Simon and Deb's Excellent Adventure ........

[Guest]

Over the last few years , Deb and I have contemplated various motorcycle related holidays :-
- ship our bike ('79 'S) to the States for three months
- ship our bike to N.Z
- buy a bike and store it in N.Z
Each time we would get all excited to begin with , then , talk ourselves out of it .
"To expensive" , "We could use the money for something else" , "only Tossers do that kind of $hit" , etc .
For the sake of a pic , here's our bike , in travel mode .......

I'd finished a night shift roster and , following a couple of cleansing ales , checked The GSResources . Josh (TheCafeKid) re-advertised a REAL NICE 750 . For some reason (beer goggles ?) " It looked good to me " . the price was right (about 30% of what you'd have to pay down here) .
Tidy . Collectable . States . This could be fun .
PM , PM , Phone , PM
Job done .
I'd asked Josh if he could store the bike for us between visits . The plan was to come over once or twice a year to ride up and down and around and about . Then eventually we'd ship it back "home" .
He graciously (even a bit enthusiastically) agreeed .

I'd just "shook hands" to buy a bike , site unseen (again) , on the other side of the world , from .............. persons unknown .

The adventure begins .....................

The quickly formulated plan (lubed by another ale) was to fly to the other side of the world , ride a bike we'd never seen , on the opposite side of the road , to places we'd never heard of , with .......... persons unknown .

Bear in mind this all happened in the space of a couple of beers .

Now , how should I break the news to Deb when she gets home from work ?

"I've done a bad , bad , thing " (Me)
"You idiot .You've bought another bl@@dy motor bike , haven't you " (Deb) .
"It's in America" (Me) .
"When do we go ? " (Legend) .

That's it . No time to talk ourselves out of it this time . Done . Finished . We were like a couple of school kids . VERY exciting .

Booked our travel the next day and a couple of months later on the 12th September , Sunday , at 2.30am we're off to catch a plane from Cairns to Sydney then on to LA. The 14 hours from Sydney to LA was the pits . Pretty gruelling stuff . Plenty of free entertainment with movies , games food and snacks etc (Qantas) . Buuuut , it was on of those double decker Air Buses . And it was FULL . (Chocka block , Rose ) . It was like being canned meat . Still , gotta do these things if you're an adventurer .As soon as we landed , it wasn't so bad .

Cruised through US customs and immigration , in LA no worries .
Shoes off , pockets empty , sniffer dogs , metal detectors , x-rays , facial scans and very serious looking people with badges and guns welcomed us to the land of the free ....

The adventure begins (again)......................

Two little Aussie battlers take on America .

Deb and Me (I'm the good looking one ) ..............

To be continued ................................

Cheers , Simon and Deb .

 

[Johno]

Great start

Great start

Great start old mate keep the story and photos coming!

I'm starting to sing "Route 66" and "California Dream'in".

 

[Guest]

Good stuff Simon, looking forward to the rest! Oh, and you don't look a thing like Mr Katter

 

[Larry D]

I've been looking forward to this one......

 

[Steve]

...
The quickly formulated plan (lubed by another ale) was to fly to the other side of the world , ride a bike we'd never seen , on the opposite side of the road , to places we'd never heard of , with .......... persons unknown .

Bear in mind this all happened in the space of a couple of beers .
...

Could this be considered PROOF that Aussies have the best beer?

Subscribed.

.

 

[cowboyup3371]

Yes subscribed. Now don't make us wait forever to hear the rest of this please?ray:

 

[DanTheMan]

OK, I've also subscribed. Ian and I had a great time last year with his adventure here (he's from down under also), I took him on a 900 + mile run over the course of 3 days while he was here. Hope to make it back to the upside down side of things again someday.

 

[Planecrazy]

Could this be considered PROOF that Aussies have the best beer?

Subscribed.

.

Maybe the "strongest," Steve!

Subscribed!

 

[TheCafeKid]

Maybe the "strongest," Steve!

Subscribed!

Not hardly. I turned Simon on to a couple three that curled his toes here. Chimay Grand Reserve, Stones Arrogant Bastard, Stones Russian Imperial Stout and Dragons Milk Stout. Some of which were near the state max of 12%ABV. good, potent stuff. I think he liked em Ok

 

[Planecrazy]

Not hardly. I turned Simon on to a couple three that curled his toes here. Chimay Grand Reserve, Stones Arrogant Bastard, Stones Russian Imperial Stout and Dragons Milk Stout. Some of which were near the state max of 12%ABV. good, potent stuff. I think he liked em Ok

I was just joshing, Josh! It made Simon's story (and Steve's rationale) sound better, hehe!

Carry on...

 

[Guest]

Good beers , one and all . Didn't have me doin' the "garden hose" shuffle though .

Maybe next year . You lot look like you could use some learnin'.

Cheers , Simon . :twistedevil:

 

[MikeJ]

Great story mates!!! Keep the installments coming...

If your travels take you very far from your LA starting point, know that you've got friendly GSers all over the country... I'm in Maryland, about as far away as Perth is from Sydney, so maybe you won't make it here... or maybe you will... cheers,

 

[TheCafeKid]

Great story mates!!! Keep the installments coming...

If your travels take you very far from your LA starting point, know that you've got friendly GSers all over the country... I'm in Maryland, about as far away as Perth is from Sydney, so maybe you won't make it here... or maybe you will... cheers,

They were actually a stones throw from Maryland. They left LA a couple days after to come to Dayton Ohio of all places. We promptly left for West Va, VA, and NC. (blueridge parkway). But I'll let Simon tell the story... And oh, Simon, I DO have some incriminating photos of you with a garden hose in your back pocket

 

[Guest]

been waiting for this one, guys!

