1st November 2007
Last night turned out to be a bit of a mistake. After we’d eaten dinner we joined a number of ‘locals’ at the motel bar and it turned out we had far too much to drink so we were both feeling a bit woolly when we left this morning. We’d intended staying on the Pacific Coast highway for as long as possible but, after we’d passed Santa Monica and reached LA proper, we decided that the traffic lights were just too much to bear and we jumped on the Interstate until we reached Huntingdon beach when we re-joined the coastal road. It was still pretty foggy so the views weren’t bad but not as good as they might have been. The last part of the journey was also on an Interstate as there really is no option to get in/through San Diego. We finally reached Brian & Barbara’s house, which is in a real nice quiet residential area, at around 15:00 so in plenty of time to join the GWRRA dinner which Brian said was at an Italian restaurant (first time I’ve ever had fajitas in an Italian). Unfortunately, Barbara wasn’t able to join us as she was working but it was a pleasant evening none the less.
2nd November 2007
We’d made arrangements to take the Trike to a Honda dealer local to Brian & Barbara so that it could have a final service before we ship it home. Brian had very kindly given me the keys to his truck so that we didn’t have to spend the whole day waiting, after we’d checked the trike in and had a look around the shop (which is absolutely enormous with a wide selection of bikes and gear) we made our way back to the house. Barbara later took us shopping for suitcases and I’m real glad that she did as she managed to get us discount after discount meaning that a five-piece luggage set cost us less than $50:00 (£25:00). We collected the trike during the afternoon and discovered that the cost was less than we’d feared - $467 including a new front tire – can’t be bad.
3rd November 2007
We were all up and out early this morning as we had tickets to the drag racing at Pomona just to the east of Los Angeles. Brian drove and it took us just two hours to make the journey, unfortunately, it then took us another hour to get in to the parking lot!! It was a good days racing with some real good times set but, as far as we’re concerned the strip, which is one of the early ones, doesn’t have good facilities, everything inside was also real expensive, we even had to pay a separate parking fee and we haven’t had to do that at any other drag strip whether on this trip or previous ones. Getting away from the event wasn’t nearly so painful and we managed to check in to our motel in plenty of time to have a quick wash & brush up before going out to eat.
4th November 2007
Pomona finals day. Another good days racing which included a special tribute to Wally Parks who passed away recently (for those of you who don’t follow drag racing, he was the man who created the NHRA and made drag racing possible), this included a display of a number of cars from the nearby NHRA museum and was attended by some of the most famous drag racers from the past, it was great to see Don Garlits in his ‘Swamp Rat III’ amongst those paying their respects. The racing finished at around 17:30 so by the time we got back to San Diego it was definitely time to eat and we went along to a Jewish restaurant (as far as I’m aware that’s a first for me) and had some really good wholesome food.
5th November 2007
Well, that’s it then, the end of our motorcycle tour. The trike had to be delivered to the docks at Long Beach by 14:00 today and Brian had very kindly taken some time off so that he & Barbara could collect us and bring us back to their place. We keyed the address into the SatNav on both vehicles and left at around 11:00 to be sure we made it in time. All was going well until we were part way up the I5 when Gladys (our SatNav) decided she didn’t want to go home and wasn’t going to play, she kept giving us a message that said there were no roads near our destination and she just shut down. Luckily we had a set of written directions so after a stop or two while we tried to convince Gladys she wouldn’t be redundant at home (we’ve ordered the European maps) we made the docks with a little time to spare. Once there, there was very little red tape and we were in and out within around ½ hour. Brian drove us back down most of the Pacific Coast Highway and it was actually clear enough for us to see the sea this time. Total Mileage 27206. States Visited 42. Number of interesting people met = too many to count.
6th November 2007
Barbara looked after us today and took us shopping to look at SatNavs for our car at home as we’re now firm converts (they make it so much easier to find specific addresses etc). We’ve also done some grocery shopping and have booked a rental car for nine days from tomorrow so that we can get out of their hair for a while before coming back on the 16th ready for our flight back to Baltimore on the 18th.
7th November 2007
We collected our rental car this morning (a PT Cruiser again) and headed for the San Diego zoo which proved to be a good days visit. At first the entry fee seemed a little steep but we then discovered it included an orientation tour by bus and a ride on the aerial Skyway from one side of the zoo to the other. Once we’d finished there we headed back to Brian & Barbara’s for a very pleasant evening chatting about anything & everything.
8th November 2007
We left San Diego (and the mist) behind this morning and headed through the hills to Palm Springs where it was warm (86F) and sunny. Our route took us through a large area that had been devastated by the recent wildfires, it was a strange and sobering sight to see so many properties completely razed to the ground whilst others within feet of them appeared largely untouched. We reached Palm Springs mid-afternoon and checked in to our motel before going for a walk along the main street and partaking of an ice cream. Whilst taking our stroll we noticed a number of vendors starting to set up on the side of the street and discovered that every Thursday evening they have ’villagefest’, a mixture of craft market, street entertainment and food stalls. We started the evening by having an excellent Thai meal and followed that with a walk through the market area, all in all it was a very pleasant evening.
