Brandon O'Brien

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 @ 7:00 PM in General Travel

I woke up at 5:30am today so I could get an early start considering I had about 675 miles and 12 hours worth of riding to tackle. After eating and finishing some last minute preparations I was able to put up the kickstand and get started at 6:25am.

The ride started fine as I headed out of Albuquerque on I-40 towards Tucumcari. I was riding into the sun for a little while but it wasn't too bad because it was mostly off at an angle and wasn't directly in my line of sight. When I got to Tucumcari I fueled up and jumped on US-54 where I would stay the rest of the day.

I quickly crossed into Texas, then Oklahoma and finally Kansas. When I got into Texas the winds started to pick up but it wasn't really an issue since the wind was at my back and pushing me along. I stopped and ate some lunch jut after crossing into Oklahoma. I had made some turkey sandwiches and brought some apples so I could eat cheaply and quickly. I also had another Red Bull to keep me going since it was getting hotter and hotter with every passing hour.

I can't remember exactly where it was, but I want to say somewhere around the Oklahoma / Kansas border the winds shifted directions so they were coming from the south. Since I was heading east this meant I had a constant 30-40mph crosswind for what seemed like roughly half of the ride. The constant bombardment of wind from both directions was really wearing me down and causing some pain in my neck to keep my head centered on the road.

Just outside of Wichita I started to really debate whether or not I should continue with my original plan of camping or if I should push on and try my luck at finding a cheap hotel. I really didn't want to set up my tent in howling wind and deal with that all night.

Fortunately when I got closer to the Cross Timbers campground the wind had settled down a bit and I was really getting hungry for dinner so I decided I'd just keep with the plan and stay here for the night. I got into the campground around 7:30 pm central time. I picked an available spot, paid for it and then went to go find it… only to find out that someone else had already put their tent there. They said they had paid for it yesterday but their reservation ticket had a date of the 28th which is Memorial Day. I went back to the reservation desk and picked another spot that I saw on my way around that was surrounded by vacancies. Fortunately I was able to get my tent set up just before the sun went down. I quickly scarfed down my second sandwich, had some mac and cheese and an apple. Now I'm writing this post and thinking about how I don't really want to get up at 5:30am again. Anyway, It's off to bed for me. Thanks for tuning in!

Stats:

Distance: 675 miles
Duration: 12 hours
Near death experiences: 0

Tomorrow: Make it to Indy!

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Tags: motorcycle, indy 500

Posted from: United States

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 @ 7:00 PM in General Travel

In an effort to get my butt in gear for a 17 day 5,500+ mile ride later this summer (link to that ride), I decided I would ride my Triumph Tiger 800 from Albuquerque, NM to Indianapolis, IN for the Indy 500. The route is just over 1,300 miles each way which I plan on breaking up into two days spending the night camping at Toronto Lake (east of Wichita, KS). My parents live just north of Indy so I'll be staying with them for the long weekend.

The Plan:

Day 1 (May 23): Leave Albuquerque at 6am and ride 673 miles to Toronto State Park in southeastern Kansas where I'll be camping for the night. To get there I'll mainly be on US-54 with a little stretch on I-40 at the beginning of the day.

Day 2: Pack up and leave the campsite as early as possible and head to Indy. This is a mix of US-54 and I-70.

Day 3: Get up early and head to the track to attend Carb Day (final practice session before the big race). Much drinking will be involved. After that I'll have some parties with friends.

Day 4: Rest day / family day. Probably hang out with my grandparents, uncle and parents.

Day 5: RACE DAY! Head to the track early and enjoy some infield debauchery that will most likely involve many beers being consumed.

Day 6: Memorial day. Another rest day / family day.

Day 7: Leave Indy and head back to the Toronto State Park (unless it's a crap-hole of a campsite in which case I'll have to re-evaluate my route home).

Day 8: Depart campsite and head back to Albuquerque.

The Equipment:

I'm taking my 2011 Tiger 800 with a little over 4k miles on the clock. I've got a Touratech 25L topcase and two SW-MOTECH TraX Alu-Box 45L panniers plus a Roto-Pax 1.75gal fuel pack.

Tags: motorcycle, indy 500

Posted from: United States

Monday, September 5, 2011 @ 7:00 PM in General Travel

We woke up before sunrise on Monday to pack up our camp site, eat and get under way. It was in the low 40's when we left around 6:50 in the morning. Today's ride called for heading to Grand Junction to see the Colorado National Monument, then we'd head back to Denver. We stayed on US 50 from our campsite all the way to Grand Junction. We saw a huge herd of bighorned sheep just a few miles away from our camp site on our way west. It's a good idea to have some gas in your tank before taking this part of the journey because there weren't very many gas stations until you get to Montrose. We fueled up there and then made our way through Delta and finally to Grand Junction. In Grand Junction we fueled up again, grabbed a snack and then took US 340 into the Colorado National Monument. Depending on when you get there, it's probably wise to fuel up before entering the park.

