March 22
Given this was our last day and Oxnard is quite close to LA, we had a lazy start and didn't leave tthe hotel until 10:30am. The bikes were due back at 4pm so we decided to ride down to Malibu and then up into the Hollywood Hills and finally make our way slowly back to Eaglerider.
Heading south out of Oxnard, we picked up our favourite road again, the Pacific Coast Highway and puttered downhill with the blue Pacific Ocean on one side and the hills of State Park after State Park on the other. We made poor progress. After stopping to gaze out from one viewpoint, we would hardly ride for five minutes before stopping at another to look at dolphins leaping and twisting just out to sea. The sun was warm, I had the Beach Boys (I know, I know) playing on the Iphone and all was very well with the world. We carried on like this until about 90 minutes later we pulled into Paradise Cove and headed for a snack at the Beach Cafe. This really is a great spot for families. Surfing, fishing, a pier and great food at the cafe, well worth a longer stop or a hook-up for a few days with an RV. By now, the hills were still bordering us to the east but the west was taken up by hundreds of houses lining the beach. Most houses were dramatic and individual in their style but the common factor was how the builders had tried to balance the amount of beach access with the size of the house and the size of the drive. In most cases, the drive lost out and massive Lincoln's and Caddy's had either their rear-ends or snounts sticking out onto the pavement, much like a bunch of mid-terraces in good old Blighty. However, when you see a property for sale and the selling agent is Christie's of London, you realise that whilst some of the properties aren't much bigger than a suburban "two-up two-down", the price probably is. For it is here that the stars have their homes, hidden behind tall walls and gates. As we drifted past, we presumed the more CCTV cameras, the bigger the star...
As we cruised south out of Malibu, everything started to get more built-up and as we approaced Santa Monica, we were beginning to be held up at signals. We had spent more time than we thought coming through Malibu and with the clock approaching 3:15pm, we decided that it was probably best to head for the depot. 30 minutes later, we skirted LAX and closed the loop of our 4 day journey as we pulled up on South La Cienega Boulevard, home of Eaglerider.
The guys at Eaglerider were friendly and efficient as we checked everything out and they kindly allowed us to use the "boardroom" to change into our travel clothes. After loading the van, we were driven straight to the airport and twenty minutes later we were sitting in the shared Virgin Lounge. The flight was on-time and having eaten in the lounge, after take-off, I pulled down the blind and settled in for the ten hour journey home. The answer is "Yes!", I'd do it again without hesitation.
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