Cate, Craig, and I arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday. ?Cate’s boss, Grammy Award Winning Mastering Engineer Brian Lucey, graciously opened up his home and allowed us to pitch our tents for a night.
They put me on the roof because I fart. ?Or tell fart jokes. ?Which is pretty much the same.
Before the three of us departed for Hawaii on Monday evening, I got up early on Monday morning to ride to the Santa Monica Pier, roughly 20 to 25 miles from Brian’s house.
You see, the tradition on a ride like this is to dip your rear?wheel into the ocean you’re leaving?from (the Pacific in this case). ?Then, when you reach the other side, you dip your front?wheel into the ocean you’re arriving to (the Atlantic in this case). ?I needed to find the Pacific.
I rode to Santa Monica on Sunset Blvd through Beverly Hills, Belaire, and Brentwood; some of the most famous neighborhoods in the world. ?I’d been through here before years ago when I dropped by this guy’s house:
I was at the mansion just for the articles.
I tried to take home a six pack, but they were out of the Playmate flavors I wanted.
Some things I saw:
Scientology has their own building . . . but if you go in, you can’t ever come out.
This just struck me as odd. Mega-wealth all around . . . but they’ve got an America’s Best Value Inn right on Sunset.
Go Nick.
Wasn’t Lana Turner discovered here along with Jerry Springer?
Hollywood and Vine.
At that corner of the intersection of H&V was this star configuration:
Jimmy Stewart’s star is there:
. . . as is Kirk Douglas’s. ?Wendy Barrie (whoever that is) and someone else that I don’t remember / can’t read the name on the picture / can’t find it easily on Google. ?The four stars surround this:
Thought that was pretty cool.
Crossroads of the world. America’s first outdoor shopping mall.
Not sure why the main sign is upside down. Also not sure what the hell is with all the nekkid women portrayed on the side of the hotel. ? Maybe instead of HBO the hotel just issues you a nekkid woman.
Sex! Movie Stars! Sex!
Now doesn’t this look exactly how you’d expect a street in Beverly Hills to look?
Nearly every single $10,000,000 house had their sprinklers going full blast as I rode by:
Despite these signs every 100 feet along Sunset Blvd:
Once I actually found the damned ocean (harder than it should be to find the biggest body of water on the friggin’ planet) I realized I had forgot my Gorilla Grip for my camera. ?Which meant I had to jury-rig the camera to take some timed photographs of me in the water.
They sucked.
This shot:
Was taken by this nice man:
Who was a screenwriter for “several TV series,” he said. ?We got to talking about why I was putting my bicycle in the Pacific Ocean, mentioned that though I live in Ohio, I’m?from?Tennessee. ?That’s when he talked about his home in east Tennessee. That he only lives part of the year in Los Angeles. ?Then he escapes La La Land back to God’s Country to regain his senses.
Santa Monica Pier
I took this shot:
Because it looks like where the final scene of the movie?Falling Down was shot. ?I checked IMDB and they say that it was filmed along the Venice Pier. ?But I can’t find a definitive answer.
Speaking of scenes, I?know?this tunnel was ?featured in Modern Family.
Gonna kick cancer’s ass, Pilgrim.
If the fishies don’t get adopted at the aquarium, they just move two doors down.
It was about 60 miles of riding around. ?I covered a lot of ground and was a tad sore afterwards. ?But, then, it’s been nearly 3 weeks since I’ve ridden that far. ?That?condition won’t apply too much longer.
I’ve got two bicycling projects going simultaneously. ?Riding across the United States and?riding through all 50 states. ?Since 60 miles is more than 20?miles, by my Rules?I get to claim California as another state I’ve ridden a bike. ?I think that’s state number 29, but I’ll double check it when I post about Hawaii.