A week in Redlands….

Our arrival in Los Angeles was typical…huge queues through customs, traipsing around hot streets carrying many bags of gear. But after some hours we did manage to hire a wee Chrysler PT Cruiser, very snazzy, and we were catapulted onto the high-speed motorway towards Kurt’s house in Redlands via Google maps directions.

Redlands is about 1.5 hours drive from LA, and sits amongst some big hills and some very deserty terrain. It is suburban America, but set amongst orange groves it is very pleasant. It was great to catch up with Kurt and laugh about all the things that seem odd to us kiwis.


We spent 5 days in total at Kurt’s place and he was a great host! I tried out a demo specialised on a ride through some local hills with Kurt and Chris, lots of windy single track through some very dry country. We took a drive into the local mountains and tried lots of local cuisine (good Mexican!).

The highlight however had to be a free visit (thanks to Kurt) to Six Flags Magic Mountain in LA. Basically it is a massive roller coaster theme park with the craziest rides you can imagine including hanging completely upside down about 200 m above the ground then rocketing around the twistiest course you imagine. It was a bit much for poor old Chris who suffers motion sickness…. but he loves suffering so he insisted on doing every ride anyway!!

After 5 days and my acquisition of a fantastic, red, shiny new Giant anthem and Chris received his bike in the post from his team mates and we were off for an adventure in our wee Chrysler.


Some 'ohh, ahhh' photos of my pretty new bike (-:

Comments

Caroline said…
Hey, nice blog you have made. Looks like you are having a lot of fun. Best of luck
June 22, 2008 at 4:52 PM
Mark said…
Hey Em,

You're not the only one with a new bike! Mine's not quite as flash as yours, but it's still the coolest bike I've ever owned. Can't wait to take it out in the hills around Edinburgh :-)

(It's a Claud Butler Cape Wrath D27 if you're interested)
June 25, 2008 at 10:16 AM
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