every day I'll have a different linky that corresponds with the day of the week it is.

 

God bless you all,
Until next post,                                             

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