This morning turned into a slow start even though the trusty alarm went off at the required time. In the end we decided that we would go for a bit of breakfast and leave around nine when the traffic should be dying down. The ride actually turned out to be quite easy even if a little daunting due to the amount of vehicles on the four and five lane highways. The highways are amazing, although looking confusing on Maps.Me due to the many turn offs and number of offshoots the highways take you exactly where you wish to go with a minimum of fuss. We also became very adept at lane splitting which is legal here as is riding in the ride sharing lane which requires two or more people in a vehicle. We managed to make our way easily and quite quickly through the long lines of vehicles that came to a standstill on a regular basis for some reason or another. We were actually really happy to be on a motorcycle rather than in a car, the journey could have taken so much longer. Before too long we were at the address in Longbeach that we required. To park we had to go under the building but the bike would not register on the ticket dispenser so we rode around the boom and parked in the motorcycle park after explaining what happened to the cashier on the exit.
We went straight into Customs and Border Protection and got our required paperwork plus the lecture that we were expecting. It was a repeat of what the guy had said over the phone and he wouldn’t let up for quite awhile, we merely smiled a lot and agreed with everything he said. Before to long we had won him over and all was good. We then witnessed him give another couple of guys a hard time over their problem. Paul just thought that he was over it and this was his way of coping. Sneaking out of the car park without paying we then rode around Longbeach to find a room that we could afford and got a pretty ordinary one for $80, the location though was very good.
Once we were settled we decided on a walk to the beach where we unexpectedly came upon the Queen Mary. We also had an interesting chat with an Afro American gentleman doing a spot of fishing. We covered quite a few topics from fishing around LA to the latest news on politics regarding the upcoming presidential election. Donald Trump not gaining any favourable comments and very few heading Hilary Clinton’s way. It was fun and the guy really enjoyed talking to us after what appeared to be an initial shock that we addressed him. He finished the conversation with a shake of our hands and wished us well.
On the way back to our “beautiful” hotel we stopped at what we discovered was a once a weekly caravan eatery. There were several caravans selling an assortment of foods. As you tend to share tables at these particular types of places conversation are started up with the occupants. In this particular instance we chatted with a young couple about their dreams of travel, it was a fun conversation for both groups.
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