The Race to the Border

We spent the time in Santa Cruz just relaxing and making sure we had everything ready for the border crossing into Mexico, we were due to meet some people in LA and San Diego who had agreed to provide first hand advice for the next phase of our trip so we made contact and arranged to see them in a few days.

Sue spent time with Fiona and had a chance to get away from me for a change, I spent time sorting out BOB and making sure we had copies of our travel documents....and I would always make a detour to the point to watch the surfers and the sea life.

Santa Cruz lighthouse and surf museum.

Even in the height of summer the Pacific coastal water is cold.

Yeah, I used to surf until I lost the TV remote control.

Santa Cruz sealions.

We put one day aside to return to San Francisco to see the sights, we decided to take in the usual tourist attractions and figured they could be done in one day. Driving into San Francisco is like driving in any other major city in the US, try and keep pace with everybody else and because you're on a bike resist the urge to use all 4 lanes. Almost everybody has seen downtown SF either in photos or in the movies, the streets really are that steep and fortunately the GPS seemed to be behaving itself and took us straight down to the harbour. When we got to the West Pier we took photos of the Bay and Alcatraz Island and then realised that there was no access to Fishermans Wharf from the West Pier so we got back on the bike and pressed the start button...Nothing.....try again.....Nothing!

"Houston we have a problem"

We had not had any problems starting BOB up until now but it sounded like the battery had no power, after doing all the usual checks I checked the battery under the seat and one of the leads felt a bit loose but not slack. We had no tools as they were in the tank panniers and they had been left at Fiona's along with the tank bag (lesson number 13, always take tools everywhere!) in the end a nice policeman called the breakdown service and they jump started BOB and off we went. The battery was still flat so we could not risk stopping again unless we were on a hill, because of the weight of the bike there is no way you can push start BOB unless you have a football team with you and the days of kick starts on motorbikes have all but disappeared. The risk of stopping again without being able start BOB meant we were restricted to riding round the city, and decided to play it safe and head back to the BMW dealer near Santa Cruz.

The other bridge across San Francisco Bay (Bay Bridge)

On the way back we rode past Fisherman's Wharf ( another tourist trap) and took the ride down Lombard Street which is supposed to be the crookedest (most winding road in the world) and then headed back down the coast to Santa Cruz.

Looking back up Lombard street, taken by Sue on the bike.

This shot gives you the view of the whole street.

The guys at the BMW dealership checked out the battery and confirmed that the charging system was working fine but the battery was only 80 percent efficient, however when they tightened everything up BOB fired up first time so all was well (for now).

Back in Santa Cruz Fiona and Bill gave us a tour of the pier and the famous Boardwalk complete with funfair

The Santa Cruz Boardwalk and Funfair.

and on a Friday night during the summer they host a "Free Friday Night Bands on the Beach" the friday before we left we were fortunate to see live for one night only.....THE SWEET!

Who?.......well if your not old enough to remember The Sweet, they were a 'Glam rock' band from the seventies and had a number of hits including Blockbuster, Ballroom Blitz, Wig Wham Bam, and Fox on the Run. Sadly, Fiona, Sue and I found ourselves singing along and Bill, being American looked on in bewilderment! (I don't think The Sweet were that big in the States).

Old rockers never die, they just dye their hair!

The sealions had taken over the lower pier and were using it as a nursery.

As I mentioned before we were limited to 90 days in the States, so as much as we were enjoying our stay in Santa Cruz it was time to leave and head South. We said our farewells and followed the coast road through the rather exclusive Monterey and Carmel Bay area .

We wanted to ride along 17 Mile Drive which goes along the Monterey peninsular/Pacific coast and passes the famous Pebble Beach Golf Course, however when we got the kiosk to pay the entrance fee we were told politely "No Motorcycles"........"Yeah, well we didn't want to ride through your crappy neighbourhood anyway" Have a nice day!

Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey.

Clam Chowder Central.

Carmel Bay

Feeding sea otter.

The ride down the Pacific Coast Highway is time consuming but fun, compared to the interstate highway it's a breath of fresh air, literally. The sea breezes make it bearable even in summer temperatures, I am now fed up to the back teeth of driving on the 'Interstates', we try to avoid the main highways where possible but sometimes you have no choice. The wind turbulance from other vehicles becomes a real pain in the arse after a few hours and even with the taller screen on the Adventure when you get too close to tall vehicles SUV's trucks etc, it has the same effect as someone batting you round the head with a rolled up newspaper!

