John's sister has a friend who has a friend who rides bikes...sort of a thing, had us meet up with Jon Webster and Marvin Campbell for a 50 mile spin today. These two are easily two of the friendliest people I can remember meeting. Marvin is Arkansas meets LA...great cross mix of the best of each. Boy, this man has a hundred stories, which I think Jon Webster may have heard a few times already as he was lip synching a couple of them. John is a native from LA who provides replacement parts to gym operators throughout the world...what a great idea. These guys took us down the bike trail (alongside a drainage culvert) down to the water, then along the beach...Manhattan beach, Marina Del Ray, Redondo beach...then along a short stretch of the Pacific Highway, up into a beautiful residential neighborhood and then back via the beaches. It's everything that LA is advertised as...surfers, rollerbladers, lots of bikers, spectacular silver tear drop Porche, 1964 Corvette in mint condition, 1974 Alpha Romaeo, not to mention all the new cars like Ferrari's, lots of Honda S2000's and so on...Euclaptis trees and their distinctive smell, and a very style conscious crowd for sure. Houses are very spanish to my eye and are hanging on every possible cliff and hillside seemingly ready to just fall off. Stopped for coffee where many bikers go...huge cappucino's and latte's.

Came back and swung by Marvin's house...he's a very high energy guy with 2 electric cars and solar power for parts of his house. Then off to Jon Webster's where he invited us for lunch. This place is beautiful and very LA in that it has a beautiful pool and garden, is a very classic 1950's style which he's preserved down to the curved wood cabinets and the jalousy louvered glass at the outside room. Lunch was sandwiches with avacado added to the turkey and ham with cheese...great stuff. Jon and John were grooving on the same TV shows so you can imagine that conversation. I don't even recognize the show names for the most part, so I wasn't much of a contributor. I swear, though, we couldn't have been more welcome.

I'll edit this later when I get a few more photos. My camera batteries died so I only have Jon's dog Zoey and a shot or two of his house.

Also see:
John and Tom in LA
John and Branka in LA
Jon Webster's house.jpg
Jon Webster's pool
- posted by Tom @ 3:33 PM

 
Arrived from Boston without a hitch. Eric's bike box is really compact and I didn't even have any charges for bringing my bike on the plane. Ray and John needed to pay an extra $80. Ray picked me up at the airport with his son Jim as the chauffeur. Nice to meet him. John, originally scheduled to leave Thursday morning, left on Friday instead has just called to say he's arrived. Rumor has it that his Mother, step-father, Branka, and his sister will be at the Pacific sendoff. Sounds like we'll have our own cheering section.

Have assembled the bike and will ride tomorrow to make sure it's fine. It's incredibly bright and warm out, so it will be nice to get out in the weather. Photo is of "command central" in the Marriott Courtyard. Bike box is being picked up this afternoon by UPS for the trip back to Eric's...thanks Eric, it's very nice.


Also see:
John Assembling his bike
- posted by Tom @ 5:31 PM

 
Getting ready to go...with Jesse during visit with Rachel.


- posted by Tom @ 11:33 AM

 
Here's the route.RAF2004.xls
- posted by Tom @ 10:27 AM