The end of the famous road!

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We all took off yesterday from San Diego with a little trepidation, worrying about the traffic in LA. As it turned out, it was no worse than some of the other freeway driving we'd experienced heading into Vegas.

We had one close call when a large motor home hadn't secured their load and a deck chair flew out and went straight under Adam and Jo's bike in front of us. No damage fortunately and some very quick thinking by Adam.

The seven lane freeways are amazing, we could do with some of these in Auckland! Overall, people on four wheels were great and we managed to get to the drop off point in one piece.

Santa Monica is lovely and its nice to be back again since our visit in May. Due to our late arrival we had a light lunch in a local bar and found out our waitress was from Tauranga, so a great kiwi connection. We had photos with the group at the plaque recognising the end of route 66; it's quite surreal to think we've done it.

Last nights farewell dinner was great, Helen let her hair down and will definitely have a sore head this morning! She did amazingly well on the trip on a Fatboy - it's a heavy bike and she rode well. David is so proud of her.

Tonight we fly out, so we are in search of an extra suitcase, as we'll never fit all our gear back in the ones we have. We haven't purchased much (apart from the hundred bloody t shirts that David got), but we have brought helmets and some bike gear we needed that has to be packed. I think Jamie and David are eyeing up the local Harley shop for a visit (another t shirt!). I'd quite like to go to the pier and wander around local shops, so well see what happens after breakfast.

We've met some amazing people - Jo and Adam from England, Wolfgang and Gerhad the brothers from Austria that rode ahead of us in the formation for the whole trip, Carlos and John (four with the same name) from South Africa, Christina from France and her hubby from Germany, Peter and Dave from Aussie (Peter is from Waimate originally), Roland from Germany but now an Aussie just to name a few.

We've learned a lot about this amazing country; which I'd visit again in a heart beat. The best places are between the big cities, out in the small towns. The people are amazing, the hospitality and genuine interest in what you are doing is fantastic. When many of us think of America it's all about the big cities, but it's middle America that is the place to see - just incredible experiences.

Well on to the next journey for our move south! See you all in Auckland!

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