San Francisco to Los Angeles on a bicycle 2009

**vtec** · 30th April 2009, 07:56

Damn hyperlinks from my emailed version to photos and google maps and streetview didn't copy across, so message me if you want the email with stacks of cool links.
Photos are here
Videos are here

A brilliant adventure, inspired partially by the movie "into the wild"... if things are getting to you in this time of economic strife, watch this movie, get some perspective.

Well, it actually took a fair bit of preparation to get this show on the road. I needed a few things. Staying with some relatives of mine in Redwood city, the delightful Mary and Magne, they had quite a few bicycles in various states of condition. Hanging upside down in their garage was one "Univega" 10 speed, made in Japan obviously in the 70's going by the gear levers on the ends of the handlebars, I'd actually never seen this before. The rear wheel was a bit out of whack, so after visiting a couple of bike shops and being told to give up trying to find affordable parts for it found a shop with some real enthusiasts in it who sold me a whole new wheel for $30. Got a new chain on the bike despite the mechanic suggesting that because of how screwed the previous chain was, then new one wouldn't go well on the old cassette (sprockets). Bike worked a treat. Scored a rack and paniers on the back off Mary's number one bike.

Next a couple of visits to Costco:
1 pound of beef jerky
3 pounds of dried apricots
3 pounds of dried plums
3 pounds of energy bars
3 pounds of chocolate bars
and 3 litres of grape juice (to dope my water with sugar)
A bottle of vitamins and mineral to keep my muscles alive, and make up for a lack of whatever in the food I had packed

Also, packing a tent, sleeping bag, clothes, shoes, jandals, toiletries including toilet paper in the likely event of having to take a crap in the wilderness, spare innertubes, bicycle tools. I reckon total weight including water would have been around 35kg, and it was all on the back wheel.

The (ambitious) plan was to cycle about 500miles (800km) from San Fran to my mates place in Orange County in 5 days, starting Monday morning, and arriving Friday evening. So I could rest up on Saturday and hit town with my mate Phillip, in Rancho Santa Margarita on the Saturday night.

Well to get a good start, Mary and Magne, drove me as far as Pescadero to get me started cause admittedly I had wanted to start a little earlier. They looked very concerned about how unstable my load appeared and were obviously uncomfortable with dropping someone in the middle of nowhere on a bicycle on their own. People worry too much these days. After taking a few photos and saying our goodbyes I headed off. Very eager to get the miles behind me. I was hoping to do closer to 120miles (200km) in the first couple of days, but considering I'd never done more than about 100km in a day in my whole life previously without a load this was probably a tad delusional. Still getting down to business and I had the first 30km out of the way within the first hour. A good tailwind to start with. Got my first puncture in the middle of nowhere by about midday though, and decided to put in that tyre liner I'd bought. Got to Santa Cruz in good time. Got a bit confused with where to go, as I had been offered poor directional information by one character, but luckily bumped into a bicycle courier, and he set me straight and even let me tag along with him for a bit as he was headed in my direction. Was thankful to be back out of a town and making good progress again. Stopped and had a beef jerky and dried fruit lunch at a place called Seacliff State Beach, there was a sunken barge just off the end of the jetty pretty impressive.

Was starting to get worried cause I had already downed most of my water and it was pretty hot and dry, and I didn't know if there was going to be anywhere to top up soon, plus I wasn't really in the shape of my life after fracturing my wrist in January I'd only ridden my bicycle in NZ in January a couple of times in the preceding months. Luckily I spied a couple of signs that said bicycles were no longer allowed on the PCH (notice the white sign... not really what I wanted to see, but forced me to take a break), and I took the second exit to a small town called Marina, kind of had me worried that it would just be a fishing Marina or something, luckily it was actually a town. Stopped at the first petrol went in and bought a large one litre bottle of water. Then went to the toilet to restock my other bottles and put some sunscreen on, had my stress levels up a bit, and had trouble relaxing, probably cause my mind was tired and I was a bit dehydrated and I was in bicycle courier rush mode trying to make as many kilometres as I could in the day, this was really the first time I've thrown myself in so deep over my head. Anyway, headed back out and noticed that I'd left the bottle that I'd bought on the counter, went up and picked it up, and put it in my bag, then the attendant called out to me that I'd left my wallett on the counter, then, after getting to the door, another customer called after me whether that was my camera... yes it was. Embarrassing, then got on my bike and started riding again, eventually noticed that I didn't have my gloves on, turns out that I'd also left my gloves and sunscreen in the bathroom at the petrol station, damn it. Was really going to have to sort my head out, and relax, but I was still aiming for at least 160km that day, hoping for 200.

