This is the picture of a man wondering whether sometimes he shouldn't think up silly ideas in City pubs, and then stubbornly follow through on them. The look in my eyes is the definition of biting off more than you chew. This picture also shows off Colin's very cool Porsche 911 if you look carefully.
After a 07:30 start and a brilliant send off from Lisa, Colin, Jack and sleepy Harry (Jack's running wave in his PJs was an awesome boost), it was a quick ride down to a blissfully overcast beach for a photo call. Then I turned east at Venice Beach (frankly nicer than the original Venice...less fat people with bum bags snogging on bridges) and headed for the mountains.
As big a fan as I am of west coast rap, I decided to not pay my respects to Tupac and planned a route via Pasadena that avoided Compton and South Central LA. The first 20 odd miles were interesting through Koreatown and some very Hispanic parts of the city, but the rest of the day was frankly surreal.
For 70 miles along route 66 I seemed to be in the same town over and over and over again. Sometimes the town was a little richer, sometimes a little poorer, but basically it was the same town, same shops, same restaurants, same layout. Not to throw stones in glass houses, there are plenty of identikit towns in the UK, but this was something else. The only way I knew I was in a different town was the state of the roads - Pasadena get's top marks, but generally the roads were horrific, and many towns had taken the London approach to cycle routes, start them where you feel like and end them where you feel like.
The riding was fine, but the horror was the traffic lights. As I essentially never left the LA suburbs, no exaggeration, I must've been through 500 sets of lights. The stopping and starting was relentless, and I was glad to get to San Bernardino where the roads started to open out to longer stretches.
Although, being rash, last minute I chose not stop in San Bernardino, and pushed on 15 miles to Highland in the incorrect belief there was an REI there. Turns out I misread Google, there is no REI and Highland is a slightly scary hick town when you arrive at 18:30 on the first day of a TransAm attempt.
All was not lost though, found a drab motel for the night, chatted about the Cricket with the Indian owner, looked grumpy at the screaming kids enjoying themselves noisily in the pool, and fell asleep post tacos in front of Transformers on TV.
Route - Venice Beach - Pasadena - San Bernardino - Highland
Breakfast - Cherrios
Lunch - Mexican sandwich - LA style Taco truck by the side of the road
Snack - Strawberries at farm shop in Citrus valley
Snack - Cheeseburger - In and Out, next to some kids off to Prom
Dinner - Take out hard tacos - Taco Joe’s next to Motel, eaten in room. Not gourmet, but edible
