Day One, Friday, September 5, 2008

Over the last few days breast cancer survivors from across the world have driven, ridden and winged their way to sunny LA, ready for another amazing Amazon Heart adventure!

The weather here is beautiful – warm, sunny and the infamous smog has not been too overwhelming.  Our hotel is in Marina del Ray, a few blocks walking distance to Venice Beach, which has given us a real slice of local life – from the muscle boys in the beachside gym, to rollerblading locals along the footpath.

Last night we came together as a group for the first time for our initial briefing.  We all heard more about the amazing history of Amazon Heart over the last 4 years – this will be the 10th Amazon Heart Thunder ride, the 5th in California and the 15th adventure AH have run.

We took time to each talk about who we were, where we came from and our hopes for this week’s trip.  Our first time AH riders received their leather Harley-Davidson jackets – this year there is a lot of bling on some of the models – we will certainly be brightening up the California freeways!  Afterwards, we headed out as a group walking down the street to a fantastic Mexican Cantina for dinner.

Outside the restaurant was parked a huge bus with promotional signage all over it for a tequila brand.  It turned out there was a promotional night for the beverage there, complete with Tequila promotional girls!

We had a terrific dinner in a quieter part of the restaurant, but the Tequila girls did find us and gave us all some fantastic cowboy hats.  We certainly turned heads on our way back to the hotel!

Tomorrow our bikes will be delivered to the lot across from our hotel – we can’t wait to see that gleaming chrome and head out on the road for our first practice ride.