We had a great dinner last night with Jeff's friends at a restaurant near Venice Beach. Apart from a slight delay in being seated, and the restaurant not having a roof (really), the food was sensational. And something as rare as Haley's Comet, Jeff shouted everyone! Great expectation this morning as we woke wearily. Jeff said we needed another water bottle last night so we had to finish the the flagon of Merlot we had bought for $7 - No Problem! Unfortunately we couldn't pick up the RV until 1pm so we packed up all our gear and stored it in the garage as we departed on the velos towards Carson. We chose the beach road and ended up on the bike path on the beach for 13km heading south. What a great start, it was ... read more

Up early and had a hot breakfast before heading off to rent a Mustang for the day. Tom had a go at playing navigator and did a great job getting us back to the Airport Rental area. By 9:30am I was like a kid with a new toy sitting at the wheel of a blue Mustang Convertible. First trip was back to our room to drop off the Pathfinder and then Dave wanted a quick visit to Walmart. This time we had hired a GPS with the car and Dave took a turn as navigator. I think we took about 5 wrong turns and the 43 minute trip to the Walmart took more like an hour and 15 minutes. The whole way we were on a freeways, going from one to another on massive interchanges. Once ... read more

Two more sleeps before the Four Amigos start their epic adventure traversing the "Land of the Free". Visas and Insurance in order. We've all selected our "stallion" of choice. Degreased and cleaned. New shiny bits bought. The biggest question to answer still, do we use Road cleats or MTB? We've organised accommodation in LA, not sure if we have a car yet? Plenty of time for that. The nerves are starting to tingle as it sinks in that 5000kms is a bloody long way to pedal. Especially as we have 3 mountain ranges to cross before hitting Baltimore 5 weeks later. So let's introduce the Amgos . . . Amigo #1: Jeff Hilder: Age: Younger than he looks Description: Hasn't been big on training, except the one he caught back from Frankston last week. He will ... read more