Well, where can I go with driving in the USA, or should I say riding!
For those of you who remember my second day in Los Angeles you may recall what an experience it was for me? Or not! But it was!
Looking back I realise that a big part of it was simply because of my lack of geographical knowledge. If I had known where I was going, I'm sure it wouldn't have been quite so bad. For those of you who think, 'Ahh hah, he deserved what he got, taking on LA and thinking he was going to win' I just want you to know I did study the map like you had to do in the good old days! Two things though, I was on a bike and you cannot spread a map over the passenger seat and LA is just so big, the distances just don't compute in a Kiwi's head, well this Kiwi boy's head anyway! You know you have to go down the I-405 for a few miles and it always seems like you've been on the 405 for ages, but you've still got 20 miles to go, or more. So you see something vaguely familiar on the exit signs and think, that's me, and off you go! You're no where near where you wanted to be. All this and you're remembering to ride on the right side of the road on an unfamiliar motorbike.
Anyway, that's enough justification from me.
Driving and riding in the USA is different to New Zealand. The speeds are faster, the cars and in particular the utes and pick-ups are bigger and people are wanting to get somewhere fast. For them, they are familiar with the roads.
They are very polite though. On a couple of occasions that may or may not have had something to do with navigational miscalculations, and needing to get across a couple of lanes fast they will pull back in let you in. It had nothing to do with the panicked look in my eyes, rather perhaps they understood because they have all been there at some stage. All this is done at pace. I had no horns used in anger against me and I didn't use my horn once. I couldn't even tell you what it sounded like. I did wonder as posted in one of my earlier blogs how much this may have had to do with the possibility of weapons being present or the fear of road rage incidents. I'll never know.
I do think though that speed limits are put there just a a general guideline because no-one sticks to the limits. I was told by a American driver that the general rule of thumb was the posted speed limit plus 5. Hah, right! I took this guide and stuck to it, but still had cars going past me like I was running on 1 cylinder. This included Highway patrol cars, sheriffs and Police! The limit plus 5 my hat!
The freeways and highways are well patrolled though. When my bike desided it didn't like the comment I made about red bikes being inferrior to black bikes and decided it wasn't goin to put up with these insults anymore and just stopped working 50 miles out of LA, it didn't take long to attrack the attention of the Highway patrol tow wagons. He just wanted to make sure Nev & I were OK and posted a yellow notice on my bikes arial so that all subsequent CHPs passing knew that I had been checked and that things were OK. We watched that little yellow sign blowing in the breeze on the side of the freeway for 3 1/2 hours! Such is life.
You do see quite a bit of debris on the side. More alarming is the amount of tyre rubber that has shredded off worn truck tyres. I sure wouldn't want to be behind or alongside a truck when that happened, it could take your head off.
The Interstates and freeways surfaces are either concrete or blacktop. I preferred the blacktop, as they were smoother. When the concrete surfaces crack or are damaged, they repair them with tar. Either running with the road or across it. On a bike this is not good. When the surface is cold in the winter or mornings, the tar makes the bike wheels 'twitch' as they slip a bit. When it is hot as in summer, the tar makes the bike wheels 'twitch' as they slip a bit! It makes for interesting riding when you're giving the bike a bit of a nudge along! Add to that mix the tyres on the bike having a bit of a flat spot from the straight riding and you can have a ride that always entertains and always gives you something to think about.
The other thing that unnerved me anyway, was the first few times that I went through a red light! When turning right you are allowed to do this unless there is a sign that says you can't. One of the first few occasions I did this there was a LAPD patrol car sitting over the other side of the intersection. That would be right, I get to do this for the first time right in front of the law. I closed my eyes and just did it! And guess what? It was OK, there was no siren or flashing lights!
It was quite funny, I had just picked up the bike and went through my first few intersections, I was doing fine and I was just riding along thinking hey everybody, look at me, I'm doing it, I'm riding on the roads in LA - USA! I laughed quietly to myself, probably just as well no one will know what is going through my mind, you look like a dork!
The intersections with stop signs also took a bit of getting used to. It is a case of first in first to go. You pull up to the stop signs, these can be what they call a 3 way, 4 way or as encountered in Carmel-by-the-sea, a 5 way! If you are the first one there you get to go first, second there, you go second. It works! I did wonder what happens if someone doesn't do it as they are supposed to, how would you prove it when it came to the blame game? I'm not sure that you could, I suppose like here in NZ, it is your word against theirs. Let the insurance companies sort it out.
The speed limits I think are well signposted. They take you up and down the speed range in gradual increments. Coming off the open the road they take you from 65mph (eg), down to 55, then 45 and often straight down to 25mph with going through shops where there were pedestrian crossings.
Pedestrian crossings had really cool flashing LEDs when you pushed the buttons and stayed flashing until you had crossed.
The speed signs then took you back up through the range when leaving towns. I was hard to get it wrong and I guess the flip side of that is that it is hard to argue against if you are unfortunate to get it wrong and get caught. I found the road well marked and easy to understand.
The GPS, bought out of frustration and sanity reasons was really good, it told you what lanes you had to be in and when to turn off the freeway. Going through town it was great in that it told you what the speed limits were whereever you were. Hard to get it wrong, or so you think. I managed to find some little chinks in it's armour but that's another story!
The interesting bits of roads with actual corners and stuff, interspersed with long straight boring bits made this ride through 5 states a very enjoyable experinece. One I would repeat in a heart beat.
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