Later that afternoon the wind turned against me, and I really started to have to fight it heading into Monterey, lost a lot of speed was down to about 16km per hour. Damn it. Stopped to take a couple of photos, was really picturesque, I felt totally out of place in my folded up jeans and red piratey looking shirt... I'm pretty sure I looked a lot like a bicycle pirate. Was really starting to feel tired when I got moving again, but I kept going. Just south of Monterey I stopped and had a couple of McDonalds burgers and heaps of powerade, they had it on tap with free refills which was great. Stuck to the coast cause I felt like I couldn't go too far wrong. Turns out I did a massive circle around the fringe of the monterey peninsula and added heaps of k's to my adventure, I really should have taken the time and consulted maps. Instead of sticking to my South/West plan of attack, and using the sun as my compass.

**vtec** · 30th April 2009, 07:57

Noticed a street sign that said I was on 17 mile drive, damn it. Absolutely shattered, getting very dark, just hopped off the bike and waved down a passing Toyota Prius, a rather well to do looking elderly lass, wound down her window, and I asked her how to get back to the Pacific Coast Highway. She was very happy to chat as her son had cycled to Santa Barbara along it. She told me that I was definitely allowed back on the PCH here, and she said just take the next turn at Ronda st, and eventually I would get to the Pebble Beach PCH gate but that it wouldn't be safe at night. Told her I'd just be looking for a place to camp very soon. I was in a forest but was having trouble finding a good site where nobody's houses were too nearby, saw this gate all padlocked up, and went around it, looked like one of the golf courses groundskeepers dumping ground were lots of crap, and a large steel container. Set up and bedded down for a very disturbed nights sleep. Was constantly worried about having someone find me and freak out. Heard footsteps outside, but must have been a deer or something as I heard it bolt. Also, could hear the highway really loud from my tent, and it seemed that in the dark I had managed to camp near some industrial place as I heard trucks all night long. Got up early, got ready and could realise that I could see a BMW 7 series from my tent, as I was packing up I noticed that I could see someone standing next to it too, was really worried that I'd been busted, but I kept about my business, argh had to take a crap in the bushes that morning though. Not pleasant, hope nobody found it. Got on the bicycle and was cycling before 8.30am I'm pretty sure, with my mind focussed on another 160km minimum day. It had gotten quite hilly towards the end of the first day, as well as having a headwind for ages damnit, so I was having to work hard.

Got back on the PCH via this cool gate thing with a dude in it, confirmed I was allowed to ride on it, and got busy pedalling. Was hooning down some hills, and then grinding up others, traffic was really busy with people going to work I suppose. Skipped past Carmel, stopped to get some more sunscreen, and worked my way into the Big Sur mountains, had predominantly a tail wind so it wasn't too bad. After working pretty hard I stopped for lunch at this cool little place filled up all my water bottles, got a massive burrito, ate it down beside a stream, there were these chairs in the stream and a swimming pool and everything looked very cabinny, really nice. Heaps of people wondered what the hell I was doing out there on a bicycle. People told me that the worst of the climbs, were over... but it got much worse, perspective from a car is no doubt very different so I forgive them.

