We left Vegas at 10 am on the 10th day into the trip (Saturday, October 30th). This was going to be fairly short day by our recent standards, only 400 something kilometers to San Diego.
300 km later, we stopped in San Bernardino to pick up our new tires. Chapparral Racing is by far the largest motorcycle dealership I've ever been to, it's a freakin Walmart for bikers. Tons of bikes and gear on display. I actually had to take a picture, because the store is really impressive.
We also bumped into another bike from New Zealand there. Brian and Joanne have been travelling all over the USA on their BMW 1200GS for the past 6 months, and were just finishing off their trip in California. It's always fun to exchage with other travellers. Weather was great too, 30+ deg. C, sunny and dry. In Montreal, I'm a sweaty mess above 25 deg. C (humidity), but here 30 deg. C felt just right, especially after several cold days on the road.
We arrived in San Diego (actually, Chula Vista, which is the southern part of town, only 3 miles from the border with Mexico) just before 7 pm. The last 100 something km's were all 6 lane (in each direction!) highway, with up to 9 lanes in certain places. Everyone drives at 120+ km/h, lots of cars, and the many embranchments made the navigation a little difficult. I didn't enjoy that part of the ride (our bikes are a little slow for that), but the highways are impressive for sure. Even Toronto does not compare.
Our hosts in Chula Vista were John and Lisa. They are both members of a known motorcycle forum called Adventure Rider, which Mihai and I have been reading for years. The forum has a section called ''tent space'', where members can offer accommodation to other travelling motorcyclists. Since we needed a bit of time to do some maintenance on the bikes (oil change, new tires, chain and sprockets, etc..) and I thought it would be cool to hang out with someone local, I contacted John through the website 2 weeks before leaving Montreal (he had signed up in the ''tent space'' section) to see if he would be willing to have us over for 2 days. John and his wife Lisa gave us the green light, so here were were at their door step in Chula Vista.
The days in San Diego were fun, even if we were busy from morning till night, and ended up running out of time to explore the town a bit. We were complete strangers, and our hosts welcomed us and treated us like good friends and we had a good time hanging out together (thanks again, guys!).
We spent the morning of the first day in Chula Vista to shop around for the few items we were unable to score in Vegas. Mihai wanted to look for a new pair of motorcycle pants (a specific brand and model), since his current ones don't fit well (so baggy that he looks like he looks like a skater). It makes sense: you want to be comfortable in gear you will be riding in for several months at once. There are a few bike shops in the area, but none of them carries the brand. So no success on that day :/
The afternoon was spent installing new tires and chain and sprocket kit on my bike, and that was pretty much it for that day. Dinner with our hosts and we were in bed early.
We started day 2 by servicing Mihai's DR. Everything went smoothly, until all there was left was the front tire installation at around lunchtime. For some reason, the bead on the damn thing would not sit no matter what we tried (sorry, getting a little technical here...). We wasted another hour messing around with it, and then took a break to go back shopping. We got back to Mihai's front wheel late afternoon, but again, no success and much frustration. Dinner and chit chat with our hosts, and we're off to bed.
We are now into our 3rd day in San Diego, and I've finally caught up with the blog. In the morning, we gave up and Mihai took off to a nearby bike shop to get his tire installed. However, an hour and 20$ later, the dealer didn't do any better than us the day before, so we're back to square one. At least it felt good to know that our amateurism wasn't at fault..lol. We will just leave it as is for now.
Getting back to the pants, the only shop that had them in stock is in Los Angeles (approx. 200 km north from here). Mihai would have got them yesterday, but most bike shops are closed in California on Mondays. Sundays are good business for motorcycle stores, so the employees get the following day to go out and ride. So at 11:30 am this morning, Mihai took off to LA to get the pants, whereas I finally had a few hours to write and post some pictures. Keeping this thing up to date will take some effort. Just like with homework back in the days, it is so easy to procrastinate. But I have to say, we have truly been busy so far and had not much spare time at all (except in Moab, where on the only quiet evening, I gave up on the blog in favour of whiskey..lol).
Tomorrow we will finally be in Mexico. The closest crossing from here is in Tijuana, but John has advised to us to go a little further east to Tecate. Apparently, the border post is much smaller and, unlike Tijuana, has little traffic. So the next update will be from somewhere in the Baja. Can't wait to be there!
Random Thoughts:
Some of my buddies have previously visited the San Diego area and really liked it here, so once again I'll be leaving a place where I wish I had more time to hang out it in. I guess this will happening often during this trip... 6 months might seem long, but it is not considering how much ground we have to cover.
I'm in California and I have no swimming trunks. I went to a Walmart close by, and they only had three left over XXL pairs. Wtf?
We've had the best burritos in a long time, in a shop close by to Lisa and John's. Looking forward to more mexican food (I have my Cispro and Immodium pills and my E.colli vaccine taken, so hopefully things will not get too nasty ;)
An abandonned gas station in the Mojave desert, somewhere along hwy 15 between Vegas and San Diego
300 km later, we stopped in San Bernardino to pick up our new tires. Chapparral Racing is by far the largest motorcycle dealership I've ever been to, it's a freakin Walmart for bikers. Tons of bikes and gear on display. I actually had to take a picture, because the store is really impressive.
