Our trip to San Diego began with a slow start. Since we knew that we didn´t have far to drive we slept in until 10 AM. We made coffee and finished washing a load of landry in Sean´s washing machine. I felt guilty washing my biking pants in his washing machine as the pants were covered in variouse greases and road grimes that I had accumulated over the last week and I wasn´t sure if the greases would just disolve off the pants or smear all over the inside of the washing machine. At 12 Sean´s room mate, a law student at Loyola Marymount University and, along with Sean a fellow Mercer Island High alum, got home from her morning classes and let us out of the downtown LA condo. I regret that were didn´t have time to sunbath by the swimming pool as the view of the pool from the apartment window was very nice.
After the terrifying experience driving into LA at night on the freeway, Cameron and I were both a little paranoid about traffic and getting lost leaving LA. Sean and Asher had both assured us that we would avoid most of the heavy Friday traffic by leaving LA at noon and if we did encounter traffic, take advatage of the carpool lanes and a unique California institution, the motorcycle lane split. Cameron plotted the route out of LA on his GPS and we both memorized it so we wouldn´t have to look at written directions or maps on our way out of town.
Thankfully the ride south from LA to San Diego was boring and fast. When traffic got heavy we rode in the carpool lanes on the far left side of the freeway and when traffic was light we moved to the second lane from the right so as to not encounter merging traffic. As our bikes felt happiest driving about 65 miles per hour, motoring in the carpool lane in light traffic was problematic as all sorts of california motor vehicles accustomed to traveling 85 mph down the freeway stacked up behind us and became frustrated. For this reason we travel in the slow lanes in light traffic. We don´t travel in the slowest lane though as this is the lane that driver used to merge on and off the road, and half the time merging drivers don´t see our motorbikes. When traffic began to thicken and slow down, our relatively underpowered motorbikes could move to the carpool lane and fast lane without any problems. As we approached San Diego, traffic got heavier, and our progress slowed to stop and go. Or as dad would call it, Level of Condition F.
In this situation our bikes had the advantage of the California lane split perspective where a motorcycle can drive down the dotted line between two lanes of stopped highway traffic (it really is more of a perspective or a viewpoint than a law as there isn´t really a set of rules to follow about how to avoid a ticket from the police. It seems that if you lane split safely, the police won´t ticket you and the motorcycle police themselves lanesplit regularly... but you lanesplit at the wrong time or place and attract the attention of the police, they can ticket you for a driving infraction). Cameron and I lanesplit in stop and go traffic outside San Diego and it was a strange experience. On one hand we really did move faster than the stopped traffic (they are stopped while we move forward, amazing!). On the other hand, while many drivers saw us approaching in their mirrors and moved their cars to provide us with room to pass some drivers would vindictively attempt to block our progress, drive large vehicles that occupied more of the lane, or not notice our approach and weave back in forth into the lanesplit area. One additional challenge was that our bikes were not particularly narrow, with the panniers installed on the bike the back of the vehicle measures over 3 feet in width, so we needed a little more than a crack to squeeze through traffic. Anyway, with traffic mostly light and able to exploit our california lanesplitting advantage we got to San Diego and only got a little lost before arriving at Asher´s place. Home sweet San Diego home!
Asher, his boyfriend Davie, and their dog Sadie live in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego near Balboa Park. Asher and I caught up on everything that had happened over the last five years, while Asher´s friend Unice, and Cameron´s friend Aline, arrived at Asher and Davie´s place. The entire group of us went out for mexican food (San Diego fish tacos!!!) and drinks.
Here is a picture of Cammy and Asher in the kitchen.
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