We left LA in the late morning realizing we would be fighting traffic all the way through the city. The traffic was at a slow crawl by the time we made it to Malibu all lanes at a standstill. In California its legal to split lanes, but with wide saddlebags we were both a bit hesitant until a guy with a loud Harley basted by us splitting lanes. He had wide ape hanger bars and highway pegs and was likely wider than our bikes, so we quickly pulled out behind him and followed as he paved the way.
Finally we get out of the city and hit the curvy mountainous road towards San Francisco. One of the areas we were really looking forward to was Big Sur, the coastal road between LA and San Francisco and its legendary views. The views did not disappoint and the weather was perfect, however, it was the start of a long weekend and traffic was steady, yet busy.
We rolled into San Simeon as the sun was setting. Because it was the long weekend all the hotels and motels were booked. We didnt want to ride one of the most scenic highways in the world in the dark so we started to get desperate to find a place. One bed and breakfast had one last room available – great, although it was $300 a night – doh, and it happened to be the honeymoon suite. I was starting to get visuals of dumb and dumber.
We decided to keep looking and by this time it was pitch black. I thought we should just sleep on the beach, but a biker that stopped to chat with us said we could easily get a ticket for that. Finally we found a motel that totally gouged us, but we paid and knew we would get good sleep in preparation for the ride up Big Sur the following day.