Last days in the USA -- Total travelled 8040 miles

As always when a holiday is close to ending there is a mixture of sadness that the adventure is almost over and excitement about seeing family and friends again (& probably boring them silly with photo's etc).

On our way back into LA this morning we went by Wing Stuff & picked up our bits & pieces, then headed to the Ramada where we were lucky enough to be able to check in at around 1.30pm.

Earlier we thought we might go out again, once in and unloaded however it didn't take long to decide to change and go for a walk instead. We'll fill the bike tomorrow morning & deliver to Eagle Rider bright & early, before deciding where to go or what to do for the last day and a half left in USA.

We have had a wonderful trip, with fantastic memories and look forward to sitting down and going through all the photo's and videos we've taken over the five plus weeks.

America is an absolute place of contrasts and beautiful scenery, the people we met were the kindest, most helpful and always smiling, there are flowers everywhere, on the main roads, growing naturally on back roads, everywhere in gardens and in shopping centres, the colors are fantastic, they are an absolute credit to the guys here, and the road system, in particular the maze of bridges/overpasses - it is all just incredible.

Finally, our thanks to our riding companions over the previous weeks, to Clint & Charleen for all your work done initially and for meeting up and riding with us from LA, and to Bob & Kerry, the weeks we had together were great fun. We've also loved keeping track of all of you via your blogs since we all split up & went our seperate ways. Thank you also to John Gilbert for all your help, we'll be seeing you soon and comparing notes I'm sure!

We look forward to catching up with all of you back in Australia.


Heading back to LA - nice brown haze to welcome us

Choose the right bridge / overpass to take

An interesting name for a business! A beautifully air-brushed Goldwing at Wing Stuff ready for collection

Killing time

Not too much to report today.

We decided on another late start & headed out at 9am, the temp already registering 104F, throughout the day this hovered around 108F & probably higher. We did a couple of little detours (don't want to get to LA too early tomorrow) one to a little place called Salton City. For many miles we could see this lake, altho' everything around was dry and flat. We turned off hoping to get close to the water, in fact a yatch club was advertised but it had all obviously closed many a long day ago. There were, however, a number of huge pelicans enjoying themselves on the rocks. It was also nice to have a slightly cooler breeze for a short period of time.

There was a large Palm Oil plantation, made us remember the plantations we used to see in Malaysia. The area was quite green & very busy.

We continued on, along the highway, and came across the biggest wind farm we have ever seen. there must have been hundreds and hundreds of them, both large & small. We decided to turn off there & head towards the Joshua Tree memorial park, this took us approx 50 miles further inland. We went through Yucca which is a huge town, Joshua Tree which isn't very big, & then saw a sign saying the next service was 100 miles away. This made us re-evaluate our situation, & we decided to try for Hwy 40, which according to the GPS we could make. Guess what? Every road we took headed us towards a big Army Base, & a lot of the roads were dirt. We actually got to the front gate of the base but the young Army Marine (complete with side arm) didn't really know the directions. We ended up deciding to just get back onto the main road, get back to the freeway & continue on - which we did.


Around 2.30pm we saw a town called Banning, & decided to lodge there for the night. Have just had an extremely filling meal, staggered back to the room, & will head to the Ramada via Wing Stuff tomorrow. Turn off to Salton City (& our lake)

Pelicans enjoying thenselves

The Yatch Club / car park

Along the highway - not much to burn

Heading towards the Joshua Tree Memorial Park (that's a Joshua tree on the left)

Beautiful painted walls on a building in Yucca

Yup - everythings for sale

Some decent sized cactus in the front yard

The Army Base -hard to see but believe us it's there, in the middle of nowhere!

Noticed this rainstorm as we were heading back to the highway

The Midway Experience

If you are even remotely interested in Defence or more specifically air craft carriers, make every effort to get to see the USS Midway Museum at San Diego. We headed off first thing this morning to visit this absolute monach, it was worth every minute & we spent over 4 hrs on it.
The carrier was decommissioned in 1992, & opened as a museum in 2004. Incredible. You hear all the stories of how brothers served on the carrier but never got to see each other. Can quite understand.

This carrier was the overall naval command vessell for Desert Storm. Bit of trivia - it is over 1,004 ft long, 258 ft wide. It has 18 decks, & the flight deck is 4.02 acres. The USS Midway cost $90 million to build back in 1945, & over 225,000 men served on her. Total weight about 69,000 tons, 2,000 ft of anchor chain, 20 ton anchors. There were a number of retired Midway crew members who did tours, explained the catapulting system & the landing aircraft arresters. The crew had the system down to a fine art where they were landing incoming aircraft every 45 secs (or less). We also went on the Island Tour where we were taken to the bridge, the control tower, the chart room. It is called the Island because when planes were tryng to find the carrier they would look for the bridge, & this became known as the Island. It is also the only carrier that had a "sundeck" and this was used to maintain the radar tower and also allowed crew from below decks to get some sun when they were off duty. We also saw mess rooms for all ranks, & spoke to the guy who was in charge of all food purchasing, menus etc on a number of carries including the Midway. He said there was an average of 14,000 meals served per day. We also visited the kitchens, sick bay, chapel, laundry etc etc not to mention the working side of the carrier, the engine rooms, bomb prep areas etc. The machines running the thing defy belief.
The guy who did our Island tour was a pilot on a Huey (helicopter) used extensively in Vietnam. The tour was an absolute thrill, altho' I will say I can understand why the crew are so fit, my goodness, those steps are narrow, & very steep, and the airlocks you step over constantly going from section to section are over a foot high. Apparrently many many cut foreheads & bruised shins for the crews back then. (I did jump onto one of the enlisted guys bunks - & boy it was difficult - Ken had to help me on & as it was a middle bunk I had to roll off to get out).

