Cycling, cities, confrontation, consumption

Hi again



It's been a while. We've been busy with travelling, kids and generally trying to fit lots in while keeping the munchkins happy.



Before leaving LA Graham, Mark and I went cycling from Santa Monica down the beach in the blazing sun. We wandered through the burbs then around the port which was being renovated by many mexican looking workers. Tough in that heat. From Santa Monica we got down to just past LAX, a good effort in that heat. Once again I noticed our consumption of bottled water. I used to go biking a whole day in Christchurch and have two bottles which I'd refill occasionally. We are such consumers. Anyway we managed to not get knocked off which was a real possibility after reading a couple of articles that morning about road rage against cyclists in LA. Someone even had a tyre iron thrown at them. How about that for road rage. See below: Water bottles thrown from cars at cyclist's heads! and "Los Angeles is an almost pathologically bike-unfriendly city." I know what he means. I didn't actually feel unsafe but was a bit wary after reading all this. I guess it depends which part of LA you bike through? We had sore bums but no cracked heads.

I only got sworn at once when I had to stop behind an English couple on a tandem. "get out of the F$#@%$ way" he said. Another memorable moment was when a disabled guy was crossing the road in his chin controlled wheel chair. As he got to the other side a car reversed out into him. He quickly pulled back with his chin moving as fast as the 12V would carry him and narrowly missed being even more handicapped. He was already begging on the street for health bills so it couldn't get a lot worse I imagine. Talking of traffic...

There are a huge amount of Hummers in the city. One day I spotted 6 and the next 7 and that was only in the neighbourhood without even going searching. There were 4 Hummer outlets advertised in the paper. Also ads for Maseratti, Porshe, Audi, Lambourghini etc. Seems amazing to a Kiwi boy like me. People love to drive. We asked someone how to get somewhere on the bus and they said "Americans don't take the bus". Well no wonder you need all that oil!

Overall LA was great. What really made it was staying with Gwen and Graham. Thanks for making us welcome it was so relaxing to have a quiet space to come back to after all the sun and surf.