Tue 17 Jul - Drove the car to the Eaglerider depot and picked up the Harley. Turns out to be the shiniest, biggest, whiteist, gayist Harley ever - cool! Leave excess baggage with the bike shop (and keeping Kym) we drop off the car with Alamo and ride out of town through Malibu. Ride through a weird Dutch village called Solvang that looks like a huge tourist trap and stay in Lompoc where we have genuine Eniglish fish & chips and a Guinness.

Wed 18 Jul - Ride up through the very famous Big Sur on Highway 1. The summer fog produces some stunning views and tempreature changes as we scrape the big Harley round the corners and up and down the hills. Stop to look at a load of seals at one viewpoint and watch an awesome police escort (six bikes, four marked cars and six unmarked cars) sweep out of the car park - and in the middle were 4 blokes on their Harleys - was Arnie out for a ride today as well? Stay in Salinas and begin negociations for accomodation this weekend - things aren't looking good.

Thu 19 Jul - Book oursleves into a dodgy Motel run by a very a friendly asian chap. By booking in for 4 nights we take out a bit of the sting of Friday & Saturday night rates being upped massively for the Grand Prix weekend. After that has been sorted we scoot off and visit the Pinnacles National Park. Still manage to ride 150 miles on a supposedly "easy" day and Kym finding pillion on a Harley not as comfy as a sportsbike.

Fri 20 Jul - Moto GP - Practice Day - Ride to the Laguna Seca circuit and buy a 3 day pass which is cheaper than a single raceday pass in rip-off Britain. Casey Stoner (Ducati) going very fast all day. Visit nearby poncy Monterey afterwards and they have shut down the restaraunt sector on the harbour front just so the bikes can park up and pose - there is loads of sportsbikes and customs and everyone seems to get on regardless what they've turned up on. They all seem a bit too well behaved though!

Sat 21 Jul - Moto GP - Qualifying Day - Casey Stoner still looks uncatchable to me and the guy with stopwatch. Stunning AMA Supersport race. Kymbo kept awake by lower class of biker smoking outside our room who were complaining about poor quality of local prostitutes.

Sun 22 Jul - Moto GP - Raceday - Day starts off with embarrasingly patriotic singing of US national anthem - we never bother standing for our own so we are almost viewed as Islaamic extremists sat on the grass. In the main race - suprise! Casey Stoner in a class of his own and wins. AMA Superbike race livens things up when unemployed British rider turns up and battles for a podium despite not having ridden for 9 months.

Mon 23 Jul - Ride up Highway 1 towards San Francisco and across Golden Gate Bridge. Stay in very tranquil hostel just north of the bridge itself. Collection of guests could be straight out of "Murder with Miss Marple". Might just be that we're sober as hostel has banned alcohol.

Tue 24 Jul - Find out half the guests are from film unit making a film called "Etienne And His Dying Gerbil" and sure enough main character is riding a bicycle with a gerbil in a little enclosed excercise wheel on the front. Main character also sporting huge 'tache and tight cycling shorts - we decide life is too strange sober and ride north through a little town called Bodega (Hitchcock filmed "The Birds" there back in the 60's and the school & church are still there) and then up through Mendocino (where Angela Lansbury pretended she was in Cape Cod and starred in "Murder She Wrote"). Northern California is very different to "SoCal" - all little hick villages in the forests. Stop off in Fort Bragg.

Wed 25 Jul - Before we leave we stop off at the Glass Beach in Fort Bragg. They used to just tip their waste into the sea years ago and all that's left is the glass. Its probably prettier in the sunshine (days start foggy in the morning in summer) but its nevertheless stunning to see most of the "pebbles" are in fact shards of glass smoothed to weird shapes. A couple of more miles north and the Highway turns inland and into glorious sunshine. We ride through the Avenue of the Giants - a twisting highway through a grove of massive Redwoods - on the bike its like Star Wars on the hovver bikes riding at a solid wall of trees and waiting for the road to open up. Stay in serious hippy town where everywhere grows their own weed. The local radio apparently warns local people when the Federal planes are coming to spray crops from the air, apparently the local State officials cannot be arsed to police this particular law. As a back up most people grow indoors as well judging by the equipment being sold in the local shops. Had a very nice "hippy night" in the bar that night.

Thu 26 Jul - Start southwards on the faster, straighter and more inland Highway 101. Ride through the famous wine growing Napa Valley - unfortunately its also seriously expensive and we have to ride on through the oppressive heat to Santa Rosa before we find a cheap Motel. Bit hot and fed up today.

Fri 27 Jul - Go to Callistiga and watch Old Faithful Geyser squirt its stuff - its namesake in Yellowstone is bigger but its still good. Struggled to find cheap hotels / motels in this area they can double / triple their advertised rates on Friday and Saturday nights!

Sat 28 Jul - Ride through San Francisco and back across the Golden Gate Bridge. Ride along the apparently famous Skyline Boulevard and have a race with a Ferrari 328 and a Ducati 1098. The Ferrari lost and the Ducati won but lost some pride to our big old tank. Had lunch at Alice's Restaraunt which is to local petrolheads what Box Hill is to locals south of London. Went back to Salinas and did some serioius hard negociating in a town now reduced to ghost town a week after Moto GP circus has left town.

Sun 29 Jul - Rode south down Highway 1 again and again captivated by awesomely beautiful scenery and cloud formations - it justs looks like you can walk off the cliff edge onto them. Drive inland to Paso Robles and bump into hotel price fever - the local show is on and everyone has trebled their rates DESPITE being only one third booked - they are nutters! My planned detour to see James Dean's fatal crash site is canned as we head towards a reputedley cheaper area. Santa Maria is full of cheap hotels and our hotel owner used to work in Melton Mowbray for Pedigree Pet Foods it appears.

Mon 30 Jul - Drive inland from Santa Maria up through stunning biking roads up onto the very hot plains and then south past a big bush fire to meet the cost again. We stay at up-market Santa Barbara and watch a beautiful sunset over the harbour with people who clearly had a tiny, tiny, tiny bit more money than us!

Tue 31 Jul - Ride the final leg back to Los Angeles taking a detour over the Mulhullond Highway where Elvis used to race his mates on Harleys back in the 50's. Scenery is stunning and even more so when you realise you are only 30 miles from dowtown LA. We tried to find the old film set where they filmed MASH but talking to a park ranger it was a 3 mile round hike and as much as I'd like to have seen a rusty jeep and a couple of fraying tents we had plane to catch. Returned the bike to Eaglerider, repacked our stuff from the panniers of the bike back into our backpacks and got a taxi ride to the airport and our date with Fiji!!