Left Coast…Right on Time!

May 16th, 2009 | By Ian Thomas | Category: News

Rob, Dennis & Scott are excited to be in Santa Monica

How Many Miles?

Friday morning and the bikes assembled at a leisurely 7.30am. After the big mileage day yesterday, today was planned to be a relaxing ride to the finish-line. As we departed, a small drama ensued as “Mini-Me”Tayler appeared to have lost her wallet. The main group headed out slowly to an agreed meeting spot about 60 miles away, while “Duracell” Dennis and “Mini-Me” went hunting. “Lucky” Rob took the lead and we all arrived at the gas station to wait, after a gentle hours ride. A thorough search of the Lotus, that “Duracell”had apprently tidyed up the night before, and the wallet was found. A message was sent and we waited to re-group.

During that time, we met another bunch of riders who weren’t quite as friendly. As “CHiPs” Robertson and Kevin “The Cuban” tried to strike up a conversation, Ian “The Boss” pointed out that the Los Angeles Chapter of the Hells Angels, looked like they wanted some quiet time together!!!

“The Boss”took the lead for the final 60 mile run to Santa Monica. The traffic built up and got quite heavy but, without the Phoenix heat, it was still very manageable. Keeping the group together was tricky but we achieved it and seeing the LA skyline appear was very cool indeed. We rolled into “The Cuban’s” Santa Monica hotel at around 11.00am to drop of his bags. As you can imagine, everyone was very excited to be here and Janice “Turtle-Mama” got lots of hugs and praise for crossing the entire country with her house on her back bike.

After a short break, we headed to the beach for a group photo and lunch. Fittingly, as the President of PRISM, we asked “Duracell”to lead us on this final journey, secretly hoping that he wouldn’t run out of gas on the way. Everyone was excited, relieved, exhiliarated and exhausted and the photos turned out great. We will post a gallery of photos from the entire trip over the next few days.

Then it was time for the group to disband and go their separate ways. After between 2760 and 2800 miles, depending on who took the adrenaline or leisurely route in Arizona, it was hard to ride off leaving some members behind. The view in the rear view mirror would never be the same!

I joked before we left that, by the end of the journey, we would all be great friends with an amazing shared experience, or there would be some unmarked graves in the New Mexico desert!! The desert remains undisturbed.

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Heather Coffield May 17th, 2009 12:30 pm
Congratulations everyone! Sounds like you guys had an awesome time whilst also raising a tremendous sum of money for a very worthwhile cause.