Having bought my tent and sleeping bag earlier this week, yesterday I decided I had better see if I could work out how to pitch it before I hit the road, so spent the afternoon erecting it in the garden where I am staying with friends Chris and Louise. No problem, but I think they were wondering what I was doing pitching my tent in their garden !! Then later Louise saw I had unrolled my sleeping mat and sleeping bag on the floor in my bedroom, and was suprised I was going to sleep on the floor when I had a perfectly good bed available ! But the test went well, and the self inflating sleeping mat is surprisingly comfortable, although getting "up" in the morning takes on a whole new meaning when you have to climb up off the floor !!!
Once I had got "up", and met Andy at the front gate, we took off to meet the others. Arriving in the car park at La Canada (pronounced Canyada !) we were surrounded by masses of nice cars out for a social gathering around the Starbucks in the shopping centre. E Types, Cobras, Iso Grifo, Lotus Elan (!!) and lots of other US cars too unknown to name and too numerous to mention - And a gaggle of Elises who didn't even know the gathering was happening but were just meetng there for an EMR !!!
So hung around and chatted a while, most of the others aware of my trip so lots to talk about on that - Mostly about how crazy I must be !! Then it was time to set off on the run up in the hills - But big delay - Poor Eric's key fob wouldn't deactivate his immobiliser so he had to call his wife to bring the spare keys ! (Ha Ha - No different than in Australia then !!) And 5 minutes down the road we took a wrong turn and had to do the "co-ordinated Elise U Turn" - Nothing different there then either !!
Off up into the hills and soon we were on steep winding roads looking back into the valley at downtown LA. Magnificent roads, blue skies - and in an Elise (sitting on the correct side !!!) blasting up the hills. NOW I feel the trip is starting !! The usual bicycles trying to ride 2 wide, and a few SUV drivers who never use their rear view mirror, but most people get out of the way pretty quickly for us, and we shoot up to the top. SNOW !!!! Obviously gets pretty cold up here because still snow sitting beside the road - We are up at about 4000 ft I guess ? (Bit similar to our drive up through Mt Hotham last year in Victoria, except we are only 1 hour out of the centre of a city of 25 million people !!!!) Anyway, had a stop at the top for the obligatory photos, then ran back down for a good lunch at The Dish in La Canada, where a few others joined us to say G'Day.
A few Pics of the day here https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/LosAngeles?authkey=Gv1sRgCLGU3qKshpnhXw#
After lunch, Andy ran me back to where I am staying in Encino, and took off back to his home on Long Beach.
Great day and, as always with the Elise fraternity worldwide, great people. Great to meet you all - Will, Mike, Mark, Mike, Eric, Mara and others I may have forgotten, and a big thanks to Andy for picking me up. Thanks for starting my trip off with a bang, Southern California - Really enjoyed it.
Now lets hope I can collect my car from the docks on Monday without any problems, and start heading north on Wednesday morning after I have packed and sorted the car on Tuesday. Fingers crossed.