Eventually spotted a sweet looking bicycle with a trailer attached somewhere around here. The rider was obviously taking a break over the back of this hill where I could just see him from the road. Followed a small path, and introduced myself, he got a bit of a fright as he was busy smoking "something" through this "pipe" he'd made out of an apple. Introduced himself as Victor, asked if I'd be able to join him on his ride and where he was headed. He was heading initially for San Diego, south of LA, but eventually on to... FLORIDA. Holy shit. That's about 4000km from San Diego, he wasn't even using clip in pedals. I was worried he wouldn't be going too fast. But after we got back on the road, on the downhill sections he was flying, and going hard up the hills too. I was pretty tired after my aggressive ambitious start, and was definitely taking on a new mindset about not making it a race, and trying to relax and enjoy it more, but it looked like Victor wanted to show me up. He told me that on a previous bicycle adventure he'd managed the odd 120 mile day but that it had taken a few weeks of building up to that. Anyway after a while it was getting darker, and the wind started to pick up, was mostly coming from behind us so we really picked up the pace. Were flying along at close to 40km/hr awesome. The wind was howling. We stopped at this touristy looking place, ate some beef jerky and energy bars. The beach had hundreds of these huge elephant seals on it. A squirrel came up to us, I offered it beef jerky but it wouldn't touch it, gave it some trailmix and energy bars and it was keen as, then offered it some M&M's with a big nut in each and it stored them in it's cheeks, was so tame it took them out of my hand, they are a great animal. Met a guy who had just started a ride north, good luck. The headwind was massive and he had accommodation booked at the big sur mountains. He had no chance, he had no tent or sleeping bag either, and it was getting really cold fast. I wonder what happened to him. He had a google helmet on so I'm guessing he could get a chopper in there on whim if he needed to.

Were stoked to reach the San Simeon camping ground as it was really starting to get dark. At this point I hadn't showered in 2 days and over 320km (200miles) some of my muscles were getting weird twitches and I was having to compensate for twinging hamstrings. The campsite building was unattended, but they had envelopes to put our $3 bike and hike camp fee in a box with our names on it. A couple of hikers on foot walked into the campground, they looked extremely relieved to reach it, they were walking from San Diego to Vancouver, and were taking a couple of months to do it, amazing really, the guy was about 6'3" and the chick was about 5'5" she had to be as hard as nails, but still cute as a muffin. The shower's were a quarter for every 3 minutes. Got as spruced up as I could under the circumstances, and cycled into Cambria with it getting very dark, our lights flashing away, heavily clothed cause it was freezing, and had dinner in a nice little pizzeria, got asked for my ID. Me and Victor shared some more stories and talked about our families and friends and live's and adventures, the usual stuff. Victor was very cool. Liked his mary jane a lot I think, but he was as fit as anything. Had a couple of beers and felt really pissed. Was great. Then cycled back. Victor set up with just his sleeping bag on top of a bbq table, no tent nothing. I put my towel on the seat next to him to hopefully dry (it just got wetter). Slept like a log. In the morning I got up before him, cause I had more crap to pack up, and noticed some rather large paw marks on the towel which was right next to Victor. Hehe, pointed it out to him, you should have seen the look on his face. He told me he'd heard coyotes in the night too but reckoned that the paw prints were just from Raccoons.

Finally got moving by about 9am, but I needed to stop at a shop in town to pick up a couple of inner tubes cause I'd had my second puncture early the day before and had no spares left. We'd decided to take it real easy today as we were both pretty sore and needed a rest day, a much less ambitious target of Pismo beach had been set, but we were taking our time and made plenty of stops. Stopped first in Cayucos which was stunning at a little coffee shop called "Gina's" cause Victor needed a break cause of sore knees, and I think he's addicted to coffee too. Next we stopped in Morrow bay for my first ever Taco Bell experience, and I was very impressed. Spent about $4 and got a couple of burritos and a taco I think. I'm pretty sure it's cheaper in this country to eat fast food than it is to buy it and prepare it yourself.

