Finally the day we have all been waiting for arrived – the first day of the ride itself.  LA again turned on beautiful weather, and as we packed our gear to leave the group decorated our sweep vans with messages to let everyone know who we are and why we ride.

We headed out on the road, along the route we had followed yesterday for our practice run, then cut inland to one of our favourite Harley-Davidson dealers – California Harley-Davidson.  We have two large touring bikes in our group, complete with radio, so we had music pumping as we turned heads along the way.

In the middle of the music we had a news update that a 3.2 earthquake happened while we were riding – not enough to feel, but yet another Amazon Heart Thunder first.

California Harley-Davidson put on a fantastic welcome, with a BBQ and members of the local HOG group riding out to meet us and say hello.  We shopped, had a fantastic lunch and had a few minor adjustments made to a couple of the bikes before we readied to leave on our adventure.

The gathered crowd stood and waved us away as we pulled out of the lot and finally began our trek north on the Pacific Coast Highway 1 (PCH-1).  The weather had warmed up and in the heavy LA traffic our leathers were sweltering, but we knew better roads were ahead.

We reached Santa Monica and finally were able to sweep down along the water – cooler, a wonderful breeze, and definitely more scenic!  We stopped for gas at Pacific Palisades and had a moment as a group to come together and share the moment and think of what this journey meant for us individually, and for those who will follow us on this blog.

Then it was back on the bikes and blasting north through Malibu, past the famous waterfront biker haunt, Neptune’s Net, and along some of the iconic ocean hillside terrain that makes California so special.  For the last 10 miles we cut inland again through farmland to the town of Ventura, our base for the night. 

A perfect start to the Adventure of a Lifetime!