There was another section just as big as this, with thousands of tires. I didn't get a photo of that, though.
We arrived in San Diego (actually, Chula Vista, which is the southern part of town, only 3 miles from the border with Mexico) just before 7 pm. The last 100 something km's were all 6 lane (in each direction!) highway, with up to 9 lanes in certain places. Everyone drives at 120+ km/h, lots of cars, and the many embranchments made the navigation a little difficult. I didn't enjoy that part of the ride (our bikes are a little slow for that), but the highways are impressive for sure. Even Toronto does not compare.
Our hosts in Chula Vista were John and Lisa. They are both members of a known motorcycle forum called Adventure Rider, which Mihai and I have been reading for years. The forum has a section called ''tent space'', where members can offer accommodation to other travelling motorcyclists. Since we needed a bit of time to do some maintenance on the bikes (oil change, new tires, chain and sprockets, etc..) and I thought it would be cool to hang out with someone local, I contacted John through the website 2 weeks before leaving Montreal (he had signed up in the ''tent space'' section) to see if he would be willing to have us over for 2 days. John and his wife Lisa gave us the green light, so here were were at their door step in Chula Vista.
Working on the bikes at Lisa and John's place.
California baby! Palm trees right at your door step.
The days in San Diego were fun, even if we were busy from morning till night, and ended up running out of time to explore the town a bit. We were complete strangers, and our hosts welcomed us and treated us like good friends and we had a good time hanging out together (thanks again, guys!).
We spent the morning of the first day in Chula Vista to shop around for the few items we were unable to score in Vegas. Mihai wanted to look for a new pair of motorcycle pants (a specific brand and model), since his current ones don't fit well (so baggy that he looks like he looks like a skater). It makes sense: you want to be comfortable in gear you will be riding in for several months at once. There are a few bike shops in the area, but none of them carries the brand. So no success on that day :/
The afternoon was spent installing new tires and chain and sprocket kit on my bike, and that was pretty much it for that day. Dinner with our hosts and we were in bed early.
John's Triumph Speef Triple. What a bike... love it.
Lisa's classic BMW R80. These are getting hard to find.
We started day 2 by servicing Mihai's DR. Everything went smoothly, until all there was left was the front tire installation at around lunchtime. For some reason, the bead on the damn thing would not sit no matter what we tried (sorry, getting a little technical here...). We wasted another hour messing around with it, and then took a break to go back shopping. We got back to Mihai's front wheel late afternoon, but again, no success and much frustration. Dinner and chit chat with our hosts, and we're off to bed.
We are now into our 3rd day in San Diego, and I've finally caught up with the blog. In the morning, we gave up and Mihai took off to a nearby bike shop to get his tire installed. However, an hour and 20$ later, the dealer didn't do any better than us the day before, so we're back to square one. At least it felt good to know that our amateurism wasn't at fault..lol. We will just leave it as is for now.
Getting back to the pants, the only shop that had them in stock is in Los Angeles (approx. 200 km north from here). Mihai would have got them yesterday, but most bike shops are closed in California on Mondays. Sundays are good business for motorcycle stores, so the employees get the following day to go out and ride. So at 11:30 am this morning, Mihai took off to LA to get the pants, whereas I finally had a few hours to write and post some pictures. Keeping this thing up to date will take some effort. Just like with homework back in the days, it is so easy to procrastinate. But I have to say, we have truly been busy so far and had not much spare time at all (except in Moab, where on the only quiet evening, I gave up on the blog in favour of whiskey..lol).
Tomorrow we will finally be in Mexico. The closest crossing from here is in Tijuana, but John has advised to us to go a little further east to Tecate. Apparently, the border post is much smaller and, unlike Tijuana, has little traffic. So the next update will be from somewhere in the Baja. Can't wait to be there!
Mihai finally returns from LA with DA pants. Alleluiah!
With Lisa and John, on our last day at their place. Do these pants make my ass look fat? lol
Random Thoughts:
Some of my buddies have previously visited the San Diego area and really liked it here, so once again I'll be leaving a place where I wish I had more time to hang out it in. I guess this will happening often during this trip... 6 months might seem long, but it is not considering how much ground we have to cover.
I'm in California and I have no swimming trunks. I went to a Walmart close by, and they only had three left over XXL pairs. Wtf?
We've had the best burritos in a long time, in a shop close by to Lisa and John's. Looking forward to more mexican food (I have my Cispro and Immodium pills and my E.colli vaccine taken, so hopefully things will not get too nasty ;)
So where the hell are you tonight?
ReplyDeleteSan Felipe, buddy. Everything went well today, the 94 and the Tecate border crossing were just as you described them. Enjoying Mexico so far! Had some pollo, carne and pastera tacos tonight, hopefully my stomach can handle it :P
ReplyDeleteHey Pawel!! Just discovered your blog, what a brilliant idea you had!! Hope you have the adventure of a lifetime and I'm definitely going to follow you every step of the way. Have fun and enjoy every single moment!!
ReplyDeleteThanh
Thanks Thanh! Really enjoying it so far. I'll try to write here once a week, and maybe post some pics on FB too. Take care!
DeleteThis was going to be fairly short day by our recent standards, only 400 something kilometers to San Diego.
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