**vtec** · 30th April 2009, 07:59

From Morrow bay, we headed inland through some pretty desolate looking territor to San Luis Obispo, which seemed like a lovely town, with some seriously hot girls walking around. Then continued on our merry way to Pismo Beach, at which point we caught up with a guy called John who we'd met the night before and who was on a similar adventure on his own, think he had a bit of money behind him though. Then cycled into the food and shopping district of Pismo. Stocked up on sausages, pink grapefruit juice, chips, bread, sauce, a couple of bananas, some honey (for the porridge in the morning) and a few beers. That was a great night for recharging the batteries, relaxing, and feasting. Also, met a couple of locals. A very strange setup. Mom and her daughter obviously well used to the lap of luxury, daughter had demanded that they camp like common folk, and her boyfriend was the biggest shit talker I've ever met, some of it may have been true but once he got to explaining how he was close friends with Jeremy McGrath, and that if he ever had the urge he could ring up Jeremy and request that they go riding together and he would have a bike ready and waiting for him, I started to think this guy wasn't all flowers and diamonds like he was leading us to believe. Now the girlfriend/daughter, holy shit, after demanding that they camp out, once dark fell they had a fire going, which was good cause it was bloody freezing, but she just stayed completely wrapped up in a blanket while we all talked (shit, although my stories were all true) with each other, and demanded "smores", at which point her mother handed her a stick and proceeded to apply marshmallows to the end of the stick for her so she didn't need to move an inch to toast them on the fire. Holy shit, a good depression is needed to sort out this kind of crap. The mother seemed nice and social and slightly closer to earth than the two kids though (thought she was pretty hot too). Quite entertaining and we had a good discussion about it the next day.

Next day, and there were three of us together this time, me John and Victor. John had a much lighter load and some pretty fancy equipment but me and Victor were a lot fitter being at least 10 years younger than him. But along the flats John was working to keep the pace up doing all the professional taking turns leading and pushing into the wind. We got a bit lost in Callender due to some roadworks and a detour that didn't put us back on the right track and we had to do some backtracking. Victor's pretty awesome at that, if I'd been on my own I would have been way off track and pushing hard in the wrong direction haha. Eventually we made it to Guadalupe, as we were approaching this sleepy trucking community, we were overtaken by a truck that hadn't noticed a car in the middle of the road waiting to turn left, and he did this huge lockup with the trailer twisting sideways. Near death experiences aside (not really) this town was very different to any of the other towns we passed through on the way. It seriously felt like we were in Mexico, very cool. Made it feel like I was on an even bigger adventure. John pumped up his tyres using one of Victor CO2 canisters, because he felt like it was dragging, but the truth of the matter was that I was a machine and John's jaw was starting to scrape along the ground, despite me cutting the wind for the guys. Anyway, John made it to Vandenberg village where we had Mexican food for lunch, place looked dodgy as, and it was a bit of a sign when the guy on the counter went and bought Domino's pizza for lunch. Was the most "average" mexican food I'd had since coming to California. Eventually got back on the road, and John followed us a bit while he looked for a hotel in Lompoc. Saw this awesome huge drive in theatre sign reminded me of the Flintstones. Anywho, we pushed on, and eventually made it to El Capitan, Victor was starting to worry a fair bit because we were going to need a serious feed that night and there had been a dearth of establishments for quite a few km's, at first glance from the highway we could see some heavy machinery and Victor was starting to worry that the campground might be closed, I kept trying to reassure him. I suppose my philosophy these days is to not let things worry me and when the worst does eventuate, just look at it as a challenge to be overcome. I hate the feeling of worry/anxiousness, so I decided I just don't do it anymore, had trouble sticking to that on the first night though :P Turns out the campground was open, but the $3 a night hike and bike section was about 200m from the nearest people down the far end of the campground. We had to cycle to the facilities that were open just to use the bathroom. Anyway from the local park ranger we found at that there was food at the campground on the other side of the highway, some pretty fancy camping facilities they were. There's just blatantly too much money in this part of the world. Wind howled so much my 30year old tent was bent right over and hitting me on the face and it was so cold that I had to wear thermals and wooly sock and close my sleeping bag up so much that only my face was showing. Victor determinedly slept on the benchtop in his sleeping bag. He had to move onto the ground under a tree during the night, that can't have been good, the whole sight was sloping and lumpy as anything, sucked. Had to be real careful to pin everything down so it didn't get blown straight off the bluff and into the ocean from our site.

