So, this was it, our last day on the Harleys. A light breakfast preceeded us taking to the roads for the last time and our penultimate fuel stop. All gassed up, we were ready for the final push towards LA but first there would be some nice twisty roads and hot frenetic freeway to contend with.
We soon left the coast road behind but not before going through the seaside mists once more. It's strange to see people on the mist covered beaches. I suppose they know that before long it will burn off and they can get down to some serious sunbathing.
Away from the coast the temperature was rising rapidly. The news over the last day or so has been predicting record temperatures for the west coast and Death Valley was expected to be about 20 degrees hotter than when we rode through. PHEW!
We found ourselves wending our way through the many fields of strawberries, veggies and of course vines. There are a whole host of vineyards, all eager for you to taste their wares. Not for us though, we flash past on our way to 'a surprise'. Dean had said there was a surprise for us on this leg of the tour and unusually for Dean, he managed to keep the secret!
As we rode up into the hills once more, there was a symphony of board scraping, coming mainly from the Heritage Softails of Bill, Steve and Elizabeth. Finally though, I managed to deck out the RK, not through choice, as I just ran into a bend a little hotter than usual and before I knew it there was a scraping sound. Not though the footboards but the tip of the r/h exhaust pipe. I was right behind Dean (probably why I went in too hot, he's so slow ;-) ) and both he and Carol gave me a thumbs up as the pipe touched down!
As the road flattened and straightened, suddenly on our right hand side, a magical sight met our eyes. In little paddocks by the road were dozens of the tiniest horses you will ever see in your lives. Take a Shetland Pony and shrink it by a third and you get the idea. Then there were foals, so even smaller. So, so cute. First glance you would think Shetland but on closer inspection, you could see they were horses, not ponies, perfect in every magical miniature detail. That must be the surprise Dean mentioned, I thought. But it wasn't, that was still to come.
A little way further up the road, we turned into a main street that looked like it wouldn't have been out of place where Elizabeth and Johan come from, Sweden. In fact, this is a town called Solvang but may as well be called Little Denmark. Not entirely Danish, as we discovered by the Belgian chocolate shop, for the most part though, the buildings are all of a Danish style (I guess, never been ) and the shops named with Danish names, such as Rasmussen. This was Dean's surprise. I'd seen this place on TV when Henry Cole rode the Wild West, so I kinda popped Dean's balloon. Aw!
A very quaint and picturesque town, we had about 25 minutes to check the place out whilst Dean, Carol and Larry indulged themselves with coffee and, yes you guessed, Danish pastries. Carol had told Dud and I that she would love to live in Solvang and so, as we had previously discussed buying her a gift from the two of us ('she's such a sweetie') we chose a pottery spoon, with Solvang houses on it.
Soon it was back on the road, the temperature rising steadily!!
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