The big one, or my west coast adventures. Day 21

Since I like this huge hotel room, I've decided to have a do nothing day and catch up on things. 3 weeks on the road, so why not.

$70 a night on Priceline, sometimes you win.  It gives me a chance to catch up on the blog, and rest and unwind from all that riding and tourist stuff. First thing I do is pack up my laundry crap for the laundry.  I go to the bike and check out the loose mirror.  Which comes off in my hand. Thank god it did, because it's a $80 item from BMW,  and it would take a day to order from a dealer (if there was one in this town). The funny and lucky part is that the double sided tape I bought for the helmet yesterday, it's the perfect stuff for the mirror.

 That's the finger that got cut by that Leatherman blade yesterday. The Leatherman is sharp, real sharp. I've actually got good use out of it. So I'm glad I bought it.

 Mirror sans glass.

The back side.  The glue has been letting go, as the trip has been going along. It would have fallen off in the next couple of day's.  I'm just glad I caught it. Anyway its all fixed and as good as new.

I did some laundry.

I grab some dinner and relax and update 3 days of blogs.

Total mileage 4506 miles / 7252 km

Tomorrow is Hearst Castle.

Good night folks.

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The big one, or my west coast adventures. Day 20.

Well, this is a really early start as I've got to go back through LA to the Santa Monica Pier. To start my northbound leg on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). Straight interstate riding all the way to LA. I did get held up due to a accident,  but no for long. I didn't stop at the pier, as I've go enough pics of the pier. As soon as you leave the pier, heading north, the road lives up to the hype. Traffic is ok (it's sunday) and for once the traffic lights seemed to be synced, or at least activate only when needed.

And yes, most of what I rode for the first 100 miles looked like this. Time to stop for breakfast.  Malibu looks good. 5 bucks is busy, so I hit up the local equivalent of whole foods. I grab a Latte and a great breakfast burrito. Malibu is a lot bigger than I thought,  but what a nice, friendly,  mellow place. I can totally understand why people live here. Close to LA, but a great small village feel. I ended up talking to a GS rider, who also just did route 66. This guy goes all over, cool. Even a Spicoli having coffee. You really get to see the surfing culture up close. They are all camped on the beach waiting for that wave. That and partying. Anyway back on the road and more magnificent scenery.

From Malibu, I slowly make my way up to Santa Barbara.  The ride is great and the there where lots of surfer's camped out. I was a bit surprised to see the oil rigs off the coast, but hey, I guess there's oil off the coast.  The other big thing you notice is all the nice older cars.  Lota of VW's,  bugs and campers with the odd wagon thrown in. Lots of bikes on the PCH as well. What suprised me was all the BMW bikes. On route 66 it's Harley's,  on the PCH it's BMW.

I finally make it up to Santa Barbara.  Honestly, I wasn't to crazy about the place. It really did seem a playground for the rich.

From here I took a detour on highway 154. It goes up through the mountains and reconnects with the 101. On a normal day I would have enjoyed the road, but compared to the PCH it was a bit of a let down. Or it was just hyped up a little too much. Either way, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. Anyway I head back south on the 101 to Santa Barbara to fill up and come back on the PCH. I'm glad I did as some of the views were great and I loved going through the Gaviota pass. Since I went both ways, southbound is better.

 Filling up in Santa Barbara,  even the view is nice from here.

So the PCH branches off from the 101 just north of the pass. A nice easy drive through the mountains to Lompoc. Here I spot a Homer depo. I've got to fix a few things on the bmw and I can get everything at homer. The electric connections (plug) on the GPS needs to be crimpted again, and the arms on the electric windshield needed to be looked at. For the windshield I lost a e clip and have some broken plastic. I take it apart, use some tie wraps and both are fixed. The windshield should hold until I can hit ebay to get a used part. I refilled the shock oil (rebound) as well, it didn't take as much as I thought, which is a good thing.

