The Americas: Heading South

Much Excitement as today was the first day of our ride.

We unpacked all of the stuff that I had left packed in the panniers in 2015, discarded the things that were no longer required and packed leanly to ensure that we only took the things we needed as space is obviously at a premium!! Max doesn’t know what it means to “pack lightly” so the Fat Girl is perhaps heftier than she usually is. Add to this 2 not insubstantial males and my poor BMW is in for a cumbersome 3 weeks!!

The route today is a short, 2 hour ride from San Diego to Santa Monica in Los Angeles where we will be spending 2 nights on the beach.

The weather was cool and overcast, perfect riding weather until we hit the famed LA traffic to navigate for the last half hour. One would think that being a Sunday, this wouldn’t be the case but it looked and felt like any other Monday Morning!

We are staying at a great hotel called Shutters on the beach with views onto the sand, sea and famed Santa Monica Pier. The rest of our day was spent exploring, having an early dinner followed by a movie before bed.

Our 2 hour ride up the coast today.

As is customary with any jetlag, we were up at 04h00 unable to lie in bed anymore. We dressed, and went for breakfast at 06h30 as we were both excited about collecting the bike since its been 2 years since I last saw it.

We collected the fat girl from BMW Motorad San Diego at about 09h30. The bike had an extensive service due to the fact that there was a drive shaft seal leak which had developed some time over the last 2 years whilst she sat in storage, which meant that the bike had to be split in two! This resulted in a $3500 bill for service, tyres, brakes and repairs!! Not wishing to allow the eye watering service costs to dampen the spirit, we set off feeling elated about the upcoming trip and the fact that we were experiencing the wind in our faces again coupled with the anticipation of the upcoming adventure.

San Diego is a lovely town, albeit perhaps a little on the sleepy side insofar as American cities go. Saturday afternoon was spent considering where to get the best burger in San Diego. After some research, it was decided that we would head for FiveGuys, a popular and highly rated burger joint. Google maps showed one about 3 kilometres away so decided to take a stroll to see the city until we strolled right into Logan Heights, the worst part of town, and decided to hurriedly call for an uber as the surroundings started to look particularly worrisome and potentially threatening!! Safely ensconced in our Uber, we arrived at where Google maps said the burger joint was only to realise that this particular shop is set inside the restricted navy base that the public is not allowed access too!! An hour after we had initially set our sights on a FiveGuys burger, we were now determined to find one so a 20 minute uber schlep to the next closest shop on the other side of town, and there we were!! Well what to say, this blog is no food crit but FiveGuys you need to seriously up your game as we both felt nauseous and sick after a cheeseburger and some fries, and frankly would sooner have gone to McD’s, such was the disappointment!!

We had dinner reservations for Nobu that evening, needless to say, the combo of the FiveGuys stomach churn and the jetlag meant that we smashed some sushi, a beer and were out of Nobu in a record 30 minutes!!

Max landed at Heathrow at 06h30. I was there to collect him for our “13h30” flight so we knew that we were in for a little bit of a wait. What I didn’t realise is that the flight was 3:30pm and not 13h30 as I had it in my mind so we spent the time browsing (not shopping as we have no carrier space on the bike) the multitude of the Terminal 5 stores.

The thing with an 11 hour flight west is that the flight is in a constant state of daytime which plays havoc with ones body clock. That time is wiled away sleeping, watching too many movies and eating too much aeroplane food, all of which add to a difficult jet lag recovery! We landed in San Diego at 8pm local time (5am body clock time) and we were both immediately hit with a second wind that lasted all of about 0.5 seconds and just enough time to check in at the Hard Rock Hotel, unpack and collapse in a heap.

Max and I are both excited about the upcoming trip and the opportunity to spend some time together catching up.

Its been exactly 2 years since I parked the BMW up in San Diego and updated this blog. Its also Max’s birthday again although he turns 16 today! Happy Birthday my boy.

I mentioned in my previous post that I had so enjoyed my ride across the US in 2015 that I was deliberating over whether to head back down into Central and South America as planned or whether to continue to spend a few more years exploring North America. Well, after 2 years of debating this, I have chosen the latter and have been planning out what to still see and do over the coming years, commencing tomorrow!! I guess that this decision makes the title of this chapter of my Cape To Cairo blog, “heading South” a little superfluous now!! Ah well! What to do!

Max and I are picking the bike up from BMW Motorad in San Diego, who have been incredibly helpful in getting the old girl spiffed up and ready for the 3000 mile ride that we are going to be doing over the next 3 weeks.

One of our previous Epic road trips…

We will be making our way up the west coast to Seattle with an essential detour to Vegas (every 16 year old young man MUST visit Vegas with his dad first! No?) amongst a few other “must see” places on route.

Max and I are super excited about being together and the upcoming adventure, as he is as mad about bikes as I am. I seriously hope that this can become an annual Dad/Max thing going into the future as touring like this has no real age limitations.

Our upcoming route…

Before I close off this post it is important to thank Maurice who has so kindly provided the storage and safety for the bike for the last two years. I am very grateful Maurice and thank you again so much.

Happy Birthday Maxi Boy.

Today was all about getting the bike stored away. I was very fortunate that some friends of mine have family that own a large warehouse in San Diego, and offered to hold onto the bike for the foreseeable future until the time for the next trip. That meant that today was my last day of riding which took me from LA down the coast to San Diego along the beautiful but busy coastal road.

Maurice, thank you for your generosity and agreeing to hold onto the bike. She is happily stored away in a small, dry and warm room and will no doubt be safely cared for.

Home for the foreseeable future.

