Day 3 - Casa Del Sol, Santa Barbara

The weather was still pretty grim when we woke up and prepared to head to Los Angeles. We were not expecting a long day in the saddle as we were meeting up with Larry, a good friend of Jorik’s that I have also know for many years, who lives in Culver City. There was no need to hang around in Santa Barbara and I was looking forward to the ride along the PCH through Malibu. We didn’t get any rain, but it was really grey, and the light wasn’t great as we headed towards the east. It was a shame as I am sure that the coastline is spectacular along this southern coast of California. Besides, isn’t always supposed to be sunny in California? It looks like we got a crappy window with shite weather, but I suppose there is no controlling the weather, and at least it wasn’t raining!

Passing through Malibu was a little bit of let down for me. We did see some fabulous houses, but there were also some pretty run-down parts of Malibu. The celebrities and rich folk must have a separate access road that heads to the swanky part of Malibu, or we just simply missed it. I’m not saying that it is a not a beautiful part of the world, just that it was a little underwhelming. So much so that we didn’t even stop for a few pictures. I suppose the fact that the light wasn’t great didn’t help to show off what I was expecting to be a bit of highlight along the California stretch of our ride. We arrived in Santa Monica in relatively good time and headed for the famous Santa Monica Pier. As we took the turn off for the Pier, we realised that the turn off took us directly into a car park, which it turned out cost $15 per day for bike. As there was no way we were going to pay that kind of money, we passed through the car park and headed down to Venice Beach, again a famous location that I’m pleased to be able to tick off the list. However, the homeless people, cracked sidewalks and roads, and the general sense of neglect is pretty much everywhere. There were still quite a few tourists about, but the experience left me less than impressed. We pulled into a great little dive bar called the Hinano Café just off the promenade along Venice Beach for a bite to eat. We had great burgers for about $10 and spent an hour or so watching the people go by. Pretty cool little chill out spot. Larry had let us know that he wouldn’t be home until around 6pm so we had the afternoon to chill out and have a look around town. We also had a fair bit of admin to do, what with downloading footage, updating the route maps, expenditure, blog, and all the other shite jobs that need doing to keep the machine working, so we had a ride around the area for a bit and then found ourselves a base of operations in a local brewery. We spent the rest of the afternoon beavering away in very friendly atmosphere with WI-FI and a great location along Main Street, Santa Moncia called the Library Alehouse.

We headed off to catch up with Larry for 6pm. Larry and Jorik go way back and whilst I have met Larry on a few occasions, I certainly don’t know him as well as Jorik does. All of my memories with Larry are from party occasions, such as weddings, trips overseas, and in pubs. So we have always been in a good space when we have met. However, Larry has turned to the dark side and started doing Iron Man events. He is super fit, doesn’t drink alcohol, and Jorik mentioned that we might have to pop out to grab a few beers when we get to his place. Whilst it was fantastic to catch up with Larry when we arrived, and a massive thanks for the opportunity to park our bikes in the secure garage within his apartment building, we did have to pop out for beers. Larry’s gorgeous wife, Shannon cooked us a fantastic, and I must emphasise, a fantastic home cooked meal of pot roast, shrimp, veggies, and potatoes with a salad.  Shannon prepares recipes and does a food blog, check it out at “Fit Slow Cooker Queen” on Facebook. We spent a fun evening with them and then crashed out at around 10pm expecting a long ride the next day down to San Deigo to get the battery sorted on my bike, the boarder crossing into Mexico, and then down to Ensenada for our first night in Baja.