About 45 minutes and I was done. I was close to the hotel for the night so might as well get it out of the way.  I also picked up some double sided tape (the good 3M stuff ) to redo the helmet mike. I guess the heat over the last couple of weeks weakened the glue.


Back on the road and through Vandenberg Air Force Base. Now this place is huge. There's nothing to see though.  Except the front gate.  From here you come down off the mountains and into a valley.  With farms, Lots of farms, and lots of harvesting going on. I head over to Wallymart to pick up some supplies and dinner.

 Now I'm not saying a $1.97 bottle of wine is great. But you'll never find it back home at that price.

Goodnight folks.

Total mileage 4490 miles/ 7226 km

The big one, or my west coast adventures. Day 19

Today's plan is to head down to San Diego.  As I'm not a fan of LA traffic, I'm going to get a early head start.

That headlight is bright, but that way, I know they see me, and that's what I care about. I'm on the road at 7 am.  I head down to the Santa Monica Peir, to start my southbound ride on the Pacific Coast Highway.

It's nice and quite at the pier. Except the homeless.  I guess it's the weather, but LA does have a serious homeless problem and a lot of those poor people either have mental problems or substance abuse problems. It's the one thing about LA, I didn't like.

Anyway, no problems getting out of LA, but don't kid yourself,  it's still busy on the road. So now I'm almost outa LA and the Tross needs a coffee. Since having a ocean front address isn't cheap,  a Starbucks was easy to find. So time for a coffee and breakfast sandwich.  Now that I'm in California,  the Ontario plates and the Route 66 license plate frame are a draw for people. This time I met a guy who used to work in Oakville.  Nice guy, wish I could live on the California coast. Back on the road. I stopped down the road for some pics.

Time to fill up and put some air in the front tire. This bike let's you know when the air is low. The new front tire has to seat in and always looses a few psi. So no big deal.

  With that out of the way, I'm back on the PCH. The problem is that your driving from small town to small town, with all the traffic lights. Not really fun. Most shows will tell you to more or less the drive. Unfortunately it's more or less true. The real drive is north of LA, which I get to do tomorrow.

Selfie on the beach. Fun to watch the dolphins swimming just off the beach, fishing the dolphin way.

 Life is rough here in southern California.

From here, highway number 1 runs out and I'm forced onto the interstate I-5. You get to drive through Camp Pendleton (the main west coast Marine Base). It's a big camp.  This is where traffic all went wrong. I'm paying now for stopping in at Starbucks for breakfast.  The problem is that this is also the main way to Mexico as well and it's Saturday morning.  I get through it, though it's an hour later than I planned.

 Parking is only good for 2 hours, I'll be back. My choices in San Diego are, the Zoo, Seaworld , or the USS Midway.  I choose the Midway.

 The USS Midway on the left. The USS Ronald Reagan on the right.

 The fantail.

 It's one big aircraft carrier.

 Kind of tall as well.

 They pack them in, the newest recruits get the top. Still bigger than the subs I've been on.

First stop for some recruits. The anchor chain room.

 Junior officers quarters.

 Squadron ready room done in the squad's colours.

 Squadrons CO.

 The hatches go on forever.

 Book sale.

 Engine room control.  Scottie's up front.

 1 of 4 props. 2 engine rooms.

 It's for the radio's.

 The USS Ronald Reagan getting painted.

Interesting climbing out on the horns.

Admirals war room . Naval Desert storm was launched from here.

Admirals bedroom.

Admirals lounge.

Admiral's personal cook.

Radio rooms with message tubes.

Captain's bed.

Captains desk.

He gets his own cook as well

Hanger lift.

If it sinks, this is what you get.

Main Galley.

Officers wardroom.

The dirty wardroom.

A great visit, but tiring, as your up and down ladders all day. There's also a huge naval base down the road. From what you can see from the road, there are dozens of ships here. You get a glimpse of America's naval power. From here I'm down to my motel and off to bed.

Total mileage 4061 miles/ 6536 km


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