Finally - we boarded the plane and arrived last night in Los Angeles. And, mirable dictu, our bikes were ready to ride. I think both Tom and I woke up this morning around 4, which of course is 7 by east coast time standards...I do hope that nonsense does not continue for long.
One of our compadres on this odyssey is a resident of Manhattan Beach and he had arranged to be at the hotel and serve as guide to a morning ride. So at 9:05 AM five of us headed out toward downtown El Segundo and the beach. It turns out that LA does a great job creating bike lanes along the beach and so we headed north and wound our way through the dunes and the Los Angelenos heading for an early morning start at the beach. Amazing how many roller-bladers, moms with strollers and surfers were out competing for space with a ton of cyclists. We rode up past Marina del Rey where a few hundred yachts are berthed and the roadway was lined with apartment complexes that rival anything I've seen in Florida. Our guide told us to look out for a very tall jogger he had seen occasionally - one Kareem Abdul Jabbar, but apparently he slept in today. Venice is a planet unto itself - a world of leftover hippies but a lot of fun to ride through.
We went as far as the Santa Monica pier (pictured in a great many movies and TV shows) before heading back to the hotel. All in all a pretty good warm-up:had a beautiful SoCal day, met some of the other riders (and I have no doubt this is going to be a great group). Now we just wait another day before all our riding is heading east.
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