Venice Beach, CA

The first of what will be many many man dates.

Upon re-reading this entry, I thought it deserved a little more love, being the first stop of the trip and all. So here goes...

Scott and I landed in LA after a relatively uneventful direct flight. A huge thanks so Sam and Jen for a cheeky upgrade which made the flight seemingly pleasant. We even cleared customs at a record pace! Our only hiccup was a broken gate on the tarmac but we all know that's a small price to pay on a long haul flight.

We've rented a car, at least for long enough to get us to Vegas. Driving on the right takes some getting used to but we only had a few near misses. Freeways and higher speed limits are about the only thing that makes this massive country traversable.

We have no business in LA, having both been before, so we pretty much just killed an afternoon. We visited Venice Beach, set up phones with AT&T (so expensive!) and dropped in to check out the UCLA campus.

We also got a west coast undie swim. I really should have brought a towel, but fortunately the area is for the vein and I didn't have too many odd looks strutting my stuff. Call back November 15 when we hit Florida and swim in the Atlantic.

Our first dinner on tour and first night's accommo were nothing to be proud of. Let's just say we set the bar low for the rest of the trip. And saved some coin.

The highlight of the day was watching Scotty deal to a Japanese man (read: short ninja/samurai) in a rope climb race at the beach gym. A tight and heated competition with a rowdy crowd. Very enjoyable!Read more