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
