Tuesday, March 30, 2010

This Is the Best Memory Lane I've Ever Been Down

Day 12

Miles today 132 Total miles: 3,647

Dippin through hoods

This was just a cool day. We slept in, got going around noon and just
spent the whole day riding around LA. We swung by the La Brea tar pits
first, but couldn't see much. Then we went to Hollywood, checking out
the walk of fame and being tourists. After that we rode through
Beverly Hills, a place where owning a Lexus makes you a second class
citizen. That place was amazing. It was just one gorgeous house after
another with amazing cars in front of each.

Next we rode on Mulholland Drive which was a really cool road. It runs
through the hills (mountains?) over Beverly Hills. It was miles of
curves with amazing views of the San Fernando valley.

After that we rode the sunset strip to the beach, then took 1 south
all the way down to Rancho Palos Verdes where my parents usedto live
in the 80's before I was born. This is an amazing place for someone to
live. Houses perched on cliffs overlooking the pacific, perfect
weather and some of the coolest scenery in America. My mom's dad came
out to visit once and decided that my parents were never leaving once
he saw the place. When they lived out here, my dad worked at a park
called Marine Land, similar to Sea World. My dad hadn't been out here
in about 15 years, so we rode down to see the park. Turns out trump
had bought it and turned it into a resort hotel. Dad just about fell
off the bike when he saw that. It was pretty depressing to find out
that a place where you worked so hard and committed so much was just
gone. We also went down to the shopping center to try to find the
jewelry store that my mom worked at, and it was gone too.

We had to deal with all this heartbreak, so we went to Admiral
Risty's, the bar where the Marine Land staff would go to unwind. This
was a really cool bar, with a great view of the pacific sunset. They
would call this "the show." everyone would go to the bar to watch the
show, and when the sun went down, the show was over and everyone went
home. I told him that his memory lane is much prettier than most
people's It's really pretty terrible how much hardship my parents had
to endure in their early years.

We rode back to the hotel, and we were pretty tired again. Also my
dad's had to get up at 5 to catch his flight, so we crashed again.

Being alone on the road for so long, it was great to spend time with a
fellow traveller. It was great to see you, dad, and I hope you had as
much fun as I did.

1 comment:

  1. Now that you've heard Brian's version of what happened, time for some truth from Dad!

    Actually, I had an awesome, awesome time - one I will remember forever. We had talked about meeting up for part of the trip for a while, but actually doing it was way beyond what I hoped it would be. Nothing like hanging on to the back of a bike at 70mph for hours trusting your life to your oldest (and regretting all the wisdom you failed to impart)...

    My fondest memories: Finding out that Brian drove 650+ miles in the freezing cold in one day to make it to Vegas the night I got there when I didn't expect him for days...Riding up and down the Strip on a motorcycle having more fun than should be legal...Closing down a blackjack table as my morning paper was being delivered to my Blackberry, with both of us still having chips in front of us...Eating the most expensive hamburgers (but best tasting ever) at the Bellagio - which we paid for twice by leaving another deposit at the casino... Riding by the most amazing scenery coming into LA (freezing my tush off in the high elevations) but in awe of how it all looked from a bike... Riding around Beverly Hills homes two guys up on a cruiser (never once questioning our manhood)... Returning to where Tammy and I lived, thinking that when we left I'd never imagined that the next time I went there it would be on the back of my kid's motorcycle. My butt will take weeks to recover, and I have developed this twitch every time I see a motorcycle...

    I had an absolute ball, and am so pumped that Brian gets to do all this.

    Thanks Brian, for including me on the trip and putting up with the old man who is proud as hell of you.

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