Day 7 - Rerouting, repairs and rifles

 Whilst it's been annoying to have to stop this early in the trip, I can hardly complain. Right is the view from my budget motel, hardly hardship, but someones got to do it.

Won't fill you in on the dull details of my reroute planning, bike supplies purchases, etc as I'm sure you've all got lives to live.

Only purchase worth mentioning bizarrely was the extra T-shirt. When the shop assistant in the sports shop asked me if he could "help me with anything" I politely explained I was after a T-shirt. "Right before the gun counter sir." "Errrr, what?.......Oh I see, on the rack in front of the wall of sub-automatic shotguns, rifles and ammo...great, thanks for your help." I know I shouldn't be surprised, everyone knows guns are available here, but seriously right next to the mini-league baseball tops? Guess I just thought they'd be in specialist shops, but seeing as I've never seen a specialist gun shop in the states, my error. Shame you can't buy a gun as a foreign national, would've looked flare bolted onto the front of the bike and, at $389 for a sub-automatic weapon, a steal.

As I said yesterday Palm Springs is a cool city, probably only worth a weekend, but definitely worth it. That said I've done none of the galleries, so maybe they'd blow your mind.

Route - Palm Springs, mostly in the Motel

Breakfast - Cinnamon roll french toast, butter and maple syrup - Insanely calorific delight from Ruby's Diner
Lunch - Not a chance after that breakfast
Supper - Beef Chimichanga - Mexican joint with the word "tacos" in the title (name escapes me), on the strip. Good food, but the wailing sound track at full volume bugged me

Day 6 - Into the desert unprepared

A day of insane contrasts. Realising I still had some bike equipment to pick up decided to head down to Palm Springs before heading north into the desert proper. Google maps showed a bike route and blindly I set off with the GPS primed for Palm Springs. 10 miles in I noted the GPS was taking me 165 miles south for some reason, annoyed I just reset it to a town on the Google route closer than Palm Springs, an error that would cause me a world of pain and effort. 

However before the world of pain the ride was beautiful. Rapidly the urban areas fell behind me and I was up in the orange groves running along side the Union Pacific railroad. I don't exaggerate when I say I lost count of how many cars the trains were pulling, it's an awesome sight up close. 

Riding up in the Orange groves, with the hills and snow capped mountains in the background, with Harley Davidson riders and trains cruising past, it finally felt right. This is how it was meant to be, this was the plan and I was ticking off more than a few of the key points from the youtube clip that originally inspired me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxcY2hvBQZs). Sure the hills were long and rolling, but it felt perfect.

That was until I hit the desert. On arriving at the entrance to the Morongo Sovereign Nation (an Native American reservation) border I was informed that the tribe do not let cyclist through, on health and safety grounds. It was then I realised why my GPS and Google were in disagreement...for 15 miles odd there are only intermittent sealed roads on the route Palm Springs that aren't freeways cyclists can't use.

Suddenly the day went from an easy 55 mile hike into surreal and serious hard work over unmarked roads through the desert. Firstly along the shingle side of the railroad for 5 miles and then later out into the desert scrub land in the gap between the Ten Thousand Foot ridge and the Fuller ridge where the wind off the Pacific roars through the gap in the mountains, into hundreds of wind turbines. What made it so surreal, aside from the hundreds of wind turbines, was as I struggled through gullies and small canyons, and along the railroad tracks I could still hear the freeway less than 2 miles away, and see a huge casino tower on the horizon. In fact in between the little bush efforts I went for a coffee at the Starbucks at the casino covered in dust and muck, so I could use their free Wi-Fi to re-check my route. The juxtaposition was very unsettling.

It was however well worth it, and the serious bruises I have on my hips and elbows (caused by an impressive combination of soft ground, clip in pedals and lack of experience in the desert), for the final push into Palm Springs. With the best tail wind I've ever ridden, I flew down track between the freeway and railroad and then on down the side of the 111 (narrowly avoiding the small sand dune across the bike path at one point). With the desert, mountains, and a clear blue sky for company, I was a seriously happy chappie arriving into Palm Springs, genuine lesson in planning and preparation well and truly learnt.

If you haven't been to Palm Springs is worth visiting, maybe a little touristy, but still cool and some of the architecture is awesome (oddly best are the banks). Following the efforts of today, I'm staying here for a day, whilst I work out my new route South and into more populated areas, and get my bike mended. With a pool and perfect sunshine outside the window, I can think of worse places to get stuck.