If you're afraid of heights, then you might want to pass this ride. It's 26 miles with a lot of spots that have no guard-rail and sheer drops of a couple hundred feet. The road itself is in good condition and has some great curves and twists through some amazing red rock canyons. There are scenic overlooks about every mile or so where you can stop and take photos of the views. We also had to be careful because there were a lot of bicyclists and slow moving traffic to watch out for. The five dollar entrance fee is worth the hour and a half to two hours it takes to get through the Colorado National Monument.

After we got out of the Colorado National Monument we found ourselves in Fruita, Colorado two miles from I-70. We ate lunch at McDonalds and fueled up once again before getting on I-70. We rode in 90 degree heat for the rest of the day. We soon found out you need sun block on the face and hands even when you are wearing a helmet and gloves. The drive from Fruita to Denver is nothing exciting because it's a single straight road and in 90 degree heat you get tired easily. We found our selves stopping every 80 - 100 miles for gas, snacks, and soda. One cool thing about doing I-70 from Grand Junction to Denver is the wide change in scenery. It starts off very sandy looking in Grand Junction, then slowly turns into the ski areas with lots of pine trees. We made our last stop in Frisco, Colorado at a gas station that had two pumps and lots of traffic. Once we got about 5 miles outside of Georgetown we found out everyone was heading back at the same time, so for 25 miles we did anywhere from 3 - 50 mph. This took us about an hour and half to get past Idaho Springs. From there, it was a smooth ride back to Ryan's place.

Some things we learned throughout the trip:

1. Having cigarette adapter plugs for our phones and headsets came in extremely handy. The campsite didn't have any power outlets to charge things, so we wouldn't have had any other way to keep things charged.

2. Put some sunscreen on your wrists, hands and face when you're riding all day. The sun finds strange ways to work into cracks and you end up with sunburns when you thought you'd be fine.

3. Bring a sponge to help clean your cooking gear.

4. When you stop for food, grab some extra napkins and keep them with you. You always seem to find a need for napkins when you're camping.

5. If you’re going to be foraging for wood, bring some tweezers because you’ll probably end up with a splinter at some point.

6. If you don't have anything to start a fire with use antibacterial gel.

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Tags: motorcycle, labor day 2011

Posted from: United States

Sunday, September 4, 2011 @ 7:00 PM in General Travel

We noticed we had some new neighbors next to us when we woke up. All the screaming and barking was from them. They must have got in after dark and set up their camp site. It was a mom and dad with their 2 year old girl and 2 small yappy dogs. The dad took more care of the dogs than the kid, and you could tell the wife wanted nothing to do with the whole situation because she just sat in the car wrapped in a sleeping bag. Whenever we saw them, you could cut the tension between the mom and dad with a knife. She did not want to be there and she was so annoyed at the dogs and kid. They had also killed their battery in their car during the course of the night, probably due to sitting in it with the heat on but without turning the car on. They had to ask the host to jump it for them.

After eating breakfast, we backtracked to Gunnison to fuel up, then headed west on US 50 to US 92. It was about 66 miles from the campground to north rim of Black Canyon. The ride was well worth the curves, but beware, there are spots without guard rails next to several hundred feet drops. So if you're afraid of heights, you might want to take the south rim drive instead.

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park North Rim is at an odd location. US 92 takes you toward Crawford and you're in the middle of farm lands, then you head on some side roads and all of a sudden you're looking down on 2,700 foot drops. Black Canyon is narrower and deeper than the grand canyon. The canyon drops 95 feet per mile. You don't really notice that when you're riding to the north rim, but on your way back you definitely notice the decent toward Gunnison. You should also beware of animals, as there were a bunch of chipmunks, squirrels and birds darting across the road. Whatever you do, don't try to dodge them or else you could fly off the mountain in a ball of flames. Also beware of rocks that have fallen into the road, as they're usually on the curves when you're least prepared to encounter them.

Make sure you take something to eat and have a full tank of gas before heading out to the Black Canyon. There isn't much around in case you run out of fuel or get really hungry. The Black Canyon North Rim isn't paved, but it's groomed gravel. Just keep this in mind when you're going out there. It's washboarded in some spots, but overall not bad. My SV650 handled it just fine. If you're looking for something less frightful and more tourist oriented, you can go to the South Rim of the Black Canyon where it's more developed.

