I gotta admit, it’s pretty hard to be inspired to write on my travel journal from the comfort of my apartment in Los Angeles! I’m writing this post a couple days late and will do my best to recall my journey from Santa Barbara to LA.
Before I left the dumpy residential community of Isla Vista where I spent four years of my college life, I got a burrito from free birds.
The prices have gone up like a buck fifty since I graduated a year and a half ago. Thanks Obama.
I was delighted to find that my good friend from school, Dillon, was free to ride today. This cool dude was the guy who actually taught me how to ride a motorcycle. In the parking lot of his apartment complex I putted around on his honda shadow 750. Never even crashed it! From that moment on I was hooked on motorcycling. Let’s see if I can find a video from my very first ride….
https://goo.gl/photos/DmFRMSgU7z9UcNev7
Couldn’t find the shifter ha! Good memories…
Anyhow after burrito times him and I set off heading south. Before we left town we made sure to get a photo with the front gate of our Alma mater.
We rode down the one all the way to Malibu. We then caught Latigo Canyon Road and cruised up to mullholland drive, more specifically the section of mullholland called the snake. I’ve ridden this road a handful of times and was thrilled to share it with a buddy.
Out of the frame of the photo is a very famous, very cambered, and very tight turn. There are many videos of dudes on very shiny sport bikes crashing out here after leaning just a little bit too far.
There was another rider on this section of road who was going back and forth carving it up. He may have gone both directions 10 times since we got there.
These are the only two photos we got that kinda show the turn. On the side going downhill there is a frowny face, and a happy face on the uphill side. Uphill turns are more enjoyable than downhill. Far easier to get yourself in a bad position hitting hard downhill turns.
Eventually we rode through the snake ourselves and we didn’t even crash! Dillon and I parted ways at the 101 in Calabasas. It was great being able to finally share a portion of my PNW motorcycle tour!
I then was trapped on the 101 in rush hour traffic. I was happy to be able to lane split, California is the only state where it is legal. I’ll admit I was splitting a bit too quick, but I was beyond excited to get back to Leslie’s apartment on 3rd Street!
I made it back, in one piece, to the apartment. 24 days on the road, thousands of miles, and I only crashed my bike a few times!
I haven’t calculated how many miles I’ve done yet, but I’ll be sure to do that tomorrow. I’ll also do a writeup concerning my gear and how well it held up after being abused so heavily. My trip technically isn’t quite done yet, as I haven’t exactly returned to where I started. I will be heading back to brea in a few days… Though I’ll admit I am more than happy to just be sitting here for a bit!
Also I need time to spend time with zoe. Seriously look at her! How can you not wanna be here!