Tuesday 15 Jan
Yesterday was about acquainting ourselves with the bike and getting used to where we could put everything. Today was all about getting out on the open road with the sun on our backs and heading down the Pacific Coast Highway (which is like the Rimutakas with ocean and miles and miles of bends). Feeling like we had them to ourselves, the roads were perfect bike riding roads, with the sun shining on the Pacific to our right, seals frolicking on the shoreline and eagles soaring above. We spend the night in San Luis Obispo, a quaint city right at the end of Highway 1 South, and check into the Heritage Inn B&B, built in 1903 and having moved twice before it's present location at the intersection of Highways 1 and 101. All the rooms are filled with antiques, fireplaces and finishing touches and Georgia, our host, makes our stay a very homely one, lighting the open fire in the sitting room, to warm quite a chilly night, as we sit with our wine and home-made cookies.

Wednesday 16 Jan
After a hearty breakfast of egg and veggie pie and everything home-baked, we leave SLO and set off for Mojave on a route through the Sierra Madre Mountains and the Los Padres National Forest - a route suggested to us by Wolfgang. Although the sun is shining when we set off, the air is quite cold but manageable but, by the time we are heading east and we get to Cuyama with the mountains to our right, the sun has disappeared into a cold mist and we have to stop to add more layers and change to thicker gloves. But it's not long before the sun is out again although the temperature still remains pretty low as we head off into the mountains. There are still small pockets of snow on the ground at the side of the road and evidence of recent flooding but nothing to hamper our progress. Again, in some areas we pretty much have the road to ourselves only passing vineyards, ranches and desert. Then, in the middle of nowhere, we see two guys chatting at their utes, picking up their mail at a row of mail boxes at the side of the road...but where do they live? Miles away from the road, towards the mountains perhaps. We ride into Mojave around 3.00pm and check into a lovely warm motel room just as the chill is starting to get to our bones after a day's riding. We are here for two nights as we have plans for tomorrow in Mojave.

Thursday 17 Jan
Mojave is a very small town with a few motels, usual eateries and one supermarket but it's main reason for being is AVIATION. Mojave airport is a centre for aircraft storage, recycling of spare parts etc and test pilot training. It is also reputed to be the place where Sir Richard Branson's space airliner is being developed. As we walk up to the Airport's Administration Office, technicians start up an engine on an old Macdonnell Douglas DC9. We sign-in at the office to take a tour of the "Bone Yards", are issued with passes and are driven round the airfield by Harvey, an airport employee. We drive across runways and around the perimeter passing 6 ex Air Canada Boeing 767s, numerous 737s and ex Mexican airline DC9s before we enter an area where planes are being cut-up for scrap. It's weird to see aircraft such as DC10s without tail sections and no engines. This amount of scrap aluminium would have Mike "the magpie" Downham salivating. Before we leave the scrap area we drive up to a Jumbo jet which is minus engines and under-carriage and is propped up on what looks to be piles of pallets under its wings and belly.

The rest of the day is spent planning the next log of our journey and taking time-out off the bike.