Views from the Pacific Coast Highway

Elephant seals

This one needed inflating to full size

We had two 'Ricks' to meet in Los Angeles, Rick 'G' and Rick 'McD'. I had met Rick 'G' in the parking lot of Alaska Leather in Anchorage, he had just returned from Deadhorse and shared some info about the Haul Road. He also gave me a pair of winter gloves and said as he was from California he was unlikely to need them again, I took them and pledged to return them if and when we got to LA.

Rick 'McD' also lives near LA and he and I had been communicating over the 'net' Rick has done the Alaska to Argentina thing so he was a great source of information. We took advantage of the offer to stay with both of them and decided we would skip the whole LA sightseeing trip, however, we did have a run out to Santa Monica and Muscle Beach.

Santa Monica Beach on a week day

I'm jealous! this guy has too much money and too many 'toys' (and a slightly used pair of winter gloves)

Sue and Rick 'McD'

Whilst we were in LA we were keeping a close eye on Hurricane Jimena which was threatening to hit the Baja Peninsular as a category 4 hurricane and if that was the case it would scupper our plans to ride down Baja and catch the ferry across to the Mexican mainland from La Paz.

We had always planned to do Baja as part of our route South, not only because it's a beautiful place but it's also a less travelled route for entering the Mexican mainland

Batten down the hatches!

We had one more stop before saying farewell to the US, our two travelling companions in Alaska, Tony and Andy had been in touch with Dan in San Diego and had been given masses of information about Mexico and Guatamala. Dan married a Guatamalan lady, Theresa and has travelled extensively in both countries to the point where he can recommend which towns to visit and even where to stay, cost of accommodation and GPS co ordinates for those points of interest. We spent a couple of days in San Diego gleaning as much information as we could from Dan and preparing ourselves for our first real border crossing which included trying out our minimal Spanish speaking skills.

These Americans really are the most hospitable hosts.

(Me, Mike, Sue, Dan, Theresa and Kit)

Whilst in San Diego, the news came through regarding Hurricane Jimena. The reports sounded fairly disastrous, it had destroyed a couple of towns on our route and also taken out roads, power and water in large areas of central Baja. The information coming out of Baja suggested no travel would be possible for days if not weeks and we were faced with two options, 1) head East and travel through mainland Mexico on our way South or 2) cross the border at Tecate or Tijuana as originally planned and hole up somewhere in Northern Baja and hope the essential services in the damaged areas get repaired quickly. Not being a couple of whimps we decided on the latter, which was kind of risky considering the fact that there is only one road down the peninsular and no alternative route.

Farewell America, it's been a blast!

On Sunday 6th of September, almost 3 months after arriving in Alaska we were leaving the United States. We had breakfast with Dan and members of the San Diego BMW Owners Club and after a brief wobbly GPS moment we were on the freeway heading for the border. BOB has covered more than 14,000 miles and we will seriously have to review our total trip mileage!

90 DAY SUMMARY

In a nutshell we have been incredibly lucky........even though we have had setbacks, we have been fortunate enough to resolve them without too much disruption to the trip. We have been so lucky to have met wonderful people who we hope will now consider us as friends and the sadness of knowing in reality we will never meet most of them again is the lowest part of our stay.

POSTSCRIPT FROM SUE

Hi everyone! Just in case you thought Graham had actually been carrying a cardboard cut out of me to stick in front of the camera I can assure you I am here.

The trip so far has been amazing. We've seen some truly awe inspiring sights and met lots of wonderful people whose hospitality has been quite humbling.

Whilst Graham has been riding the bike and keeping you entertained with the blog my role has been to make sure we have money in our pockets and writing a daily journal to enable us to remember more of the details.

The two questions I get asked most are "don't you get a sore bum?" the answer to that is only once after riding through the Valley of the Gods and it was only for a few hours; the second question is "wouldn't you rather be riding in a comfortable car?" and the answer to that is no. On a bike you feel more in touch with the environment, you are subjected to a variety of experiences, e.g. subtle (and not so subtle) changes in temperature, aah the smells! and occasionally ugh the smells! and it can be uncomfortable at times but that passes. From a car it would be like watching this all on a TV screen.

So thanks to all those people we've met on the way and to all of you at home for your love and support. I can't say that I'm not missing some aspects of that hum drum life back there, especially our family and friends but the internet is enabling us to keep in touch. Speak to you again when we get to South America. Love Sue XXX