Last Friday I woke up very early

and headed south

it was raining and I was trying to focus my eyes on the road.  I left home before 5am and about 45 minutes later

I crossed the imaginary 49th parallel

and entered into the United States and found one door open, just for me

20 minutes or so later I found myself at the Port of Bellingham, the location of the Bellingham International Airport

It is not yet 6am.    I was the only one to be scanned through security.  They don't have to tell me to take off my shoes and put all my metal items into a container to be scrutinized.  I am processed in record time

Soon the world awakens and more people arrive and it is time to board our plane

You really feel like you are travelling somewhere when you have to walk onto the tarmac and board your plane using the outside gangway

A mere 2 hours later we arrived at OAKland International where my car was waiting.   I had a rendezvous with an important Kiwi Visitor with a Kiwi accent.   I arrived a few hours earlier so I decided to drive over the San Mateo toll bridge

Toll Plaza

It is a very long bridge which is just south of SFO: San Francisco International airport.  I had not eaten anything since around 4:30am when I finished my small bowl of Tony the Tiger's Frosted Flakes so I took a detour to Burlingame so I remain close to the airport

this small town has a  nice feel to it.  I had a croissant stuffed with eggs and ham and it was delicious

soon enough I got the message to pick up Roger, from NZ .  Not to be confused with that other large Island which is located only 2" to the left

Roger had not eaten and was famished, so I suggested that we head over to that Iconic Motorcycle hangout,  Alice's Restaurant in Woodside, CA

Roger, looking at their t-shirt collection

It was getting late so we headed into town so we could get Roger checked into his hotel and took CA35 north and we came across 2 small deers when we came around a corner.  They were just standing in the middle of the road.  We stopped and soon they disappeared up the embankment

I don't know my way around so I was relying on my GPS to guide us there.  We got stuck in horrendous gridlocked traffic and some lane splitting bikes caught me off guard.  Slowly but surely we inched our way and eventually we arrived at Roger's residence for the next few days

More bloggers are on their way and will arrive tomorrow .  .  .   (to be continued)