Ditched the Bikes!

Daryll writes:

As Angela mentioned in the previous post, we have met some amazing people along the way and a big Thank You to:
Chris & Ally - Santa Cruz
Richard & Michelle - Atascadero
Rick - Camarillo
Giri & Uma - San Diego
for hosting us along the way.

Once all dried out, we planned to ride through San Francisco.  We are staying away from big cities, however just couldn't pass up the opportunity to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge.  We camped the previous night, so managed to get an early start and it is slowly becoming quicker to pack the bikes as we develop a routine.  Hwy 1 is an amazing twisty, curvy road that hugs the cliffs of California on the edge of the ocean; which would make it a bikers dream.  A totally different case when the fog rolls in and you can barely see 10 meters in front of you.  Focus and concentrate is the name of the game.  Come mid-morning, we hit the Bay area and cross the Golden Gate Bridge.  I do have video of it, so need to edit all that I shot and will post soon.

We hit the beaches of Santa Cruz, CA which is such a beautiful little town.  Our timing is perfect as we arrive the day after schools re-open, so a sense of normality is returning to the town after the hordes of beach goers return to the city.  The day prior, I notice an oil leak around the cam chain tensioner gasket on Angela's bike.  Nothing too serious, but oil isn't meant to be coating the outer casing of the engine.  Chris, the advrider that we are staying with, also owns a DR as well as a Cagiva works at a bike shop and manages to get us in the next day to have the gasket replaced.  This happened previously and I stopped the leak with some gasket sealer, so carried 2 spare gaskets and more sealer; however this time, wanted it sorted out permanently.  The team at Donati Motorsports were great and had us in and out within the morning.  We meandered on to Atascadero and this is were we decided to ditch the bikes for a while and take on travelling in luxury - not really.

Our new ride!

Richard & Michelle offered us their RV to spend the night in and it was one of the most comfortable beds that I have slept on.  We stopped for lunch in Santa Barbara and hung out on the beach and met a wonderful couple (Ed & Jan) who were from the Laguna beach area and were taking 2 weeks to head north up the California coast in their RV.  We sat around and played with their dogs and tested out their electric bicycles.  We continued on to Camarillo on the outskirts of Malibu and Rick was kind enough to act as tour guide as we rode the infamous Mulholland Dr. in Beverly Hills and where all the local bikers congregate at the Rock Shop.  It was like being at a show & shine, tons of bikes to drool over.  Nice to have a local show us the way.  Rick is pretty famous on the advrider forum, which we found out after he showed us his stable of bikes and I immediately recognized one of his bikes.  A custom paint job on a BMW 1200GSA done up by Jesse James.  Jesse owned the bike for a while before selling it.  As we were seeing the sights of Malibu, we ran into a 9/11 Memorial Ride and chatted to another advrider (Ted) who gave us a few more route suggestions.

Jesse's custom paint job.

We bid farewell to Rick and bit the bullet and got onto one of the most busiest highways in the US.  Hwy 405 through Los Angeles and headed south to San Diego.  Our timing was yet again perfect as we got onto the highway just after lunch on a Saturday Sept. 11th and there wasn't as much traffic as we were warned there would be; however it is a bit daunting being on a 6-8 lane highway in both directions.  I also have some video of this, so need to get to that as well.  We are spending a rest day in San Diego, getting to see some of the sights and plan on crossing over to Mexico early tomorrow.

We have been on the road for 14 days now and have met some incredible people along the way.  We stop for coffee or take a break and end up chatting to passers by or bikers that are driving by in their cars and make u-turns to come back to chat to us.  Yesterday, while we were on Hwy 405 and I 5, drivers would pass us by and give us the thumbs up.  As we got to Camirillo early than we had thought, we had decided to stop off at a gas station to check if we could get free wifi, but wasn't able to connect.  As we were setting up the laptop, we met Kyle who was waiting as he was getting his car washed.  A biker himself, he generously offered to take us back to his office where we could get onto the internet.  Note that this is a Friday afternoon and I'm sure Kyle had better things to do than go back to work; but it is another example of the generosity of the folks we meet along the way.  Just a shout out to Kyle, who we can hopefully meet again in Brazil.  That evening, we spent the night with Rick and he had mentioned to his local grocery store owner that he had 2 Canadians biking to Argentina.  Sammy, the owner invited us back the next morning to meet us and had coffee at his store before touring Malibu.  There are truly good people in the world and I am sure that this is just the start.

We have more photos uploaded to our USA folder.  As we are uploading from 2 camera's, they may not always be in sequence.  For those that are following our blog and subscribing, thank you for your ongoing support.  Promise that we will have more regular posts as we slow the pace down a bit heading into Mexico.