Rick's calling though is that of an artist. His current project is making bronze's of his children. This involves creating a supported wireframe, fleshing out the details in clay, then sending the clay model to a bronzing place where they figure out how to chop it up and make molds of it, pour the bronze and weld it back together.

While still far from finished, this is what it looks like so far (and yes, this is the first time he's ever done this):

I gave a thrilling ride to their son, up and down their street, at speeds aproaching 30 mph.

You can see from his smile how thrilled he is.

My first excursion was to go along Mulholland Drive. As a fan of David Lynch, I couldn't pass up this opportunity, plus the view is really quite stunning. Of course, I forgot my camera that day...
Mullholland Drive runs along the top of the Hollywood Hills for quite a while, with beautifull overlooks of some river I can't remember the name of to the south, and to the districs north of LA which are topped with a nice layer of smog.

I also walked up and down Hollywood Blvd. It's like a tourist trap, except it isn't really: this is hollywood, and there are all sorts of shops and displays and theaters and "Ripley's Believe it or Not". The sidewalks are paved with stars containing the name of some famous person.

I also took advantage of my seasons pass to six flags and went for a day to Magic Mountain. I had a blast, but the lines were killing me, so after a little over a half dozen rides (including their "Superman: the escape") I had to take off. There's only so many 1+ hour lines I can take in a day.

As I am prone to do, I looked up the local clubs. I went to Perversion, at the Ruby. I give it 2 thumbs up. 3 stages, good music, 4 bars. The only complaint is the price of the drinks. A captain and coke was $8 in a small glass. My advice, get a ride, and drink before you go.

I also got a crazy hookup. Debby (Rick's wife) knows one of the bouncers for this little club called "Prey". It's, you know, the place all the big stars go to. The night I was there, Hugh Hefner was there with his escort of Bunnies. Some other stars where there, but I really couldn't care less about Britney Spears type stars. Still, it was cool to skip the line of wishfull party goers, and go in through the side door. The funniest thing was actually going in, there is a couple in front of me trying to go in and there is this older guy with a suit that cost more than my bike telling the bouncer "Phil, can you let them in? They're with me." "Sorry man, there's a camera on me, try the front door." Then Phill looks at me "I'm on the promoters list..., David Cohen...?" "Oh yeah, come right in."

I met some people who where in some bad, and almost went to a jam with the Stone Temple Pilots, but it didn't go through. The odd thing about living here, is it's so ridiculously easy to run into fame that people are completely bazee about it.

Of course, I had to go check out Venice beach. I spend most of a day there. It's really a cool place, lots of street vendors, performors, cool shops, cheap (and not so cheap) food joints. There is some really cool art, such as this Alien, made entirely of junk metal welded together. It is lifesize...

If any of you have been to the south of France, in Nice, it reminded me very much of the boardwalk there. Of course, there isn't nearly as much smog there as in LA, so the sunsets here are much more intense...

Final highlights: I went swimming in the famous californian waves, twice my height and decently warm (and far enough north of LA to be clean), and I hung out at the obligatory Biker Hangout.

Plans for tomorrow and the following days

So the plan for tomorrow is to get up early and ride accross the Mojave desert towards Las Vegas where I have a couple places to stay for one night, then check out the Hoover dam, and spend some time along the Grand Canyon. I'll probably crash somewhere near Flagstaff, there's a bunch of National Parks I can camp in.

After that I'll be heading south to Tucson where I will finally meet Kritie and the Futon she promised me about 6 weeks ago.
By the way:
Kristie, I managed to lose your contact info... all of it... I'm sending you an email, but I probably won't be able to check it again until I get to your place, so if you could call me, that would rule! My number is listed in the help me page.

Well, it's time for me to get some sleep. I have a hot desert to cross in the morning...