I mentioned at the outset of this trip that the purpose of taking the bike cross country to LA was to position her to ultimately head back into Central and South America however, I have so enjoyed this ride through the US that I am debating whether I continue to spend the next couple of years exploring the US further before heading South. I have said it before, the US is truly a world in one country and the more time I spend here, so the more I love the place, its people, its culture and its quirks. America, thank you for your wonderful hospitality.

Rui Nobre

Los Angeles, USA. 15 June 2015

Happy Birthday my Peta.

Our last riding day.   So because we spent an extra night in Vegas(!) and had to be in LA by midday, AND still wanted to do Death Valley on route, meant that we had a 730km run to do and so working backwards, had us leaving the hotel at 4:30am to ensure that this was doable!

The effects of the night of the 26th were still not fully worn off, so riding out of Vegas at 4:30 into the heart of the hottest place in the USA, is not an experience I would recommend or repeat again! That said, Death Valley is a MUST for every motorcyclist. This is the second time I have travelled this road and it impressed me more now than it did then with its sheer beauty, notwithstanding its 43C temperature at 6:30am!

Leaving Nevada, entering California.

We stopped at a little roadside diner in the heart of death valley in a small town called Panamint Springs where breakfast was a greasy serving of bacon, eggs (or something that vaguely resembled eggs) the best flapjacks ever (as only the US can make them) and a gallon of coffee! We were then right as rain and the balance of the trip was fast, cool and uneventful until we hit the notorious LA traffic and crept the last 20km’s to the hotel after dropping Rupert’s rental off.

Rupert’s family has arrived in LA so the rest of the day was spent lazing with them whilst I started the laborious process of cleaning and packing and getting the bike ready for storage for the next couple of years.

Our 730km Days ride.

It was supposed to be just 2 nights in Vegas. It was 3. Don’t ask!

As awesome as Vegas is, my personal experience is that one is largely kept within the confines of your hotel, but I guess that this is purposefully designed to keep your dollars within their net. Don’t get me wrong, these are vast palaces of pleasure and the more pleasurable, so the more successful! The Bellagio is vast with 2, 30 storey hotel towers, some 10 restaurants, 5 bars, 5 nightclubs, multiple swimming pools, a massive casino (duh), high end retail stores (Hermes, Gucci etc) and cafes wherever you turn. The website doesn’t quote it but I would guess some 100,000sqm of entertainment space on the ground floor alone excluding the hotel towers! who needs to go outside?? The temperatures outside during the day are in the low to mid 40C’s, and at night they plummet to about 39C so leaving the air-conditioned comfort of your hotel, ever, is just not a pleasant experience…but like I said, this is only my personal and limited opinion!

We had great plans of having a big night on the Thursday of our arrival but by 10:30pm, we were falling asleep over steak and wine. Party Animals!

The Friday the 26th saw us be lazy, walk around a little (inside the hotel) and then whilst we had big plans of leaving Vegas early on the morning of the 27th to head through Death Valley on route to LA, the only thing that happened on the morning of the 27th was the lamenting misery of the whisky and cigars the night before! Saturday 27 was very very quiet!

Sedona is fantastic. I could move my family there, and so it was with some disappointment that we set out at 7am this morning for what turned out to be a very long but interesting day. Route 89A out of Sedona is considered one of the 20 best rides in the USA. It is only some 30km but just super incredible.

Beautiful Sedona.

We were headed for Vegas via the Grand Canyon Skywalk that Jax and I had visited back in 2013, and decided to make a last minute turn to a different location on the Canyon. Having been to both locations on the South Rim, whilst the skywalk benefits from the spin of a marketing budget, I’m afraid it doesn’t come close to the vistas one gets at the Grand Canyon Village, not to mention that the costs are a fraction of those of the Skywalk!

The detour added some 200km to our ride today so we ended up doing 670km and only getting into Vegas at 17:30 at what felt like peak heat of 47C (117F). Arriving for check in at the Bellagio is always a treat and getting off our bikes seriously sweaty and smelly after 12 hours and 670km resulted in “those looks” from the bell hops that suggest we are at the wrong place! Too funny!

Days 670km ride.

Anyway, we are now here for 2 nights and looking forward to resting up a little as Rup and I have covered 3550km since New Orleans in just 6 days.

We spent a fantastic evening at a small hotel called Molly Butler Lodge in Greer last night. It only has 3 rooms but it was fantastic!! The bar and restaurant is the centre of this very small town where everybody congregates and the bar and music went on well into the evening after we had retired!!

Days ride…

Today was another fantastic ride off the beaten track on route 260 west from Greer to the I17 towards Sedona. Greer is surprisingly at an altitude of 2700m and so the bulk of the ride was cool and the route was a winding road through the Apache-Sitgreaves national forest until we came down from altitude and the temps soared into the early 40c’s!! It was like wading through molasses!!

We got into Sedona where we are spending the night at about 2pm and staying at a small hotel in the middle of town. This place is spectacular.

Outskirts of Sedona.

Our original itinerary had us heading up to Santa Fe today however, after the disappointment of route 285 yesterday, we elected instead to head west towards Arizona. Route 70 and then 380 west from Roswell through Lincoln county was a fantastic stretch of motorcycling road and one that gives you a proper feel of typical Americana.

A lot of towns on route towards Arizona have not been able to survive financially and have fallen into an almost ghost town state of repair which were super interesting to see as they are a real throwback to yesteryear.

Our 550km ride today..

The Karl G. Jansky very large Array in New Mexico. This featured in the 1997 Jodie Foster movie “Contact”.

Pie Town on route 70. One of the towns bordering on Ghost town.

Pie Town again.

Entering Arizona.

We are spending the night in a little town called Greer just inside the eastern edge of Arizona off route 260 and will be heading for the Grand Canyon tomorrow.