Los Angeles - Trip End -1

Good morning,

I delivered the bike to Schumachers the shippers this morning - now having a breakfast at Denny's .... Not a lot more to say today...... Nigel

Los Angeles - Trip End -2

Good afternoon dear reader,

I had an excellent stay with Pablo and Nicole and family at Huntington Beach, they were so generous and kind.  Thank you both so much.  

Yesterday was spent walking into town for breakfast and then cleaning the bike and getting it ready to ship home.   Of course we had to watch the England football match….  So, despite unpacking the food stuff, and leaving various unwanted items with Pablo, I still appear to have more stuff than I arrived with some 9 weeks ago. Another sort out need once I get to my room.  I had originally booked a motel further out but decided the other day to find one a bit closer to the Airport - another error on my part,  for or though I would save money, this Motel is too big and unlike other motels you are unable to park your bike outside the room door, but they assure me that they have security through the night.   I will have to have a quick word with him and maybe drop him a few dollars to keep a eye on the bike - its only for one night.

In the evening Nicoles father, brother and his 2 girls joined Pablo, Nicole and their son and daughter joined us for supper - its was a great night.  Great company and great food - and I so fear that I may have put on a few pounds around my waist over the last week or so.

I awoke early as expected, and said goodbye to Pablo and Nicole and then made an early start up the Pacific Road Highway to LAX.   The traffic was light and I pottered along and of course arrived early for the motel.  So having had a couple of cold drinks at Denny's down the road, I am now sheltering from the sun in the reception of the Motel awaiting for rooms to be readied.  

Tomorrow I will be riding over to Schumacher's to drop off the bike, sort the paperwork and then chill before I fly out on Tuesday afternoon.   

I am very tempted to start a summary of the trip but I think I will wait a while - maybe on the flight home….. 

Long Beach CA - The Queen Mary

Hi dear Reader

So the plan yesterday was to visit The Queen Mary at Long Beach CA to try to confirm that the first picture above showing my father shaking hands with Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was taken on the Queen Mary and not the Queen Elizabeth. It was a old photo we found at home and my father had served on both ships.

Once on board one of the first pictures on the wall is the other B&W photo below showing the Queen Mother meeting other offices on board in November 1954, the very same day.... Bingo it was confirmed this was a photo taken on board this very ship.

We had a great tour about the ship and even met with the current Captain of the ship and he personally took us to where he believed the photo of my father was taken - what a nice guy. Thank you Captain James Sanders.

Pablo and I then had lunch and visited the engine room and upper decks - it was over 100 degrees outside so not too much hanging about...

All in all a brilliant day and very special day .... and I must admit I did even have a tear in my eye just thinking that was standing where my father worked all those years ago. The next thing will be to see if we can get my fathers photo displayed in the gallery on the ship with all the others...

I am informed by my eldest brother that this was not my first visit to the ship - as when I was very small my mother would take the four of us kids down to Southampton docks to welcome my father home when the ship docked, and he would get us on board via the galley stairs and the chef would feed us all ice cream... how cool was that !!

Ah nostalgia ain't what it used to be...,,

Nite nite

USA 2018 - Full Circle

Good afternoon dear Reader,

After a good steak supper and a reasonable nights sleep - what with all the July 4th fireworks etc.. I did make a early start this morning in the cool of the morning and mist.   I left Ventura at about 6am this morning and hopped onto the 101 South for Los Angeles.  Talk about Fast and Furious…. and the further south I got the pace picked up…. Through the passes and over the hills, it even got to 6 lanes wide, with cars passing on both sides and moving in and out of the lanes…. Bloody dangerous in my humble opinion, but I so much small that they are so I tried very hard to keep out of their way.  I have been so used to riding on long straight roads with very little traffic….

Nearer to LA I moved over to the 405 South which was just a bad, but I needed to get the US Customs office near LAX to sort out the 7501 form.   I waited at the Customs Office for a while until the screen opened to reveal the same Customs Officer that dealt with me on my arrival when I was trying to get the bike temporarily imported.  He had told me 9 weeks or so ago that this form was not need and that was that.    Today he took the form and sat looking at it a while and then stamped it and signed it and handed it back to me - he did say that he did not understand why it was not signed and stamped when I was here before.   IDIOT.

Back onto the 405 South and then across to the Pacific Coast Highway at Long Beach (very up market and lots of concrete but a nice beach) and now life got easier as I gently rode south towards Huntington Beach, stopping for a cup of coffee and a rest stop, and arrived about noon, this is where I started from on the 9th May.

I will at some stage look and the miles ridden and the route on the map, I may even think about writing a final entry for this trip - a summary if you like - but I may just leave that for when I am on the plane on Tuesday.   In the meantimeI need to wash the bike as it is not looking its best at present, sort out the luggage that I will be carrying home and the stuff that will be travelling home on with bike.  I need to remember that I have the Adventure Travel Film Festival coming up in August and I will some of my kit for then; Sleeping bag, ground mat, cooker etc etc.  