Route - Highland - Banning - Carazon - Palm Springs

Breakfast - Bacon and eggs - Taco Joe’s

Lunch - 4 Reeses cups, powerade at a Cheveron gas station off highway 10, and a cinnamon pretzel at Auntie Anne’s in the Casino

Dinner - Cobb burger and strawberry milkshake - Ruby’s Dinner

Day 5 - Almost leaving LA

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 

Day 4 - D-Day delayed

So Thursday's confidence turned out to be a huge false dawn. Woke in the pre-dawn and got cracking but promptly it all went awry, and some point around 15:00 once I'd accidentally stabbed my hand with my knife, fought with HSBC one last time, and managed to get lost on every errand I ran, I took Lisa up on her awesome offer to stay another night. So so kind of her and Colin, and in the end made the set off a 1000 times more enjoyable.


Having packed everything up I went road tested the bike a bit more along the front a Venice Beach and had a little moment with the Pacific.......

The work horse and it's unbroken saddle out over the Pacific, with Beverly Hills in the background......

Wheels get a dipping in the Pacific. Promptly freaked out about rust and washed the bike off under the public showers, to the great amusement of the kids.....

My feet go in for good measure. Then had to walk back barefoot, as I forgot to wash them off, and was worried about the new cycle shoes.












Finally back to Colin and Lisa's for a thai curry in front of the Federer Nadal match. Went to bed perfectly chilled.

Route - Never left Santa Monica


Breakfast - Cherios

Lunch - Cheese burger - In and Out.....an awesome tip, best fast food I've ever eaten.

Supper - Take out Thai pineapple curry

Day 2-3 - Freeways, final plans and fries

So to my great surprise Los Angeles turns out to be an epic city, the spiritual cousin of both Cape Town and Bombay, two of my favourite cities in the the world. For over 10 years, since I was last here, I've been saying it's a dump, but I stand hugely corrected. Somewhere in amongst the headlong 2 days final preparation I fell for the city in a big way. It's a cool place and got that quirky whimsical charm I like, especially down on the beach front.

 

Left is the pier at Venice, down the way from muscle beach.....went down and gave the lads some tips on how to work out.

In hindsight leaving as much planning to the last minute was not the smartest move of my life, but somewhere between the very tolerant staff at multiple REI stores (like Millets but actually good), the kind staff at HSBC in Beverly Hills and the awesome help and hospitality of Colin and Lisa everything looked like it might just work out for my planned Friday leave date. 

Went to bed with a long list still to complete in the morning, and feeling very like Shackleton before he headed to Antarctica, albeit if Shackleton had done all his preparation in Santa Monica in flip flops and with a balcony with Jacuzzi off his room, two blocks from the Baywatch beach.

Command centre on the balcony, where great adventure plans were made.........

and the Jacuzzi (covered) for when it all got too intense.

Route - Basically all over LA in the Hyundai beast.


Day 2
Breakfast - Cherrios

Lunch - Original burger and chips - Jonny Rocket's - Highly recommend, if a slightly full on.

Supper - Superbly braiied steaks and salad

Day 3

Breakfast - Odd and expensive meatloaf and eggs - Some arsey Rodeo drive "French" cafe

Lunch - Organic chicken wrap - Wholefoods

Supper - Lisa's awesome pasta and Phish food ice cream

Day 1 - Lost already

After an 11 hour American Airlines flight, where the food and films were so dreadful I had lots of time to contemplate if 2 nights of hard boozing in St Moritz (Gustav and Caroline - Thank you for an awesome weekend) was really the smartest preparation for a serious bike ride, I was very happy to touch down at LAX.

A 15 mins drive to the Marina Del Rey took me over 2 hours, as being too stubborn to admit I was lost, I cruised Santa Monica, Venice Beach and the marina on four 30 mins loops. Although, I can think of worse places to get lost. Despite being in a Hyundai compact saloon rental in my jet lagged mind I couldn't shake the image of being in an early 90s MTV video.

That said I was glad to get to Lisa and Colin's beautiful home in the Marina. As always with South Africans the hospitality was flawless, and thank you so much to both of them for 4 brilliant days with their family. I was very sorry not to take up Jack's (their oldest) kind offer to "stay forever," but it did make for the perfect start to the journey.

Because some people have asked, below are the two things people seem the most interested in tracking:

Route: Heathrow - LAX - Marina Del Rey

Food:

Breakfast - I forget

Lunch - Indescribable pasta on the flight

Supper - Lisa's delicious baked salmon and asparagus salad 

Dashing chap

Just testing how to put pictures on, by showing off this dashing shot of myself.