Day 13 (San Francisco to Reno)

We spent the morning in San Francisco. Well apparently its a $5 toll per bike to go back. Jerks! I have no idea why anyone would want to go to San Francisco. It was over crowded and people were generally rude. The highlight was a family of performers from England who although not great in acrobatic skill were very good at performing. It was to be expected because they were trying to raise money to go to acrobat school. The shop staff stood out on the street and tried to had you stuff so you would feel obligated to buy it.

We left San Francisco on our way to Reno. We checked into our hotel and headed out to the strip.
It was just crazy how weird it was. Everyone was old. It was as if you captured Las Vegas from 40 years ago and remade it. We walked into this art performance thing at the end of the street. It was pretty strange. Mike suggested we leave before we got ass raped. I agreed. We got some food from what Mike called the worlds oldest short order cook. He was working the whole show by himself and he looked to be about 70. The beers were cheap at $2 for tall cans but unlike Vegas you can't take drinks out of the buildings. After that we decided to walk back to the motel. On the way after stopping for snacks there was a group of bikers. We proceeded to walk down a dark alleyway to get around them. We made it back to the hotel without getting bothered.

Day 12 (Monterey to Oakland)

Well we left our crappy motel and headed for San Francisco. I wanted to stop at Facebook/apple/Google but we didn't have enough time. On the way we had to take a unplanned detour from the highway. Mike had to pee which coincided perfectly with the fact that we were driving fairly fast and there was a cop doing radar we passed. As we went to get back on the cop was also getting on the highway the other way to go back to where he was sitting. We got lucky on that one. That was the best hiding spot. Kudos chp. After that we got to San Francisco. I have to say, all of northern California is awful. The weather is always cold and the fog they always have is terrible. We found a great deal on a hotel but it was in Oakland. The reviews said it was a decent place so we booked it. Once we got there it was like something out of a movie. Drug dealers and crackheads. Great!  We wanted to finally go see batman but we decided against it. Coming back to the hotel at 1:30am was not my idea of a good time.

Day 10 (L.A. to Santa Barbra)

We rode back to the ranch for the last time and I had the biggest breakfast in my life. As we were sitting there 2 1199s's pulled up and parked right beside my bike. We then rode back down the 2 on our way to mullholland. We made the mistake of finding mullholland Dr and not highway. Not the same thing at all. After we found the snake it was pretty interesting. The best part was it was completely empty. After that we headed out to Santa Barbra. It was pretty cold out there to the point we had to put on sweaters while riding. We ended up at another national forest for the night. Tonight was the first time we had our own fire. I made the mistake of setting up my tent on a slope I didn't see. We need to work on getting to places before it gets dark.

Day 9 (L.A.)

I got up around 7 and went to work fixing the bikes. I had to remove the gas tank to get at the fuse. What a pain. Then I rewired mikes USB plug on his. We headed back up to the restaraunt on the top of the hill for coffee (I had coke). The lady was very nice and because we dropped off bug spray to a girl at our camp ground it was free. We drove down to the city. We ended up driving around and wound up at the Santa Monica pier. It was interesting. The beach was full of nut jobs tho. We tried a bit of lane splitting I can see why its illegal in pretty much everywhere. We rode to the Hollywood sign which was not really worth the trip. We then spent a long time driving all over the highway as the numbers are screwy. We ended up going back to the same camp ground as this morning and we met up with the guy we met at the restaurant in the morning. We hung out at his campfire for about 3 hours talking with him and his wife about pretty much everything you can think of.
We went off to bed at 12:30. Mike yelled to ask me if I was outside his tent. He is convinced there is something outside his tent. He's yelling "hey!" And clapping his hands. I think he's going crazy.

Day 8 (Vegas to L.A.)

It was stupid hot by the time we checked out. We got about 30 miles before the sky was not looking like it was going to cooperate so we stopped for gas and lubed up our chains. We rolled on as fast as we could and ended up missing the whole storm as it paused for us to go through.
We got to California and it was even hotter. The bike air temp was showing over 41°c
After we found out where we wanted to go we stopped to get gas. There was a dude at the doors of their station begging for cash. We told him we didn't have any. He told mike he needed cash because his truck broke down. As we went to leave on the bikes he pulled out behind us in his ram pickup and followed us. After about a mile of him following us we pulled up to a stop light. Mike suggested we do our first legal lane split. We passed about 12 cars and got to the front. He drove on the shoulder and pulled up right behind us. So we hit the gas. I think he saw that we had intercoms and pro ally thought we were calling the cops so he took off through a red.
It was a bit tricky after that to find where we were going but we managed. We went onto highway 2 which is a mountain pass like 60 miles long over the angles forest. Unbelievable roads. Other than the rocks scattered around it was really nice and the weather was insane. It was about 21-23 degrees.
We got a bite to eat at newcombs ranch at about the half way point. The bikers were really nice telling us where some bike shops were. We went to go in and a Tesla pulled up. Needless to say we chatted with that guy for a while.
We ate and rolled on to the camp site which was nice other than the terrible bathrooms. It went down to 12°c over night but my sleeping bag did the trick as I was a bit sweaty. Good thing I listened to the guy I bought it from and spent a bit more.

Day 7 (vegas back to vegas)

So we got up a bit late because we stayed out a bit late. So we left the hotel at 11 and packed the bikes. We went to leave and mike called me over. His battery didn't like the 103 degree heat and decided to quit working. Well I tried to charge it a bit by linking my 12v socket to his but it blew my fuse. Now I can't charge my stuff.
He ended up going to get a new battery from batteries+ for $79.
We left pretty late and apparently so did everyone in Vegas. The 15 from Vegas to was jabmed so we turned around. One more day in Vegas. We stopped at mcdonalds and found a deal for the Hilton for the night.
After going to the hotel we decided to buy tickets to see carrot top. Mike went for baller massage at the bellagio and then we went to go see carrot top at the luxor. If you are ever in Vegas go see him. Funniest show I have ever seen.

Day 6 (Grand Canyon to Vegas)

We ended up stopping at a truck stop to take a nap for 10 minutes in the grass. It was about 1:15 at that point. Well at 6:30 when we woke up it was light out so we got gas. During our fill up we had a local tell us a bunch of crap like "Vegas is a shithole, go see laughlin instead" and "just skip the Hoover dam and drive over the mountains cause you can't see it anyways"
We also had some jerk come bother us at the station for cash. Gtfo of here dude!
We made it to the Hoover dam fairly quickly which was nice because even tho it was only like 8am it was stupid hot. And because we got there before the parking guy was there we didn't have to pay for parking. The dam was impressive and so was the bridge over the river.
After that we headed to Vegas. We stayed in a hotel a bit off the strip but it was pretty nice and it was across the street from the hard rock. It was so hot out during the day even after we took a dip in the pool then a nap it was still crazy hot. We still walked up the strip anyways. Interesting place. Street performers, restaurants and casinos all down the street but also about 1000 people handing out flyers and cards for hookers.
We walked around for a bit. We found a decent priced meal at the outback steak house.
We went out after that to the hard rock and paradise club.