Friday, up and at it again, I'd actually managed to sleep, but it wasn't pleasant, just from extreme tiredness. Porridge with dried apricots and honey again, it was amazing how good the most ordinary food and water tasted when you were doing the kind of exertion that we were. Got loaded up and cycled to the bogs to unload and refill water bottles and brush our teeth, got a couple of comments from the other campers, like "now that's REAL camping". And you know what, he was right. From there we got moving into Santa Barbara, where Victor had to stop for his obligatory coffee and bathroom stop. Santa Barbara was impressive. But we were on a mission. Were aiming for point Mugu State Park. Passed through Carpinteria without stopping and continued to San Buenaventura, where we eventually ran out of steam cause we hadn't eaten enough, and had to stop for chocolate bars and icecreams at a convenience store and that helped us power to a supermarket where we stocked up for dinner that night with more sausages. Going through Oxnard the wind was really starting to pick up and there was a lot of sand in the air. Luckily it was at our backs so we weren't getting whipped by it.too often. We lost the Pacific Coast Bike Path in Oxnard but just kept making sure we were heading in the right direction towards the coast and South. I noticed my rear tyre giving a little bump with every revolution. Ended up back in rural area still not on the PCH no. 1. But saw a sign that said Fwy 1 ahead. Looking at the map Victor pointed out we weren't allowed back on the Freeway there for a couple of miles. I pointed out that I had a tear in my tyre and the only thing keeping the inner tube in was the tyre liner that I had installed on the first day. Victor decided that we would try heading back to town and finding the Pacific bike path again. There was a road that ran parallel with the PCH but we asked someone coming out of the military base there, and they said that it was a dead end. Looking at google maps though that would have been fine. Nevertheless we didn't make it back into Oxnard. We were really crawling and Victor was tired and pissed off I could tell. I was just trying to calm him down keep up spirits etc. The sun was going down, we were in a bit of a sandstorm, and were surrounded by strawberry field for miles around, and then my tyre popped. Fuck. It looked totally unrepairable. Especially with all the weight that I had on the rear of the bike, I tried to think how I could fix the tyre cause there's some bike courier tricks like folding up a cash note and putting it inside the tyre, but the rip looked too large. I had a quick look in the puncture repair kit that I had, and there was one large rubber repair stickon which was big enough to cover the hole, and I worked out the optimum position for it so that the inflation of the inner tube would hold it to the sides of the tyre, and with the overlap of the tyreliner at that point for double protection and put that tyre on the front wheel so that there was next to no weight on it and we were rolling again much to Victor's surprise.(I actually got a further 100km out of that tyre). Victor thought we'd be poaching a campsite in the strawberry fields. Anyway, got rolling again, and thought fuck it, we'd just be sneaky and head along the part of the PCH where bikes were banned. Turns out it was pretty much as safe or dangerous as the rest of our journey.

