I day & 1 hour to go

We wake up this morning with the utmost optimism. Ross' bike is due to leave customs today. He will them need to do some work on the bike and we should be on our way on Friday morning. If not we will have to make a lot of decisions about how to manage the trip as far as accommodation, route etc.

Whilst we have been in LA we have stayed with Ann and Roger Greene. Ann is Susan's fifth cousin five time removed but she is so much like Susan. Ann has driven us nearly four hundred miles looking at bikes. It is periods of tension coping with the crazy pressures of the LA freeway and finding well hidden bike shops and then sitting around whilst the boys looking at bikes and then negotiating. The trip would not have happened if Saint Ann had not been there for us.

Saint Ann has chosen her bike - Is she thinking of joining Puffin Across America?

I feel the boys might be getting a wrong impression on the luxury level of the accommodation on this trip asI have booked some pretty seedy hotels on this trip to keep within the tight budget. One hotel review was "I think someone died in the room and it smells like he is still there" and another said "I never took off my shoes as I was sticking to the carpet"

These are the boys at Ann's house and the other photos of her backyard. The boys have had to get passes into the gated community, the golf course and horse stables are just down the street. "How are you going to keep them down on the farm after they see Paree" (1920's popular song)

The boys have already sampled the hot tub