WELCOME TO NORTH AMERICA     (Siberia, china and Japan to follow)

After a two week wait in Arizona courtesy of our hosts Al and Julie Jesse we flew into Los Angeles to pick up our bikes from the Shipping Agent. And prior to picking up the bikes we were presented with an unexpected bill of $640.00 dollars summarised later by Al Jesse with a rye grin “Welcome to America”

The following day after unpacking the bikes I awoke early and decided to have a ride and reacquaint my self with Sir Alex my bike. I decided to ride down to Venice beach located about 12 kilometers away from our hotel. I arrived to find the beach prepped in anticipation of the forth coming storms. Large manmade sand dunes had been positioned on the beach to prevent the high tide crashing into the nearby beach houses. Teenage girls where skating up and down the promenade and middle aged men where playing hand-ball on the small courts positioned only yards from beach front, this could have been a scene from Baywatch except there was no Pamela Anderson!

To the northern end of the car park I notice three fire engines positions in a line with their noses pointed seaward. Fireman in bright yellow waterproof coveralls were conducting drills with hoses which included running up and down ladders in teams of two whilst the senior members stood bye assessing their performance. How the memories came flooding back as only a 18 months previous I was doing the same as part of the work-up preparations for active sea duty on board a nuclear submarine.

I parked my bike in front of the fire teams and it wasn’t long before we where chatting and taking pictures and as it turned out the senior fireman where also members and organisers of their own fire department motorcycle club. Jo a senior member of the group invited me and Monika to their fund raising ride out in Los Angeles in May 2003. What an honour to be part of such a special occasion and to have been asked to participate and how nice we have something like this to look forward to.

I returned back to the hotel to meet Monika and to pack the bikes I told Monika about the fire teams on Venice beach and Monika said she would like to meet them and so we set off back to beach which was also to be the official start of Phase two of our world record challenge, “Coast to Coast and state one of the available land locked 49.

Monika and I arrived at the beach to see that the fireman had departed but we had attracted the attention of cyclist who was riding towards us  He started following our bikes on his bike shouting HEY MAN PULLOVER LETS DIG THE WHEELS!!! . I was so mesmerised by his presence that I managed by accident to ride over a beach ramp the wrong way!  Normally this would not be a problem except the ramps in Los Angeles are not designed to just stop you but actually impale you and that is exactly what happens. A swish of high pressure hair confirmed the worst I had incurred two large holes and a instant flat front tyre. By the time I pulled up with my flat tyre this guy was all over us, singing and dancing in a Indian war dance!! I must point out this was not midnight it was In fact 10 am. I was trying to be angry with this guy but he was so funny and such a character that I just sat there with puncture kit in hand in fits of laughter. He was willing  to help me fix the puncture but I politely declined. I couldn’t do anything except read his tattoos which encompassed 90% of his body.

He introduced him self as Wild George and his home was Venice beach, he made it perfectly clear we could stay on his beach as long as we wanted to, he even offered us some Vodka............ How the memories of Russia, Ukraine, came flooding back!!.  We chatted for ten minutes before he made his excuses and departed but not before he sang us a final song to wish us good luck. What a perfect way to start the USA leg of our world tour, the best thing about over landing is that everyday is so different irrespective of location.

Simon and Monika next update will be early February as we are going to relax on the Baja Mexico, something we have not done since Odessa in the Ukraine. Happy new year.