Speedy Gonzales...

Thursday July 17th was as hot and sunny as usual in SoCal. One is NEVER allowed to be blue. One must ALWAYS grin and flex ones perfectly honed muscles built on some Flexerciser and display perfect teeth as one displays boundless energy derived from some product sold out of "Golden Glow". Blow that for a lark. I was desperate to wake up with a slight hangover from a screaming good night at the pub and see a bit of drizzle soaking the shoppers in anoraks... ding...rant over.

It was a rush to leave the Riverside base-camp and with just 10 minutes to leave Jacqueline decided she wanted to come and see Havasu and the Grand Canyon too. Within 10 minutes she had reorganised things and grabbed a few clothes and was ready for the off. What a whizz-kid.

We made good time down to Irvine and rolled onto the pavement outside the Sage offices just minutes before Greg Goldstein rolled up on his super-duper, mile-munching, crowd-killer Kawasaki 1400cc Concord. Fully kitted, this is the machine a SENSIBLE biker would do 15,000 miles on around the States. Good thing I'm not sensible.

We ogled Chad Gardner's chromed and flamed Harley. I think Chad has done a very tasteful job on this bike and the throw-back acknowledgement to the great hot-rods of America (I love those hot-rods) is excellent. How fitting that a PT Cruiser slid past as I snapped a pic!

As we lined up for photos two Sage chaps joined us with their bikes. Vimal Reynolds has the Suzuki Gixxer 750 (ultimate sportsbike choice?) and Jason Whittaker the superb handling Suzuki SV650. Linda Brizendine came past as did other Sage staff and all wished us well. Chad and Greg talked shop and we hit the road for San Diego. Greg popped a beautiful power wheelie on the on-ramp to the I5 and I could hear that big bike's power. Of course I was going to wheelie too but Jax would have ended on the tarmac...

Just as Greg had told me, just 10 miles down the road as we neared the coast the air temp dropped about 10 degrees and it was very pleasant. We rode briskly (ahem) and were soon enjoying some really good mexican food in La Jolla. After lunch we sat on Greg's bike and man that thing is a home away from home! Thanks for the support Greg. We'll ride again.

We hit the Mexican border soon after and in the chaos and traffic I missed Jax urgent signals to take the last-chance u-turn. Into Mexico we went against everyone's good advice. The Mexican border guard was helpful and we entered Tijuana for 5 minutes. Our hurried snapshots at the queue do not reflect the 1.2 miles we rode to get to this Mardi Gras scene! WOW! The roads are terrible, the signposting worse, the chaos absolute and the vehicles decidedly dodgy looking. We scooted back to the border past endless queues of waiting cars. A not-terribly-pleased official of the USA (Jax had no passport as we had agreed NOT to enter Mexico...I plead a single brain cell) begrudgingly let us in "this time"... as if I'll ever do that again!!!!

We looked at the border motels but Jax was not comfortable at the scene (clueless here would have stayed in a bark-roofed adobe hut and been oblivious to street gangs!) so we whipped a little further away from the border and found a delightfully clean hotel up in Chula Vista. Thanks Jax! Your street-smart was invaluable! Tomorrow we were set for London England...