9th November 2007
We left Palm Springs this morning and drove north across to the Joshua Tree National Park which is largely a park for hikers/climbers but was worth a drive through (despite the fact that the road to one of the main views was closed for maintenance). We continued north through the desert landscapes and have ended the day at a small town called Hesperia. The weather forecast for the next few days is a little less promising (still warmer than home though) so we’re not entirely sure where to head for tomorrow, there doesn’t seem much point in driving to the coast if it’s going to be cool and wet, we’ll have to see.
10th November 2007
Amongst some tourist information we collected from our motel foyer last night was a flyer for a Feline Conservation centre which just happened to be on our proposed route so we decided to call in. It was a fairly small place but there were a lot of cats there including some we’d never heard of i.e. some Jaguarundi’s (they looked like across between a cat and an otter to me!). The main purpose of the centre is as a breeding facility for endangered species and it apparently does pretty well on that front as was borne out by the presence of an eight-month-old leopard cub. Unfortunately, the enclosures for some of the animals were rather too small so, although the beasts all looked to be in good condition, I left feeling a little uncomfortable about the place. Once we’d left we headed for a motel in Bakersfield we’d booked using some of our reward points and, as it was close to a shopping mall we took the opportunity to have our final US haircuts and to do a little shopping before retiring.
11th November 2007
If you ever have the chance to stay in Bakersfield at the Quality Inn, White Lane DON’T !! When we arrived yesterday we noticed that one of the rooms close to ours had a broken window but we didn’t think too much of it and it had been repaired by the time we’d had dinner. Unfortunately, it appears that it may have been indicative of the area we were in as we spent much of last night listening to a very heated domestic and late night arrivals chatting, swearing and laughing outside – I think it finally stopped at around 03:30. It had started to rain as we left the motel and remained damp and dreary for most of the way to Sequoia National Park. Once we reached the park it got worse, not the rain, but the fog/low cloud; at times it was difficult to see the centre-line in the road leave alone any of the scenery. As a result, we didn’t bother with Kings Canyon, as we would likely have been able to see even less. The weather forecast for tomorrow is apparently better so we’re in the process of trying to decide where to head for.
12th November 2007
We really didn’t have the best of starts this morning having gone out to our rental car to find that the front off-side tire was completely flat !! After a bit of a struggle Graham managed to find the necessary tools and change to the silly little spare wheel and I, eventually, managed to get hold of Avis to find out what we were supposed to do about getting it fixed. They agreed that we would get the tire repaired (there was a very large screw sticking in it) and they would refund the cost when we return the car, luckily, there was a garage in the town (and by calling it a town I’m being generous) that did tire repairs so we were on our way after only an hour or so delay. We had decided that we would start to head south again, back to Brian & Barbara’s, and that we would go via the NHRA drag racing museum at Pomona. This meant driving in to the outskirts of LA again which is a bit of a pain and, what with the traffic and this morning’s delay, we didn’t make it in time to have a good look around so we’re going along tomorrow morning instead before we go back to San Diego. Just to finish our day off we received an e-mail telling us that the ship the Trike was due to sail on was over-booked so it’s now going on a different ship/route and won’t arrive in the UK until 25th December. As our contact said – Merry Christmas to you too!!
13th November 2007
We really aren’t doing too well this last few days; having not had internet access for a while, today was the first chance we’d had to check a few things out and, lo and behold, we looked at the NHRA website to find that the museum isn’t open on Monday’s or Tuesdays so we’d come back in to LA for nothing!!!! We consoled ourselves by doing a bit of shopping (just a few things to bring home) and then went on to visit the small town of Temecula that Barbara had said was worth a visit. She was right; it is a nice old town with lots of antiques shops, craft shops and eateries. We stopped there for lunch before making our way down to San Diego and another pleasant evening in Brian & Barbara’s company.
14th November 2007
I really could get used to this. At 08:30 this morning I was sitting in the back garden in the sunshine being bombarded by the hummingbirds and it was around 70F. We later went out to visit the Aquarium at La Jolla which is run by an oceanographic research group so wasn’t just done for the tourists, it was well worth a visit. From there, we went down to the bay and sat out on the beach watching the sunbathers and surfers and, by then, it was around 82F, I really, really could get used to this. Once we’d torn ourselves away from the beach we did a little more shopping (I think I can still get it all in the bags?!) before heading back ‘home’.
15th November 2007
Today, we really hit the shops, not for anything big or expensive, just the opposite; boy do they sell some Christmas junk over here! Barbara very kindly took us around the town and helped us find just what we were looking for (we have this great Christmas competition with our neighbours that involves the worst possible bad taste present for less than $2, and I think we’ve done REALLY well this year, snigger). Now we really do need to worry about getting everything into the bags!! After we’d walked our feet off, we returned home to another great home cooked meal.