But at present I am sat in the shade with a cool breeze blowing and looking at the photos on my camera.   The photo below was just to show that I am true to my word, as I had promised my wife Debbie that I would shave off the beard before I cam home….  I think I prefer me with a beard but that is not what management thinks so…..  I am also in need of a haircut.

The bike is resting in the garage and has done extremely well all through this trip, apart from the normal feeding it with fuel, oil, water, chain lube, I have only had to change the rear brake pads and adjust the chain twice.   It has worked its heart out on the long hot roads like the US-50, it has climbed many passes including Bear Tooth pass in Wyoming only to have the downhill section blocked by Montana and we had to ride back down, it has ridden through some of the worst rain, hail and thunder storms that I have very seen, and of course the long long rides through deserts in such high temperatures…..

So for now, good day and I must go and get the washing out of the drier…..

N

Ventura CA

Dear Reader

After a long walk around Ventura early this morning it was back to the shade. I took this picture as the bike looked so small and sad in the car park🙁.

I watched the England game - oh that was close! I have had a great supper and have stocked up on stuff so I can hide from the chaos that I suspect will be 4th July by the beach tomorrow ....

Nite nite

Ventura CA

Good afternoon dear Reader,

I am typing this blog in an overcast and cool Ventura California.    

Yesterday a very chilled day but very hot outside, with a gentle start with a great cooked breakfast and lots of coffee.  We all sat at the table and sorted e-mails, blogs and such like, then in the afternoon we all travelled to the 'local' outlet mall, well local by US standards.   We arrived about 40 mins later and the Mall is located in the middle of nowhere, just Hotels, Restaurants and Outlet stores and the temperature in the car park was 102 degrees……. I managed to get a pair of Levi jeans and a sensible shirt.   Then we left and stopped for a pizza on the way home - very tasty.

By now is was about 7pm and we settled in to watch a bit of footy on the TV - the Croatia match from earlier that day…. After that it was time to sleep and I woke up early and managed to get an early start on the day.  Firstly I had to tackle the 2 miles of gravel and sand to the main road……. Ginamarie was very kind to follow me in the car  to the main road just in case I got into difficulties in the sandy bits - I really don't like sand….  But I did 'man up' and rode it and didn't do too bad a job of it…. Well considering I am fully loaded and had road tyres that have done about 8,000 miles.. 

The ride to the coast started off quite windy all the way to Palmdale on the 138, then I picked up the I-14 and life got a bit busy and faster..  about 6 lanes wide and everyone in a hurry - I have not been used to this…. I managed to miss my turn to go North on the I-5 and connect to the 126 but Gertie Garmin played a blinder and put me onto the 118 and then the 101 North and finally into Ventura.  The closer I got to the coast the cooler it got and we had a bit of mist and even a slight bit of rain / low cloud.   

Not a long day but and busy one… my intention now is to chill a little more, re-sort my luggage, do a bit of washing and generally get myself ready to ride into LA and stay with Pablo at Huntington Beach via the US Customs Office.  And I may even catch a couple of games from the World Cup.   The final match will hopefully be live on the TV the morning before I leave…or not .  I may just get another early start to miss the traffic !!! Some hope in LA….   

Again many thanks to Mark and Ginamarie for Hosting and old Brit on a 21 year old Africa Twin..

Oak Hill California

Good morning dear Reader,

Now that was a long day yesterday - I left Kingman in the cool of the morning (5:30am) and set out for the Oak Hill house of Mark and Ginamarie Austin-Bray. They had kindly invited me to stay a while on my trip to the coast... I think the distance was about 250 so I would take about 5 hours or nearer 6 with fuel breaks and a breakfast stop.

I knew it was going to get hot on the I-40 and I could feel it on my back by 7am... The I-40 is not the most interesting road in the world but I did not want to hang around in the heat by taking the Route 66 road again.

I finally arrived about noon at the house - the surprise was the 2 miles of off-road and sand between the main road and their house ..... how I made it I'm not sure but I did.. slipping and sliding... that night we had a BBQ and that was really great. By 8:30pm I had had enough and felt the need to go to bed - I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, and did not awake until 7 this morning.


We spent the rest of the day doing email and blogs... I real do-nothing-day.

Tomorrow I will take the slow road over the the coast near Ventura and be a tourist for a day or so if the weather is kind to me.... after that I will visit the US Customs en-Route to Huntington Beach for the final days of this trip..... I have already arranged for a trip to the Queen Mary at Long Beach to see if they can identify the Captain in the picture of my Father shaking hands with the Queen Mother, as we need to establish if this was on the Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth...

The other photos are of me typing this blog and my hosts on the www...