Advertisement
Published: December 9th 2011
Edit Blog Post
We got a bit of a late start in the morning, because we were going to stay with Nick, and he was at work until that evening and we onlyhad about an hour or two of riding to get to his place in Rodondo Beach. We rode down the 1, which skirts the coast from Ventura through Malibu to Santa Monica. We stopped off in Santa Monica and realized that there wasn't anything of interest there for us. We had both been there before, and it was just a bunch of shops selling us things we don't need.
We then headed down to Venice Beach, where we parked the bikes and went for a stroll and check out the vibrant, dynamic culture that is Venice Beach. The shops along the board-walk were a stady repition of sunglasses shops, medical marijuana doctors, tattoo parlours and bong shops. It became obvious that the thing to do in Venice is get your medical marijuana, buy a bong, get stoned need sunglasses, and get a tattoo in your inebriated state!
Tired of watching the circus we headed back to the bikes. We came to find parking tickets on the seats as we walked up. We looked at them, snickered a bit, and tossed them aside. Fully content that we are MOVING to South America and therefore a parking ticket is a waste of time and money for the government of LA to try to force upon us! As we pulled away a taxi driver pulled up to us at a stop light and informed us that he tried to talk the meter-maid out of giving us the tickets. you just don't give bikes parking tickets! they can blow away, or some kid could take it to mess with you!
So we made our way South along the beach for as much as possible until we go past the marina. There we stopped into 'McCheveron'. A Cheveron station with a McDonalds in the same building. The Cheveron convinently sold beer and we enjoyed a cold beer with nasty, greasy McDonalds once again. We called Nick to tell him where we were and he worked just around the corner. He was just getting off and said he would meet us ther ein a few minutes. He showed up, and after a few minutes he led us down the road, ocean-side as much as possible, to his apartment.
We pulled up, put the bikes in the garage and unloaded. The plan was to go to the store and buy supplies to have a small cook-out in the driveway. That consisted of chicken breasts, steaks, a case of beer, and the bag of charcoal that Nick had to go back for- it didn't seem as essential as the beer at the time! We ate well, told stories and killed off the last of the beer in the apartment and kept Nick up WAY too late. We passed out in our respective places, Dan on the blow-up mattress, and me on the couch.
The next morning, after a cup of coffee or two, we went out to find a place to rent bikes to ride up the coast. We searched for a place for a couple hours, got hungry, and ate at this little Phillipino place on the board-walk. We finally found the place, getting near noon, and we were off! we rode all the way around Marina del Rey up to Venice Beach. We had a snack there then had to turn around to get back to the rental shop before it closed. Nick came and met us at the crab shack next door for a bite and a beer.
On the way back to Nick's Dan saw Wee Man's Chronic Taco Shop not far away, and we decided tht we had to go therte for a late breakfast in the morning. Which we did! great little burrito wrap shop right down the road. They had a really good hot sauce (Gringo Bandito's) which ended up in my jacket pocket as we left. The night before Dan lost his back pack at the crab shack, and it was there when we stopped by! No loss no harm. We got on the highway a little late and the sun was going to set before we reached San Diego. The traffic got chocked as we got near San Diego. So, being legal in California I made my way between the cars until the exit for downtown. I rolled up to the hostel right in the middle of the Gas Lamp District about 30 minutes after dark and got us checked in. Dan showed up about 45 minutes later, night blindness and not having much lane-splitting experience, he fell back a bit.
The hostel was rated the best in North America a couple years before, and it lived up to its fame! There was a common room which was more like a pre-clubbing disco itself! There were mostly English staying there with a couple Swedes, Scots, Aussies and a Kiwi. It seemed as if everybody would go get a bottle of cheap vodka and a bottle of soda to mix it to get their drink on before going out. I felt like a lightweight in their company!
The main mission of being in San Diego was to do some maintenance and up-grades on the bikes one last time before crossing into Latin America. I made contact with Eagle Mike. He is a local guy that manufactures after-market parts for KLRs specifically. His factory is downtown San Diego, a five minute ride from the hostel. He had us bring our bikes inside and he helped us with information parts and assistance with the work when necessary. We changed both tires each, Dan changed his clutch springs, I gapped my valves and changed my dohickey (the balancer chain tensioner spring- hence the name dohickey). The dohickey is the Achillies Heel of KLRs, they usually fail and can render a motor useless. Mine had snapped and worn half way through by the time I got to it! It was the first time I had removed engine covers from any bike I have ever had... and expected it to work again!
Mike was busy Thursday, but told us to come in early Friday. We worked on the bikes all day and still hadn't finished. We got out of there on Saturday during a torrential down-pour.
We joined in with the nightly pub-crawl on Wednesday and Thursday, but on Friday and Saturday we went to the hottest clubs in the city. Just like Santa Barbara, the girls were done up and the guys in shorts and flip flops- even after we were warned about the strict dress-code! While in one club I saw a guy that was a DEAD ringer for my cousin Justin. Justin isn't a very common looking dude, about 6'4" very large build, long hair a trimmed beard and glasses. The only difference was that this guy's hair was in dreads. I had to walk all the way over to him before I realized that it wasn't him. I even told him that he was Justin's Doppelganger,a dn he even sounded like Justin!
The last night in San Diego we went to a club that had bondage rooms and leather clad dancers moving about the club, it was so surreal! After a couple hours in the place we all found the basement where the good DJ was spinning and we stayed there until about 1 A.M. That was to be our last night in the U.S. Crazy!
We got up in the morning and packed everything up. We went across the street to use the WiFi and bought Mexican auto insurance and asked the bartender to print them up for us. when that was all sorted we got on the road and rode to the border. When we got there the line was really short and when we pulled up to the front we got got the green light and drove on into El Mundo Latino!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.082s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 40; dbt: 0.0568s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dan Saley
non-member comment
Are you ok?
Dan - Bill, the Cougar, and I are getting worried that you haven't posted since crossing the border into Mexico. Please post so we know you are kicking it up in Baja.