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