Chapter 10: The Aussies on their Own

Damian and Brendan ride California on their own

John Parry had a prearranged family holiday, we knew this in our planning, says Damian, so we booked 10 days accommodation in West Lakes.

The first few days we explored local Canyon rides, Los Angeles, Hollywood, and  Venus Beach.

We followed up with Santa Monica Pier visit we had arranged at Oasis in Death Valley. The officer we met in the pool came through and created a police escort that lead us out onto the pier for a wonderful experience.

Brendan and I were getting restless at the Motel, so we said “Let’s go exploring" but we didn’t know where we would end up.

We headed to Sherman Pass and went over West to East, then up 395 again, to Mammoth Mountain and Lake, where we did another loop off the 395 around another lake then headed to Lee Vining. At Lee Vining we kept heading North to Bridport then over Sonora Pass (this was Brendan’s favorite road) where we then headed to Yosemite National Park, (that place is beautiful, a true treasure). I can’t remember where we stayed but from Yosemite we headed to San Francisco.

We did the Golden Gate Bridge, Alice's Café, riding La Honda and other great roads working our way to Pacific Coast Highway 1. We knew there was a landslide that had closed it down past Big Sur, so we took our time riding down, taking in the great views and coastline. We got to the closure and turned back.

Because there was hardly any traffic Brendan and I may have set the quickest ride time ever from Big Sur to Monterey. We stayed in Monterey then headed down to West Lakes. We turned off the 101 and rode 166 and 33 (great riding) back to our motel.

The last day was spent washing the bikes, putting them in storage and a Taxi ride to LAX for our 15-hour flight back to Melbourne.

What a Trip, made even better traveling with great company and seeing so much in the 6 weeks.I can’t thank enough this team of guys who helped put this together

WE WILL BE BACK!

The ride across the USA for Damian and Brendan was 7,255 miles which they completed in 27 days with a little help from their friends. We look forward to riding with them again!