After visiting the north rim, we ate lunch in Crawford, which is just a couple miles north on US 92. The restaurant we stopped at had a Sunday Brunch that was definitely not a diet menu. Roast beef, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, bacon, sausage, eggs, etc. The town was really small. it was basically a liquor store, two restaurants, a church and a gas station. We were the first bikers into the restaurant, but soon after a bunch more showed up. After eating lunch there, we fueled up and headed back to the camp ground.

The ride back on 92 to Gunnison seemed to go pretty quick, but the views and curves were amazing. Ryan almost hit a baby hawk at about 65mph, but it shot up at the last second. I saw it fly out of control for about 10 seconds before finally flying off normally. On the way back we also decided to see if we could get down near the river to get some photos of the Blue Mesa dam, but unfortunately the good spot was gated off for dam workers only.

We got back to the camp site around 3:00pm and our tents were completely full of dust, as there are no trees and very little ground cover. Any wind just picks up dirt and dust and blows it around. Even the rainflies put all the way to the ground didn’t keep the dust out. We spent a little time trying to clean our sleeping bags and stuff, then decided to re-build our lake cooled refrigerator and put our liquor back in. We had to move it about 3 feet closer because the water receded a bit during the day. I also had to add a shade attachment to keep the beers from heating up in the sun. We waited about an hour for the liquor to cool and tried getting in the water ourselves, but it was a brisk 65 degrees, so that didn’t work out too well.

After finishing the beers we decided it would be a good idea to give some fish a new home. We weighed down the empty bottles with rocks and sand and threw them in. The only problem is one of mine didn't have enough weight in it to fully sink, so it floated around for a good hour or two. We tried smashing it by throwing rocks at it, but it got too far away for us to do any damage. After the beers we switched our focus to finishing off the vodka and coke. Note: crappy vodka does not taste good when it's not cold or without ice cubes.

We had set up our little cooler near the boat ram and the people camping to the other side of us (not the one with the 2 year old) were bringing their boat in. All the kids were on the front and one of them fell into the cold water and started crying. We saw them throw in a life jacket and one of the adults jumped in after them. It took about 5 minutes for the boat to loop back around and pick them up, meanwhile the kid is crying probably due to the freezing water.

About 7:00pm the booze really started to kick in because we thought it would be a great idea to gather as much driftwood as possible for our fire. We ended up getting a bunch of big logs and a lot of medium sized pieces. We started our fire and waited a bit to eat dinner because we weren't quite hungry yet due to the huge lunch. By now it was about 8:30pm and dark and our fire was huge and blazing. We noticed that everyone else had already gone to bed, which seemed weird because the night before they were all up until 11 or so. We ate dinner around 9 and then kept the fire going for a little longer then went to bed.

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Tags: motorcycle, labor day 2011

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Saturday, September 3, 2011 @ 7:00 PM in General Travel

This ride report covers a 3 day ride through Colorado over Labor Day weekend 2011. Some of the areas we visited were Gunnison, CO, Black Canyon and Colorado National Monument. The riders were Brandon on his 2004 Suzuki SV650 and Ryan on his 2011 KTM Adventure Dakar. Before the trip started, Brandon rode from Albuquerque to Denver on Friday, then after the trip, he rode back to Albuquerque on Tuesday.

Our first day started off great. We left Denver around 8:45am with temperatures in the 70's. We left by taking US 6 to I-70 out of Denver toward Vail where we would catch US 24. The ride down US 24 toward Leadville was nice. The scenery was beautiful and there were some nice curves.

We stopped for lunch in Leadville at the Golden Burro, which started in 1938 and is one of the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Colorado. The portions were a little smaller than we had expected based on the price we paid, but overall the food was good and the servers were attentive.

From Leadville we continued on US 24 as it merged to US 285 just after Buena Vista. We arrived in Poncha Springs to head west on US 50 toward Gunnison. A lot of these roads are one lane, so long lines of cars stuck behind a camper or truck are very common. Just be prepared for that. We got into Gunnison around 3:00pm and stopped at a liquor store to grab some beers and vodka for the next two nights. We then made our way to the Steven's Creek Campground on the Blue Mesa Reservoir.

The camp site was easy to find, as it was just off of US 50 about 11 miles outside of Gunnison. We setup our tents, unpacked some of the stuff off our bikes and started working on cooling down the beers. The high 80's temperatures had already started to warm them up. We built a small cooler by making a small rocked off area in the water to put the beers and help cool them down. The water was probably around 65 degrees, so it did a good job of keeping the booze chilled.