 

[Guest]

They were actually a stones throw from Maryland. They left LA a couple days after to come to Dayton Ohio of all places. We promptly left for West Va, VA, and NC. (blueridge parkway). But I'll let Simon tell the story... And oh, Simon, I DO have some incriminating photos of you with a garden hose in your back pocket

It's ONLY incriminating when I've got my hose in my hand .


Cheers , Simon .

 

[Guest]

Until we stepped out of the terminal in LA , we could've been anywhere in the world . Except for the USO announcements over the PA . I've never been anywhere else that does that .
Step through the door , and there it is . USA at 10.00am on a Sunday .

Everyone talks funny .
Everyone is really polite and helpful . The nice lady with the gun that showed us where the shuttle was , The Rasta dude that got us on the right one , the driver and the receptionists . Everyone .
Weirdest thing .
As soon as we spoke , everyone twigged that we were Aussies . We had all these new best friends . Lots of "Steve irwin" and "Crocodile Dundee" going on . (Maybe i can fiddle this a bit ?) . Gave us a good "vibe" , straight up .

Tips ....................................
"Always be good to your Mum".
We don't tip in Australia .
I "understand" about tipping and don't have a problem with it . The worst service we got from anyone , anywhere , in the States , was better than we get at home . So , it works . We just had trouble with "How much" and "to whom" . I think we overtipped but ......... , no problem .

We decided to stay "awake" and try to get back to normal sleeping before Dayton , so we left the Wiltshire Grand and wandered down the road . Sunday arvo , so not much going on .

Found an Irish Pub that had 48 BEERS ON TAP . Food . Football . Sounds like us . A bright , bubbly chicky babe takes us to a table , takes drink orders and tries to explain the food .If there hadn't have been pics on the menu , we wouldn't have known what to order .
I had some sliders and Deb played safe with the calamari . Couple of beers (Fat Tyre (Tire)) and a couple of wines (Yellow Tail - Aussie - surprise, surprise - Deb's happy) , and we're starting to "settle" .

All around the top of the bar are TV's , heaps of them , all showing different games of American football .
There's a group of about 8 "young folk" next to us , eating , drinking , laughing and generally enjoyong life . They were all watching different games . Everyone was enjoying the conversation etc around their table , when one of them would jump up and yell "Yes , Yes" and pump their arms and dance around , and none of the others took any notice at all . They don't give a rat's arse about anyone else's team .Old mate would settle down and join back in and another one would leap up and go off .
Funny stuff .
At least to us .
Nuther coupla beers ...........
SLEEP .................................

Breakfast and a tour of LA .
Downtown , Olvera Street

China Town , Hollywood ,

Beverly Hills , Rodeo Drive

Farmers Market , Melrose Avenue , Motel .

Holy $hit ........................

Caught the Metro to "Union Station"

and walked through Olvera Street and China Town .
The Aussie thing is still working .
Weird .
We haven't got an accent , everyone else ....................

Oh that's right . Something else happened . We waited at an intersection for the walk sign . Get the light and off we go to the other side . BANG . SCREECH . BANG . Old mate has run a red light , hit another car , and ended up where we'd just been standing .

Jeez , that was lucky .

Back to the Motel , eat , sleep before a 2.30 start to Dayton .
The adventure's picking up pace .

To be continued ..............................

Cheers , Simon and Deb .

 

[cowboyup3371]

Simon and Deb, please understand those folks out there in California are just plain weird and don't represent the rest of the country. Please come back here to Colorado and we'll show you the real side of this country.

It's been three hours though...I can't wait for the rest:-\\\

 

[Redman]

....
....All around the top of the bar are TV's , heaps of them , all showing different games of American football .
There's a group of about 8 "young folk" next to us , eating , drinking , laughing and generally enjoyong life . They were all watching different games . Everyone was enjoying the conversation etc around their table , when one of them would jump up and yell "Yes , Yes" and pump their arms and dance around , and none of the others took any notice at all . They don't give a rat's arse about anyone else's team .Old mate would settle down and join back in and another one would leap up and go off .
Funny stuff .
At least to us . ...
....
....

Simon,

Interesting social commentary.
Around here I would expect that in a group of people that a large portion would be fans of a local team and another large portion would be fans of another team from maybe the next distance city (such as Detriot and then Chicago) and then be only a few fans of other teams. Maybe your observations are particular to southern California. Perhaps I will need to go to a local sports bar here Sunday afternoon to do some observation of this.

I have told others of your comment about the armed guards at airport as you were entering the land of the free.
I will also tell you, for your reference, that that has been that way only the last few years.

Keep the installments comming, with the pictures.
Liked your photo with the mo'cycle cops.
(although that not really a police bike was it?)

.

 

[Matchless]

Simon,
Fantastic! I am extremely jealous! Keep the pictures and commentary coming, I am enjoying it.
SBTT - Suzuki, beer and Tim Tams!
Keep well old mate.
Andre

 

[Zooks]

PMSL. Good onya old mate. I haven't been on the GSR for many, many months (work problems). I log back in and find this thread.

Of all the Aussies to go over and visit Uncle Sam it had to be you didn't it. Very jealous mate. I plant to ride from LA to NY one day - coast to coast baby, oooh yeah!! When I can afford it that is.

Anyway, back to the story - more pics. Keep 'em coming.