The next day was pretty much a chill out day, although we did have to load up the bikes in the truck, as we were setting off on Christmas day to Monterey where we would be doing a trackday at Laguna Seca. Now I've been wanting to do this since I was about 17, so to say i was a litle excited is putting it mildly.
The weather for the drive up next day was lovely, with bright sunshine and mid 70's temperatures.
I had heard stories about how spectacular the scenery was on the Pacific Coastal Highway, which as you may have guessed is the road that runs along the West coast of the United States. i wasn't disappointed by the tales, and the views and surrounding natural architecture were impressive, inspiring and somewhat intimidating all at the same time.
The journey was going to be between 6 and seven hours each way, so I took half of the driving duties and have probably logged about 400 miles in the U.S now. I must confess that I wa pleased Amy was driving when we were on some of the tight and twisty PCH roads, that were lined with possible rock slides and precarious cliff drops on the other side. You would really want to be very used to any vehicle you were driving up there, and how some people get Motorhomes around there without suffering brain meltdown is beyond me.
At the start of the journey, we had stopped off to get some petrol. As I was driving and about to navigate my way back onto the Freeway, a Mexican looking guy leaned out of his truck that was parked alongside us and shouted "hey buddy, what kind of bikes are those?..touring bikes?" What with my mind being preoccupied with being on the right side of the road, I just gave him the standard and honest reply "No mate, they're race bikes" Amy was slightyl less charitable though, and let loose with "What kind of Moron are you, Mexican or South east asian Moron?". I don't think he heard her to be honest, but we were both cracking up for miles after that.
On the way we stopped off at the campest restaurant/bar you have ever seen in your life. It's called the Madonna Inn, and is extremely pink and covered in lights. It's a pretty impressive joint though and has some unreal stuff inside...including a mens urinal that is like a mini waterfall!
We were still on the PCH as the sun was going down, and to be honest, although the final 120 miles was hard going concentration wise, we both considered ourselves really lucky to be able to see such an amazing sight on Christmas day of all days.
After 7 hours including stops, we hit Monterey and signed in at the Otter Hotel.
We were obviously going to be missing Christmas dinner, so we decided to bring our own from the delicious resourses of Gelsons Deli. We started with a lovely waldorf salad and Prawns and the for a main course we had pecan encrusted and parmesan topped chicken breast, with candied yams, stuffing, cheese potatoes and a delicious chiken pasta. we followed thi with some cake that we bought at the Madonna inn, all washed down witha lovely bottle of red wine.
Before we left, amy asked me if I wanted to look at the weather forecast for Laguna. I declined, said that it would do whatever it was going to do whether we looked or not, and that I didn't want to be depressed about it if it said rain. As it turned out, it was fortunate that we didn't look, as the forecast was for a terrential downpour!