**vtec** · 30th April 2009, 08:00

Getting dark now, and we still had to reach our camping ground, it was a race against time. We were cheering as we approached the camping ground but were soon deflated to find out that the camp ground was booked out it appeared to be very exposed and bloody windy anyway, and there was no hike and bike section, but were informed that a further mile or so down the road there was another state park. Turns out it was much more protected, and there was a $3 hike and bike section and it was extremely well protected from the weather, surrounded by extremely steep mountains. Met a couple of real characters. One a quasi-homeless dude with a real fancy cruiser bicycle, and a whole lot of beer and food, obviously homeless due to alcohol consumption, but a real nice guy, just didn't shut up. Another was a young guy who was a teacher and he'd cycled up through Mexico and was heading to Vancouver, but really taking his time, was going to have to due to the prevailing headwinds. He reckoned that Mexico was amazing, and that the people were so friendly and were accommodating him for free and feeding him and everything. With all the harsh stuff in the news about drug crime etc it was nice to hear a real non-media perspective. I would have loved to go to Mexico but maybe another time. Got the sausages going again, set up the tent in the dark, and had a roaring fire with the aid of some well oiled cornchips as the fire starters, cause it was bloody freezing. Ended up eating the homeless dude's leftover sandwich aswell cause he was having a liquid dinner. Ate lots of his chips too. He seemed to have plenty of money, just preferred not to spend it on rent but rather booze. People were partying in the campground that night, so had a little difficulty getting off to sleep, but again was soo damn tired.

Morning rose and again I'd had to sleep in my sleeping bag with only my nose and mouth exposed so I could breathe, because damn it was sooo cold. Pretty sure it was down to 2 degrees C, with my sleeping bag only rated for about 5 degree C. Was difficult to get anything done when we awoke because it was so cold. Ended up only getting moving by about 9.30am after making porridge and packing up camp etc. This was to be the last day, I could taste victory, yay. I had proven enough to myself in the first couple of days pulling (as it turns out I had the speedo programmed for a smaller wheel) 170km approx days in difficult conditions. Well, not much to say about the last day really, it was quite spectacular, but not all that difficult, had lunch at a Thai place (about time we had some veges) in Malibu with one of Victor's cousins who seemed lovely. Then kept going the tyre still holding together, was going to ride it till it burst and then get my mate to pick me up. The boardwalks along the beach into LA were amazing, seriously check the vids, I should have tried to snap more photos of the fake jugs. Eventually cruised all the way to Manhattan Beach Pier, where I gave my mate Phil a call and demanded that he come all the way from Orange County to pick me up. Haha. Should have really figured out the distance cause it was like 100km each way. Oh well, I didn't feel like pedalling anymore. I'd actually had a bit of a cyst on my arse/inside right thigh for a couple of days right where the pressure of the seat goes, and was happy to be finished, I'd had to lower the seat a bit to take the weight off it. Was amazing to be picked up by Phil in his fancy new white Golf GTi, I felt like the king being chaufferred in a limo after living like a pauper and pedalling my arse off, was a brilliant feeling. Was astounded by how huge the freeways were.

Was so good to have a decent shower and my first shave, and a real bed to sleep in. Orange County was impressive, seemed a little sterile and a little antisocial cause everyone seemed quite fortified and caught up in the 9 to 5 and the subdivision rules about keeping your garage door shut etc, seemed like nothing ever happens in Rancho Santa Margarita, but the communal pools were great as the weather really picked up while I was there. Went mountainbiking the day after I got there, and I was on fire a really technical rocky trail, apparently one of the hardest anywhere and I was awesome, my first time on a proper mountainbike too, the bike courier skills really paid off, the path was heavily rutted but it seemed the faster I went the more stable the bike was over the uneven terrain, at one stage my wheels got trapped in a rut and I crashed into the rocky hillside next to the path broke a few rocks out with my knee, was suprised to find it wasn't too bad, Phil crashed twice and hurt both his knees, then the next day there was a group road ride, everyone had the full lycra and carbon/titanium bikes some looked pretty hardcore, we did about 50km and as usual the pack broke up, I stayed with the fast guys and we were doing consistently over 40km/hour, as I warmed up I just got faster, it was great to have the load off the bike, smoked them all up the hills was great, really impressed quite a few of the riders, one asked "I wonder how you'd go on one of these bikes", I just pointed out that as long as it's got skinny tyres it's still going to be pretty fast. Played lots of cool computer games while Phil was at work that week, and spent most of it catching up with people by email and recharging and putting on weight again, can't thank Phil's parents enough for feeding me and housing me, and not even giving me a time limit for staying, that was truly a wonderful time and place to recharge. After a week, or actually about 9 days, I headed into LA central to try out the backpacker lifestyle there.