16th November 2007
As Barbara was working this morning we took the opportunity to get some of the boring jobs out of the way e.g. laundry and packing (it sort of fits in the bags we’ve got!!). After we’d eaten it was time to get ready for another new experience, a drive-in movie. As there were the four of us we took along some camping chairs and sat in front of the car so that we could all get a good view, thankfully, Brian & Barbara have been there before and knew to take along the blankets as it got pretty chilly sitting still for that long. We saw two full-length feature films, ‘Bee Movie’ a pretty good cartoon that included quite a few jokes that were definitely for the adults, and ‘Stardust’ a rather odd fantasy/love story type of film. We both thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would go again given the chance.
17th November 2007
It was warm & sunny again today and there was a slight breeze which prompted Brian to make a call to the Torrey Pines gliderport where he regularly (for some strange reason) throws himself off of a cliff with an oversized kite strapped to his back – well, that’s what it looked like to me anyway. No, seriously, Brian has his paragliding licence and we went along to watch as he took a flight along the coast. I can think of far worse ways to spend a November afternoon than sitting at the top of a cliff, overlooking the bay we visited earlier in the week whilst soaking up the warm sunshine. Once we’d finished there we took a quick trip ‘home’ before going out for a very nice meal at a local restaurant.
18th November 2007
Unfortunately, it was time to leave Brian & Barbara’s (and the sunshine) behind. We owe them a very big thank you not only for putting us up (or is it putting up with us?) but for getting up at an ungodly hour to take us to the airport this morning. They dropped us at the kerbside check-in at around 07:30 and we made our way through to security where, as usual, Graham set off the alarms and received a very thorough pat-down. From there, the day consisted of two flights and quite a lot of waiting around. Everything went pretty much to plan and we reached our motel in Baltimore at around 23:00 (allowing for a three hour time difference).
19th November 2007
After picking up a rental car we headed across to Crofton to see Paul at the Honda shop. He has very kindly been looking after a bag of ours whilst we’ve been travelling and we went along to pick it up so that we could see just how much trouble we we’re in with the packing. The luggage allowance is pretty generous but the problem is the weight limit per bag, we’ve just about got everything into a bag, now all we have to do is see what they weigh. Luckily, Jeff has a set of scales at Haus of Trikes so we’ll be able to check that out tomorrow when we go along to see them all.
20th November 2007
We took in some scenic roads on the way to Haus of Trikes and arrived at around lunchtime. As Jeff & Ed were out, we took advantage of their scales and discovered that most of our bags were well within the weight limit but one was very borderline (the limit is 50lbs and it weighed 49.85lbs) so we moved things around a little just to be on the safe side. We spent the rest of the day catching up with everyone and also discovered that we had made front page of the local newspaper after we were interviewed, during Delmarva Bike Week, as a customer of Jeff’s. We spent a very pleasant evening with Jeff, Edith and Ed at a restaurant that has become something of a favourite haunt.
21st November 2007
We made a brief stop off at the shop this morning to say our goodbyes and then headed north across the Chesapeake Bay bridge and on to our rendezvous with Paul at Honda of Crofton. Paul and his wife Lorraine had very kindly asked us to share Thanksgiving with them and, as they were closing the dealership at 15:00 we made sure we arrived in time to follow Paul home. His daily journey to/from work only lasts around 15/20 minutes but is a really pretty ride and the house isn’t bad either !! They share the house with Lorraine’s mother Marie, their youngest daughter Steffie and three very friendly dogs, we were made to feel very welcome and were even treated to some real Italian home cooking courtesy of Marie – excellent. Later in the evening we took a drive across to one of the State Parks alongside the Chesapeake Bay to view the Christmas lights that erected each year in aid of a local charity. The display covered quite an area and was well worth a visit.
22nd November 2007 – Thanksgiving.
Paul joined his club’s traditional Thanksgiving motorcycle run this morning but, as we no longer have a bike available, we spent the morning chatting to Lorraine. We later sat down to the traditional turkey dinner (not quite the same as our Christmas dinner but close) followed, later in the day, by Pumpkin pie – all very nice thank you. The afternoon was spent watching (or in our case trying to understand) American Football. All in all, a very nice relaxing day.
23rd November 2007
As our flight wasn’t until the evening, we spent the morning making final adjustments to the luggage etc. before going out to lunch with Paul and Lorraine. From there everything went pretty much to plan. I dropped Graham and the luggage at the airport before returning the rental car, we dropped our bags off (having checked-in on-line) and made or way through security to await the flight which, thankfully, was on time.
24th November 2007
An uneventful flight saw us arriving at Heathrow around 30 minutes early thanks to a 103mph tailwind. Richard who’d very kindly volunteered to collect us, arrived just a few minutes after we’d passed through customs and we made it home by around 10:00. The cold weather was a bit of a shock to the system (from 75F on Friday to 28F on Saturday !) and I’m sure there are more of those to come (especially having seen the price of fuel) but I suppose we’ll just have to get used to it!!!!!
We do intend including one more update once we get the Trike back and will also be adding some ‘hints and tips’ for anyone who decides they want to tour in the States but, for now as Bugs Bunny would say; That’s it folks!!!!
Hints and Tips can be found here !