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CHAPTER 23





DAY 53   MONTEREY TO SAN LUIS OBISPO    320km

Today was the big day of the famed Big Sur - the iconic coastal route down through big Sur.  it is regarded as one of "THE " rides on a motorcycle.  And a great ride it was.

We sweeped and turned and turned and sweeped all the way down the coast and the passenger on the back loved it !


As we went down the coast we passed Hearst castle where we had stopped 4 years earlier whilst on a car trip north.  It can be best described as a monument to unfettered capitalism and riches and some of the past european aristocrats would probably shudder to see their artworks in a pseudo castle out in the Californian sun.

DAY   54   SAN LUIS OBISPO TO " THE CITY OF ANGELS"    360km

it waqs a funny feeling this morning for two reasons  firstly it was the last day of this leg of the trip after 54 days on the road.  Secondly there was the little matter of Los Angeles to deal with.

The day started ( as many do here ) with glorious Californian sunshine.  And it stayed like that all day.  Note to self, must talk to our Auckland mayor Len Brown about upping the sunshine hours to Californian standards.

The lovelt Santa Barbara



We drove down thru the lovely lovely town of Santa Barbara and then down that classic stretch of  beachy coast through Malibu and into lods Angeles .  Being a fine Sunday afterrnoon as it was all of the Angelinos seemed to have the same idea so it was a long haul with beach after beach, lifeguard after lifeguard, bronzed body after bronzed body and traffic officer after traffic officer !

California ' a dreaming


Well, dear reader we got to Santa Monica, trned left to Hollywood and lo and behold we drove down the Santa Monica Boulevard and we were there.  It was engines off and one very big sigh of relief.  The 'ubbards had done it!.  19,000km give or take one or two and right on schedule, lots of adventures and no mishaps! Wow !

And the hotel being on Santa Monica boulevard is on the fabled Route 66 so there had to be the obligatory photograph.


DAY 55   MELLA GOES TO THE HOLLYWOOD HOSPITAL AND WE GO TO AUCKLAND!

At 8.46am on the dot we wheeled out of the hotel and it was down to West Hollywood BMW motors to check the bikes in ( to the hospital for a two week rest and checkover ) ) The bikes were a little overawed at being in hollywod and ai half expected to see Arnold Schwartzanegger come roaring up alongside us on his Harley.  However he was excused as he is probably still in the divorce court !

The BMW bike place was interesting.  The head honcho who looked after us most capably was Fernando and the two mechanics were Angel and Pedro. Welcome to LA !  Angel was a big man and not the delicate little thing the name might suggest !.  However they were super efficent.  All the problems were regarded as small ones and we hope the final bill does not change this view.  After all we are not Hollywood stars with the corresponding bank accounts!


Then the final piece de resistance as we headed out to the airport for the night flight to Auckland. our friendly conciege arranged to our surprise a ginormous stretch limousine.  I could only just see Ken at the other end of it !  What a fitting and symbolic way to leave Los Angeles. I almost got bleary eyed until the  Air New Zealand check in queue  blasted me back in reality.



                                                        POSTSCIPT

As I write this we are back in Auckland.  On the 10th of September we fly back to LA then off south it is. There has been a flurry of Spanish learning, chores to do, bills to pay and gear to sort out.

At the risk of being mundane here is some information about the website.

1.  If you want to post a comment please feel free to do so via this blogsite.  The coments via the website also come up on my email so they are easy to answer.

2.  Diana has also been running a blogsitr and hers is better than mine !  Check it out on -

                                        www.pearlson2wheels.blogspot com

3. the photos on the blogsite are small as i do the posts daily on the Ipad.  however you just click on them to enlargen them.  Now that I am back I have retrospectivly emlarged them on the blogsite.

4.  You might be exposed to some awful Spanish as I try to become  'un poco" bilingual as in - 

                                        -----------------------------------------------------------                              

 " Por supestro me gusta la langua espanol y me gustaria aprender mas. Es una langua muy facil pero  es difficil por mi porque mis labias somos lentos  Yo se mas palabras pero las oraciones y las frases es mas dificil por mi. Pero puedo preguntar ahora por una cama doble, unas comidas y una cerveza o cafe con leche.  Puedo preguntar una mesa para dos en el primer piso a lado de la ventana y puedo preguntar  un bistec bien cocida! Tambien  yo se la differencia entre derecha and izquerda !. No tengo  usar un diccionario para mi carta aqui!

Adios  Los Estadod Unidos y bienvenidos Mexico y America Sud.

Hasta luego amigos y espero a usted le gusta los blogposts! "

Dick ( el Ricardo! )

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