Caught the train from Laguna Niguel to LA Union station, and then cycled 20km through central LA to the backpackers which was near LAX and Manhattan Beach funnily enough, LA central seemed like a craphole, dodgy as even the fast food places near the hostel had to have security glass over the counter like the banks to help reduce robberies. The hostel itself seemed a bit run down but there was free popcorn, free coffee/tea, free breakfast muffin, free cookies in the afternoon, free tater tots/rice/nachos and cake at dinner and 2 free champagnes every night, and a bed all for the princely sum of $22 per night, there were 20 beds in my dorm though, and we had one real nut job, nice enough bloke, just very obviously heavily disturbed at worst schizophrenic at best a really bad case of obsessive compulsive disorder. Felt sorry for him, but he seemed happy enough in his own world about half the time, just made it hard to sleep with him walking around in the early morning repeatedly throwing coins down like they were dice, pacing around the dorm and ranting under his breath to himself about absolute garbage, I made out the words "duality" frequently. Tried to have a chat to him a couple of times, got his name "Atreo", but couldn't get much of his story, he was travelling, but then he'd disappear into another world of thoughts. Poor bastard, seemed really personable when he could hold himself together. There was also a heated pool which was brilliant, I also love the fact that they have an Ozone layer up in these parts, I can stay out all day without protection and I just get nicely tanned. Met a nice young swedish chick at the backpackers who was buying me beer on my last night, that was ... good shall we say.

One day I went into Hollywood with a guy called Daniel from Britain and a guy called Brock from Dallas (both interesting stories but I've got to keep it short cause this could go on forever). Bumped into a couple of Argentinian guys (another very interesting story involving months on Hawaii, a Mustang and Vegas) from our room on the bus, who by the end of the day offered me accommodation in Argentina if I make it down there with the incentive that he has an attractive 22 year old sister haha. Walked for miles and miles, up through Beverley hills, the Jandals I was wearing wore skin of my toes. Ah bugger it going to have to keep this short. Saw a dude in a chair with 3 umbrellas and about 10 litres of pepsi, and a whole lot of toiletpaper and obviously hadn't moved from his chair in days cause the leaves and stuff had built up around the base of it, saw him in the same position days later. Saw another guy lying face down on the pavement eating ice and shaking in the hot sun. Saw a police chopper rip up and a black dude with a mohawk run out of a guitar shop with a cop on his heels, he ran straight towards us and I shoulder-checked him and he bounced into the wall next to me so the cop was able to nail into him from behind and restrain him till about 10 other police arrived haha, (see here, and here and here) what else, Daniel got lost when we were looking at the Hollywood sign, and he only had about $10 to his name (had lost his wallet), didn't know if he was going to be able to get back to the hostel cause it was about 20k from hollywood, funnily enough we saw him walking back as we were on the bus and night was starting to fall, was getting seriously concerned for his safety, pretty little white boy walking in a seriously dodgy part of LA at night. Was relieved to see him back at the hostel before us cause we'd stopped for dinner at Jack in the Box.

**vtec** · 30th April 2009, 08:00

What else, went and spent another weekend with Phil, organised 2 different rides with people back to San Fran, both of which fell through, bloody Americans, the second of which I was on my way to his house with all my stuff having said my goodbye's to Phil's family and having just about overstayed my welcome when I got a message to say the ride was off, I just replotted my course to the trainstation, and boxed up my bicycle and had to catch a train then a bus then a train then a bus all the way back to San Fran arriving at 10pm at night after getting up at about 6am in the morning. Thankfully Magne and Mary, and their two Norwegian guests were all awaiting my arrival, and very interested to hear some of my stories. These are but a few of them. This adventure is kicking arse. Next stop Bogota arriving on the 5th of the 5th of 2009. Rock on.