Once we had finished, well after 2pm, we headed out of San Diego, taking the Campo Road Highway which skirted the Mexican border almost all the way. It was a brilliant road, consistently winding thru' steep mountains, then we were back to I8 driving thru' a couple of Indian reservations. At one stage had we continued on a few hundred feet we would have got to the Mexican border which we didn't want to do, so turned around and went back to where we had turned off. We passed masses of Border Patrols and depots, and could see the border fence between USA & Mexico quite clearly for some considerable distance. The temp was high & climbing, at one stage registering 119F, probably higher off the bike. The countryside appeared to be sand and nothing much else, other than the mountains which consisted of massive boulders.

By the time we got to the town of El Centro around 5pm we were ready to pull into any motel that offered breakfast, a resturant & that was it. The one we got is great, it has a small kitchenette, seperate bathroom etc - and for about half the price of most of the standard basic motels we've been staying at. We've had tea and are now ready to sleep. Even tho' it's only 10pm I don't think it will be too long.

The most beautiful HUGE statue - notice me next to her leg


Boarding USS Midway

In an enlisted crewman's bunk - not easy or big

So many wires, so little room - and Hello there! (below)

In the brig!

The rope is huge - see size in comparison to Ken's boot

The Radar Tower from the flight deck

Views from the Bridge

Hawkeye 11

Close to the Mexican Border

That's a semi that went over the side - ouch!

To the Mexican border & back to San Diego

Wow! I'm pleased to say that altho' Ken's foot is still very bruised, once he's up & on it, & especially when he's got his boot on things are well & good. (Still sore of course, but very manageable). The first photo is of Ken on the main street in Santa Barbara Blvd, after we'd had tea last night. There were masses of people walking, playing, swimming, riding & just sitting on the beach area, & all types, believe me!

We left Santa Barbara first thing this morning, & headed towards LA going via the coast road. There was still fog around at various places, but not too bad. Once again passed by masses of market gardens, mostly tomatoes, right on the outskirts of LA. We got to LA (actually saw the Ramada) had a quick coffee & continued on via the coast road down to San Diego. Then onto the freeways, screaming along with the rest of the traffic at break neck speed, amazing.

We got to less than a mile from the Mexican border & the roads on the GPS basically disappeared, so we turned off the freeway & headed back towards San Diego.

Around 3pm saw a group of accommodation places, decided to give them a go, had to juggle the off lane of 4 into 3, then lanes either side merging so 6 lanes back into 3, then they ended up going every which way, so we ended up pulling in and choosing to stay at La Quinta. Again, expensive, but what the heck!

Will go for a quick walk later on, but not sure if there is anything around here to see.

On Santa Barbara Blvd following a lovely tea (Sunday night)

Just a bit bruised !!!

The coast road out of Santa Barbara - hundreds of RV's lined up for mile after mile after mile

The market gardens on the outskirts of LA

Coast road on the way to Malibu, fog still hanging around

Lots of gum trees everywhere

Beautiful bougainvillea all along the freeways

House in Malibu - looks like a dolls house

Other homes (& the gum trees) in Malibu

Storage place, again, beautifully painted

A couple of miles to the Mexican (Int'l) Border

Turning off to find accommodation

Up & away - thru FOG again

After a restless night (surprise surprise) we woke up to - you guessed it - white everywhere. Couldn't even see up to the restuarant. We had decided not to leave early if it was foggy, & breakfast wasn't served till 8am, so we took it easy & headed out about 10am. Ken's foot is very bruised & very sore, but we were able to rub, bandage it and then he got his boots on OK. Not too much pain, the boot definitely helps.

Conditions were pretty much the same as yesterday, temp was 58F & cool but bearable (just). Riding along we were occasionally able to see the coast & just prior to San Simeon we saw several goups of Elephant Seals. They were spread out on the sand, a couple were in the water, & looked very big.

Being very close to sea level, it once registered 42 feet above, the cold remained. As we went inland the temp rose noticeably, it got up to 94F- lovely.

Back on the coast road again, going through Cambria the temp dropped, and the fog rolled in. Despite that everynow & then it cleared & we had a good view of the countryside. It appears to be predominately a wine growing area.

We followed the freeway through Santa Rosa, Santa Lucia and then came into Santa Barbara to find a motel. Ken is starting to feel his foot again, so don't want to push our luck. Will rest up, relax & head off to LA tomorrow. That's the resturant up there

and our room down there (somewhere!)

The Elephant Seals at the Rookery

On our way, fog still rolling inView from the road...

- not much different to yesterday

Inland - & the fogs gone!

Nice big rock

Back down to the coast - fog rolls in (approx 1pm)

3 bridges side by side - road, rail & road - all still being used