Harley Davidson Bike on a Tow Truck & Police Called
Day five couldn’t start off any worse than the end of day four, right?
WRONG!
After a brief two-hour slumber we woke up to the sound of a tow truck backing up and lifting our bikes onto it. It was roughly around 7am at this point in time. We rushed out of the house in barely shorts and a shirt to see what in the world was going on. Bob Holzer Towing got a call from a next door neighbor that claimed our bikes were blocking their driveway. So, instead of knocking on the door or ringing the door bell of his fellow neighbor, this inconsiderate asshat called the police.
Once we found out why the tow truck was taking away our bikes and that the neighbor next door called the police, things became heated pretty quickly between us and the neighbor who called. Let’s call him Richard (Dick for short).
Dick claimed his wife had to go to work early Sunday morning so that’s why he called. Hours before we were told by Carlos we could park at his place, so we parked in the driveway. What Carlos didn’t say is that he shared the driveway with his neighbor. Two bikes parked in the driveway and two bikes parked on the street.
Carlos, in broken English, was very apologetic for the miss-confusion and we understood. What we didn’t understand was why the neighbor didn’t handle the situation like a grown adult and confront the situation head on. In the end, only one bike made it onto the tow truck bed and we ended up paying $175 for a drop-fee to get the bike off the trailer bed. The police officer also gave two bikes a ticket for “blocking the sidewalk” for an additional $75. I’m sorry, but are many people using the sidewalks at 7am, no I didn’t think so either! This was the start to Day 5. We woke up to a bike on a tow truck bed, a police officer and in a strangers house.
Not all was lost though, we were thankful for Carlos and that we had a couple of hours of sleep with a roof over our head. I will tell you one thing though, I never want to be without a place to sleep, that is for sure. We learned a valuable life lesson, be thankful for what you have.
Before we said goodbye to Carlos we left some cash that we had in our pocket as a nice gesture for letting four random strangers stay in his extra bedroom. With hardly any sleep and nothing to eat, we tried to turn the day around by heading to the Santa Barbara Pier.
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The Santa Barbara Pier was beautiful and the sight and smell of the ocean brought me to my happy place. I’ve always wanted to walk down one of those big wooden piers that jet hundreds of feet into the ocean in California. We didn’t know we could ride our bikes on it so that was a bummer that we didn’t get to experience that. But, we did walk all the way to the end, stop for some photos and just reflect a little bit on our trip.
And then, I get a phone call from my dad. He was stopped by the same police officer from this morning…
Luckily this time it was just because one of us left our headlights on. I’ll tell ya, at this point in the trip we were absolutely spent and couldn’t think straight. We had gone over 24hours without much sleep, rest and food and the continued heat wave was unreal. Nonstop 100+ degree days, out in the sun, all day, every day. It definitely took a toll on our bodies and mental state, something we did not take in account before starting our journey. Sometimes mother nature can be a real mother$#@#$@!…hey did you see that huge whale in the last photo slider?
We dug our toes in the sand for a few minutes just to say we went on the beach and then headed back to our bikes to throw our leg over and keep heading south down PCH. Our trip plans were totally off at this point and we honestly just wanted to get back to LA safe and sound. We couldn’t afford anything else to go wrong and we needed to make sure we had a place to stay the night before our bike drop off and plane ride home the next day.
Things started to look up after we left Santa Barbara in our rear-view mirror. When we rode down Highway 1 and past Malibu, the traffic let up and the seaside landscape was so beautiful that I wish we had taken more time to stop and admire it. At one point there were thousands of campers along the shore and beach. They might have been envious of us on our Harley Davidson riding by, but we were envious of them chilling on the beach with nowhere to be. It was something that I’ve never seen before, the amount of campers was crazy!
We were seeing a lot of bikers now, something that we didn’t see a lot of on the rest of the trip. Probably because it was cooler riding along the coast and the heat was manageable. At 85 degrees, it felt cold to us, ha.
Our bike ride from Santa Barbara back to LA was one of my top rides of the trip. The coastline is rich with vibrant beach-houses, businesses as Pacific Coast Highway twisted and turned. Despite the twists and turns, it was hard to keep my eyes on the road. There was so much to look at.
Let’s start with the ocean and the waves crashing just on the other side of the guard rail. Or the beaches that stretch for miles and miles. Everybody seemed so happy carrying beach bags and surfboards to visit the Pacific. Next time, next time…
We pulled into our final resting stop at the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott El Segundo around mid-afternoon and hit the pool. Of course, why wouldn’t we hit the pool after the last 48 hours we just had, it was much needed. I think I blacked out after this because I don’t remember what happened after the pool. Let us not forget, I basically didn’t sleep for the last two days. All the guys were doing their own thing at this point and just chilling out and enjoying the air conditioning and comfy hotel beds. How could a mom not love this face?
A picture says a thousand words. I can’t describe the amount of exhaustion we were feeling at this point. However, we did need to treat ourselves to a nice steak dinner so we washed up and took a stroll down the street from our hotel to find an upscale steak & seafood restaurant. I got the surf and turf special and it was spectacular. Dinner conversation was mostly centered around our trip and what we would do different next time. Nobody was ready to admit quite yet they were up for another motorcycle trip anytime soon.
As the sun was setting on our day and trip, we headed back to the hotel for a full nights rest.
DAY 5 SUMMARY:
Sunday September 2nd, 2017: Woke up to our bikes almost being towed at a strangers house in Santa Barbara, CA. Headed to Santa Barbara Pier. Made it safely back to the LA area. Went to dinner in El Segundo.
Miles Traveled: 101miles/3.5hrs
Trip Total: $897.10
Map Route: https://goo.gl/maps/D1QTfwj96jR2
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