LA - San Diego [122 miles]

Best day so far!  We spent the morning tinkering with the bikes, putting slime in the tyres, fitting the GPS (should have done this way earlier!!) and then set off down the I405 to San Diego.  American freeways make the rush-hour M25 look good - we're amazed at how six lanes of traffic can go SO SLOWLY!  Filtering with the panniers on was a little tricky - the gaps between the SUVs are tiny cos the vehicles are so wide...and we're constantly aware of the damage we'd do if we dragged the metal panniers down the side of a Porsche. We stopped a couple of times at viewpoints - sea - check...hills - check...sexy bikes...check - and rolled into San Diego about 6pm, average speed on this leg about three miles an hour - dammit!  We checked into the hostel,which is about...oooh...two hundred yards from the beach...turns out that (due to the meticulous planning) we've arrived just in time for a massive beach/street party tomorrow - lovely stuff! San Diego feels a lot nicer than LA...much less aggressive, better atmosphere - a bit like Leigh versus Southend I guess ;) - and the cheap beer and food didn't hurt either... Hope you guys are having fun at work...we can assure you that this lazy travelling lifestyle isn't easy at all... Photos to follow when we find somewhere to upload them...we're off to watch the sun drop over the horizon with a cold beer (us, that is, not the sun)... 

LA (etc)

Eager to make the most of the day, we crawled out of the hotel room ten minutes before breakfast stopped at 11 and ate most of the breakfast buffet.  Our first ride out on the bikes fortuitously landed us at Santa Monica where we had the traumatic task of locating a decent spot on the lovely white sandy beach...this took about ten seconds.  After gently crisping in the sun, a photoshoot for a skateboard mag provided much entertainment as we watched the "gnarly dudes" repeatedly launch themselves down a flight of steps...most excellent! Powered by Gatorade, we traipsed up to Hollywood for the obligatory photo of the Hollywood sign, swept through Bel Air (nice houses!) and got stuck in horrendous traffic on Sunset Boulevard.  Hollywood was most underwhelming..."grubby" seems to describe it pretty well, although we may well have been biased by our friendly freight guy repeatedly calling it "HollyWeird" the previous day. An impromptu diversion due to dodgy mapreading on the way back to the hotel took us through some of the dodgiest gangland neighbourhoods in LA (Compton and Inglewood - oops!).  Grilles on windows, derelict industrial buildings looking like something out of Grand Theft Auto and police arresting people left right and centre didn't help the stereotypical image of the less salubrious parts of America...especially when Matt reckons he saw a dead guy in a jeep parked in the road (although he was probably just sleeping ;) ). Back at the hotel we packed in some "healthy"american food and gallons of coke and sprite - we seem to have miscued the amount of liquid we need to take in and we'll have to keep an eye on it, especially as we head south.   

London - LA

After the unusual experience of being woken up at 5am, we made it to Heathrow along with all our luggage, thanks to Will's Dad's Taxi (tm).  Things took a minor turn for the worst as Will strode into the terminal building and managed to lose boarding cards and passport within about thirty seconds - the lovely Aer Lingus hostess sorted us out, we dumped our panniers at the oversize luggage desk and we were on our way to Dublin for the first leg of the flight.  Things were going fine until we had to argue our way through US customs before boarding the Dublin - LA leg of the flight - not having return flights booked meant that the Customs Nazis immediately assumed we had either terrorist or refugee inclinations (we may well have looked like the latter after the 5am wake-up call) and Matt had to explain our trip in intricate detail whilst apologising for not doing the journey on Harley-Davidsons. Ten and three quarter hours later, we were turfed off the plane in LA - straight into a gorgeous 30degree heat :-).  We were treated to another display of american "customer care" by possibly the most arrogant and uninterested immigration official ever...comments such as "What do you want?" when presented with our passports for immigration really help the american image of co-operation and helpfulness...!   We were anticipating a long wait for our mangled panniers to riccochet down the baggage reclaim tunnel but were pleasantly suprised when they appeared, pretty much intact and unopened, within about 5 minutes of the flight landing...bubblewrap seemed to do the trick! Picking up the bikes proved remarkably simple - a taxi ride to the freight terminal and then to the customs depot, where we waited an hour for the "efficient" US beauracracy to grind into action and give us a single rubber stamp for the paperwork, and we were standing in the freight depot in front of a large plywood crate containing our perfectly packed bikes - fantastic! The floor show we provided whilst dismantling the crate entertained the staff for a good two hours - eventually the bikes were out, assembled and we turned hesitantly out onto the freeway to find hotel for the night, somewhat dazed by the fact that we'd arrived in one piece!

Eight days to go...

Well, here we go...three pretty damn scary deadlines looming in front of us... - TWO days until the bikes get collected for Air Freighting to Los Angeles.  - FOUR days till our last day at work - WHOOHOO! - NINE days till we are standing in the departure lounge in London bound for Los Angeles...noses pressed and fists banging against the steamy airport window watching in horror as our 4 shiny bike panniers are launched, courtesy of a hairy baggage handler, into some random plane, probably headed for India... Are the bikes going to be in Los Angeles when we are? Will US Customs let them go nice and easily, avoiding the typical urge to blow them up to see if they were actually a threat to the civilised world? Will they have travelled as well as an Easter egg and cascade out of the crate in 4000 little pieces when we crowbar it open? Tune in next episode to find out...! Hard to avoid worrying about all these minor (!) issues really.  We've done all we can on the bikes...now we have to <sob> entrust them to the tender mercies of the airlines.  If all goes well, we'll be trundling out of LA airport on two bikes, complete with luggage...headed for the nearest hotel 'cos we're knackered from jet lag and the effort of bolting bits of XT back together :-) Ah well...I expect the strain of spending the next few months biking from beach to beach, soaking up the sun and cold beer will be a sufficient antidote... However, that's way off in a fairly idealistic future...right now we're doing all the little niggly last minute jobs - like declaring our bikes SORN (YOU WILL NOT HAVE OUR ROAD TAX, EVIL DVLA!), getting spare keys cut, documentation copied and backed up, making lists of <gulp> emergency phone numbers...etc We completed the bike preparation at the weekend, and then partially disassembled them so that they pack compactly together...that meant removing the screen and front fairing (1 bolt), the wheel, (1 bolt) and the plastic mudguard (4 bolts !?!) - these bikes are laughably simple...although only having one bolt holding stuff on does raise the question of what happens if we ... ummm... lose that bolt??! Armed with one allen key and a 10mm spanner, you could probably reduce the entire bike into component parts in 4 minutes.  Sounds like a challenge to me...coming soon, to a LiveTV channel near you... The bikes are picked up on Wednesday, all being well.  Now we just have to pack all the stuff we've been madly buying over the last six months. Claire's spare room is an absolute tip (even by male standards!)...pills here, tools there, spares on the bed, camping equipment littered around - in the early months we could just about keep the place tidy, but over the last month or so, the kit, the packing and the constant fiddling and checking has culminated in what looks like the aftermath of a champion wrestler trying to subdue a very nasty chimpazee in a particularly well-stocked motorcycle and outdoor outlet. We still have to decide who is carrying what and where. That's a minor detail...more importantly, we're READY :-)  After we've packed, everything from then to June 22nd in LA is down to the shipping company and Aer Lingus.  And the insurance, if it all goes wrong.  Watch out LA...here we come...!