Gremlin's Tall Stories

The alarm rings at 7.30am. What was a good idea last night, to perhaps follow the group into LA is now a real bad idea. I reset the alarm for 8.30am. When it rings the 2nd time, I get up and have the complimentary breakfast in the office. It’s cereal, pastries, juice, the usual stuff.

Back to my room, I spend an hour and a half writing blogs. The extra effort is paying off, and I only have 2 days to write. I still need to post most of them however. I then pack, and taking advantage of the midday check-out, I leave at midday. We only have 200 miles to cover to LA, and the roads are easy going.

I fill for the last time in the USA on the outskirts of Morro Bay. The tank will easily take me to LA, around LA and then to the warehouse where we will pack up the bikes. I jump on the 101 South, staying on it until 154 through Los Padres National Park. The 154 is a much nicer ride, except it has a lower speed limit, and some cars were struggling to attain even the speed limit. Still, too many boring roads and I struggle… so best to take a bit of a break.

Back on the 101 I hit traffic. Mmm, I definitely didn’t miss that while passing through small towns for weeks on end. It stops a little, but mostly flows, albeit at lower speeds than you’re used to, for an Interstate type road. Some of it did crawl, so a bit of stretching and standing on the pegs was done to relieve boredom.

Ken had always said the PCH, or California 1 was a good ride, so trying to get off to it, the off-ramp of choice was blocked for construction. I took another and eventually reached PCH. It certainly had good views, but doing 55mph ish, with parked cars on the roadside was very unnerving. I ended up spending most of my time in the left lane, away from the cars.

It wasn’t long before staying away from cars was not an option. Weekends are apparently a bit different to the weekdays for the PCH. This was a beautiful Sunday, very few clouds in the sky, and the people were out in droves. Droves means cars, this was like Tamaki Drive on steroids. Bumper to bumper traffic, 2 lanes each way, stop start. I probably spent over an hour in it. Initially I just sat in it, hesitant to split with panniers and in a foreign country, but after a while I was well over the heat and my left hand was hurting from the use of the clutch.

When some Harleys came past I followed behind, figuring they would open the traffic a bit, which they did. In time however, they got ahead a little, when I paused to go through some gaps. Then they got far enough ahead the cars were closing back up. Then I used the right shoulder, which was reasonably good, but got too tight with parked cars. Back to the middle, I’d passed the Harleys using the shoulder, so waited for them to catch up.

A sportsbike was being held up behind them, and he eventually got through. Now I had a sportsbike in front (wishing like hell I was that narrow), then 3 Harleys, then me. This worked until the sportsbike disappeared and the Harleys went into the middle strip, for turning traffic. It was only after the light I started thinking that this was ridiculous and it felt like an eternity until the next road up the hill, Sunset Blvd from memory.

I turned off, sick of the traffic and went through the backstreets. I didn’t care if the GPS thought it was longer, as I knew in the long term, it actually wouldn’t be. I used the San Diego Expressway to get into LA, then the other main highways to head south of LAX to the Hacienda, where we were staying again. I found the Interstate more difficult than before, perhaps not used to the traffic. Traffic was heavy but still flowing in excess of 60mph. When you have 6 lanes each way, people are constantly changing traffic and I felt like a minnow surrounded by sharks.

Eventually I reached the Hacienda. Initially, the GPS had said a 3.30pm arrival time when leaving Morro Bay, but it was more like 5pm when I checked in. They actually had a room for me this time, the one lift still wasn’t working and I never had to move rooms. After unpacking, the next job was to clean the bike, I know, as much as it pained me.

The cleaner it was, the better for passing through customs. I was about to leave when Anjum asked me to wait, as he also needed to clean his. He was having problems checking in, because he wasn’t on the list. I stored his boots for him (he’s purchased ostrich and alligator boots I think) while a room was sorted and we headed off for the wash. The nearest one was a valet style, where you wait while they clean it. Not wanting to spend the dollars on it, instead we opted for a nice city tour, which I passed off to Anjum as looking for the wash.

Unfortunately, he didn’t really buy it, the wash we were looking for didn’t materialise, the next one we tried was closed, so I headed to the other one some of the others had used. This time success (ok, so I knew where it should be within a hundred metres) and we washed our bikes with the power wash. I think it should have had more pressure as some dirt wouldn’t come off, but it seemed to work on Anjum’s fine (which I don’t think was actually dirty).

We headed back to the hotel, this time without any sightseeing. A brief chat with the others in the outdoor area of the foyer, dropped the bike gear and we headed over the road to Sizzlers for dinner. Excellent value as always, with a double Malibu chicken, endless salad bar, endless soft drinks and endless dessert. Came to a total of about $16.

Back at the hotel, I was about to order a late check-out for $29, but Gary and Barbara offered to share theirs, which was nice. In the room I watched too much crap TV, including a weapons showdown Teddy Roosevelt and Lawrence of Arabia. Teddy had a narrow win in the end, but it was cool watching them analyse the old weapons and tactics.

I should have done blogging but didn’t, figuring I would do it tomorrow afternoon instead, while waiting for the evening.

Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LAoQ6GphL9BZ7sXH7

Route: http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Pa...,3,4,5&t=m&z=9