Our biggest challenge was getting back to LA from Independence. The bus only ran every three days and we would be stuck in Independence for several days if we waited for public transport. There was a bus up to Mammoth but that took us even further away from where we wanted to go.

We asked around the day before at the Post Office and was told there was a guy called Kurt who might be able to take us to LA. We gave him a call and he was willing to take us there for $200. Independence is pretty small and we were desperate to get back to LA so we took it.

The next morning Kurt rocked up in his pickup truck. It was tiny and I was sandwiched between Kurt and Ben and straddling the gear box so it was a pretty uncomfortable ride. Kurt offered to take us all the way but instead we asked him to drop us off in Lancaster which then meant a train ride to LA and a shorter and cheaper ride with Kurt.

Kurt was an interesting character and had a conspiracy theory about everything going. He was a nice guy and we enjoyed listening to his stories on the drive. We headed right through the Mojave and past the aircraft graveyard in the desert where old mothballed planes are stored in the dry desert air.

We eventually reached Lancaster and our first stop was some junk food. We hit Carl Jnrs and made sure we had the best it had to offer.

It was noticeably hotter in Lancaster than where we had been which was a nice change. We then walked across town to the train station and caught the train into LA. It was a nice train journey and good to see the US passing by outside our window whilst we both listened to music to pass the time.

We finally arrived at Union Station and it was a short walk back to our hotel. From there, we headed out to our favourite, overpriced ribs place and had the ribs, fire-roasted vegetables and extortionate real ale.

After dinner, it was back to the hotel to sort our gear out and watch the Dodgers play on TV after a long day.