San Jose sucks. It is rough and pretty unsettling at night. Full of panhandlers as they say here, i.e. street people. Ever heard of armed ticket collectors? Didn't too much mind seeing them on the tram though as it was full of rough looking geezers.

Then it was off to San Francisco and Oakland to see some friends. Didn't spend too much time in SF, took the obligatory pic with the Bridge in the background and then it was off to the wine country to sample some of the wines in the Sonoma valley. Wonderful. There are some very pleasant wineries in gorgeous settings. Lovely to sit there among the vineyards sipping the old vino. Surrounded by posers but they weren't too intrusive. Listening in to some of the conversations about wine, with 'body' and it being 'earthy and tasting of wild mushrooms' and all that rubbish. Who wants their wine tasting of mushrooms anyway?

After that it was off to San Luis Obispo (where?) to pick up a motorbike. Firstly we had to get there. We were fully prepared to take a bus but managed to get a rental car for $19.95 a day. How do they do that? Beats me. It worked out cheaper than Greyhound so what would you choose?

San Luis Obispo was one of the jewels of the trip. In fact we were really impressed with most of southern California with the exception of Los Angeles. The climate is benign. Still in the 70's at the end of October and to all accounts it doesn't get too much colder even in January. There are palm trees of course and even banana trees.

The bike: Bill and Phyllis Davies, #K221 had borrowed my bike in '96 and now the favour was being returned. I had the choice of two. A BMW R80 (800cc) or a Yamaha Venture 1200cc. It was no contest really. The Yamaha has radio, CB, kitchen sink and looked like the dog's bollocks of a cruiser. Pat of course had her own backrest but I had mine too. Armchair stuff.

So off we went. We primarily used the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH to the locals). Sometimes it disappears into a proper highway but it is truly a stunning length of road. We thought that California would be more built up than it is but there are immense tracts of emptiness. The hills in the valleys are pretty low but they are attractive. They all look very inviting and beg to be hiked on but they all belong to some rancher or other and are all fenced off and apparently these ranchers don't like strangers on their land! And they got the gun. Hmm.

Such evocative names: Big Sur (have to go there again), Santa Barbara (a very nice town), San Diego, San Francisco, Mulholland Drive Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive and all that jazz. California is a beautiful state. Rolling, manicured hills, lots of farmland. Didn't realise that farming is so intensive in Ca. Apparently it's the highest agricultural producer in the States. Guess it's all that year-round sunshine. Intensive farming alright, drip irrigation, acres and acres of plastic covered ground with just the plants sticking through. It stops the weeds. Every so often in the midst of farmland you come across dozens of cars parked on the side of the road. Why? When you look closer you notice that the cars are older and that they belong to the Mexican farm workers. They don't get bussed out! Guess I'd rather be earning dollars in the good 'ol US of A than a few meagre pesos in Mexico. That's the thing about this country. It is built on succeeding waves of immigrants who have all come to the promised land to make it as others did before them. It's the land of opportunity alright. On the whole, there is a lot of prosperity around and even the poorest prefer it here than where they came from. Our cab driver was from the Lebanon. The waitress was from Ethiopia. How do they all get here? Driving back from San Diego there is a roadblock set up by US Immigration to check for illegal Mexican immigrants. There is even a triangular warning sign with a silhouette of a woman and child running. Apparently quite a few get killed on the highway each year attempting to cross it to the hills. It's not a lot of fun being an illegal immigrant. They must really be desperate to leave. It is suddenly dawning on them that in a few years the non-whites are going to make up the majority of the population!! Eeek! California and Texas belongs to the Hispanics anyway! There is a lot of irony there.

The only grim town is LA. Interesting coming into it on the 6 lane each way highway, at night, on a motorbike, at 75 mph, not quite sure where we were going, crossing over from the outside HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle - 2 or more passengers) lane to the exit in one bolt manoeuvre. Hmmmm... Not a commute I'd fancy every day. We are Londoners right! Can't tell us nuffink right! Wrong. We bow before the Los Angelenos (and all urban Americans) cos they certainly worship at the god of the automobile. The traffic in England might be bad but the sheer VOLUME of the traffic here is stupendous. And of course there's the LA smog. We were up on a hill and took the picture of it. Looks just like a solid brown cloud hovering over east LA. Impressive in a bizarre way. Whatever will they do when the gasoline runs out??? Big problems ahead!

So, next week it's back to school for another 9 week stretch, fortunately broken up by Thanksgiving and Christmas. Should be off for another 3 weeks at the end of January. Planning to go south to the Gulf, Florida and the like. Got a friend in Dallas so we are planning to stay with her at Christmas. Should be able to fit in New Mexico on the way there. My secretary is on the case. In lots of ways it's pretty neat having a housewife always to hand! Like having your very own efficient Miss Moneypenny. Don't you worry though, Pat's having a ball! Died and gone to heaven.

Till then, as they say round here, "Have a good one."