California Dreamin - part I

There's this mountain bike event y'see. It's been held every year since 1783 in the quaint fishing village of Monterey, in The Sunshine state - California. That's in the good ol' US of A y'know!

It's called "The Sea Otter Classic" and as a small lad growing up in Ye Olde Englande, I eagerly read the magazines for news of the event which is traditionally the season opener for the world's top riders and manufacturers. New teams, new bikes, new technologies all commonly make their first appearance at the Otter.

A couple of our friends were going and this got Rich and I thinking about joining in the chance to rub shoulders with the stars (of the bike world) and to test our metal on the race course. A plan was hatched. Rich, Jenn and I would pack up the damn van (here to be known as the "OtterBus") and head onto the open road for a week with the Otter as the focus.


We left one dark Wednesday night and headed south with only a brief stop at US customs for them to welcome me into the country (Rich the Canadian got hardly a glance and Jenn the American seemed to be invisible yet I had to fill out a form and pay 7 dollars to cross the border!)

Well, not surprisingly I didnt take too many pictures of rainy Washington (state - not DC) although I did take a quick snap of Seattle's space needle as we sped past in the OtterBus


Bright and early next morning, I took the reigns, fired up the OtterBus and pointed it south. We'd made it to Oregon the night before so I thought I'd at least drive to California before switching seats.

It was a loooong way. SOME people (not mentioning names) took the opportunity to rest their eyelids on more than one occasion.








group photo at the pee-stop!











Somewhere along the way we stopped at "Grandma's Kitchen" for lunch. It was, err, an interesting place. It did indeed look like Grandma had decorated it










I especially liked the porcelain dog clocks with the wagging tails - very tasteful ;-)

The funniest thing about the place is that its actually part of a chain! Who would have thought ridiculousness was a good idea for a restaurant franchise! Food was ok, nothin special.







Once fed and watered we headed over the pass into California

There was a big mountain. With snow on.










And then we dropped into California! Yay!













Look Ma - its me in California!













more looooong boring roads - 600 kilometers if memory serves

















Dont they look happy?













did I mention the looooong roads














and we're nearly there! Just a little further













...and then of course we hit the traffic outside San Fran.






....but it only lasted a few minutes before we were on our way again.










After over a thousand kilometers and almost 17 hours driving, we rolled into Monterey at sunset.

Tomorrow the real excitement begins - riding bikes :)