The campsite host came over as we were setting up our tents and started talking to us about what there is to do around the camping area. He asked us what we were doing tomorrow and we had just planned on riding some curvy roads around the area. He told us about Black Canyon and how there are some great cycling roads on the North Rim on US 92. He gave us a map and we made some notes and figured it sounded like a cool route, so we set the map aside for the morning. The host also told us about a restaurant just outside of Gunnison called the Trough, it’s marked by a pink pig statue outside of the restaurant. They have an adult kids meal for $8.95, which comes with a beer, burger, and fries.

One of the camping spots next to us had two or three families that had all set up camp in the same area. They had a bunch of kids and a boat full of water sport equipment. The camp site to the other side of us was still empty when we had arrived. Steven's Creek allows fires and each camp site has a nice pre-built fire pit. You can purchase firewood or go collect the driftwood that was everywhere. The driftwood burns extremely fast, so you might want to collect a lot of it before it gets dark so you don't run out. The campsite host also let us grab a couple handfuls of wood he had collected from when people left and had extra wood they didn't burn.

The first night started off good. Sunset was really nice because there were some clouds that really picked up the red/orange/pink glows as the sun set. We were tired and went to bed around 9:30 or 10. The neighbors next to us with the kids were up about an hour later than us talking and stuff. It made it a little hard to fall asleep, but we eventually did. Then an hour or so later we were awoken by two barking dogs and a screaming kid. We thought someones dog had got loose and attacked a kid, but weren’t sure. The crying and barking went on the rest of the night. It rained some time between midnight and two in the morning, but when we woke up you couldn't even tell. There weren't even any dust spots on the bikes. It must have been enough rain to make noise on the tents but that's about it.

The temperatures at night dropped into the 30's, so if you're camping in Colorado toward the end of the summer, make sure you bring a nice warm sleeping bag. Ryan got so cold he put on several layers of clothes and used his leather riding jacket to cover his face, and he was still freezing cold. Brandon had a low temperature rated sleeping bag and was comfortable through the night.

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Tags: motorcycle, labor day 2011

Posted from: United States

Saturday, June 11, 2011 @ 10:45 PM in 2011 London

The weather was pretty much perfect for most of the day. They closed down the Circle line for the weekend, which is what we normally take to get to the Victoria Coach Station to catch our tour. We had take the Piccadilly line and go through a few stations before we finally got there. Fortunately we made it in time and got on our bus. We started out by heading toward Oxford and stopping in a town called Bibury. This was a nice little town that had a stream running through it and several rows of extremely old houses. This was only really a quick photo stop before we got back on the bus and headed for Bourton-on-the-Water.

Bourton-on-the-Water was much more touristy but was still a nice relaxing town. It had a large stream running through it and a bunch of shops. The Cotswolds are known for their sheep and wool. We went into a leather store and I was tempted to buy a leather jacket but they didn't have any I liked that were in my size. Eric ended up buying a new wallet there. After that we relaxed for a bit by the river and then went back to the bus.

The next stop was Burford where we had lunch at The Mermaid. I had some fish n chips and they gave us tea again. This town was really nice but had a huge road running through it which kind of ruined the quaintness of the place. We didn't have too much extra time to spend here, and the weather had started to get cloudy like it was going to rain. We got back on the bus and left for Blenheim Palace.

Blenheim Palace is where Winston Churchill was born and raised. The grounds are 3x larger than Hyde park here in London. The Palace took 22 years to build and another 10 years to groom the grounds. They dug out lakes and made rolling hills on the land. The gardens there were beautiful and had a feel of Versailles in Paris. The palace itself was huge inside and is still lived in by the current Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. You could spend days walking around all the gardens here they were so huge.

The tour finally ended and we ended up going back to Piccadilly Circus to look for some kind of souvenir and then had dinner at Bella Italia, where I had a calzone and Eric had a pizza. We called it an early night so we could get ready for bed and pack up for our flights tomorrow. It has been a fun trip and even though there was a bunch we didn't get to see, everything went well and we got to see some very cool things

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Friday, June 10, 2011 @ 11:45 PM in 2011 London

Today was a long day. We started out by heading to the Victoria station to catch our tour bus. The tour took us to Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral and Dover. At Leeds Castle, it started raining as we got off the bus and ended up getting stuck behind several huge groups of French schoolchildren. We finally got passed them and were able to see the castle itself. After walking through the castle we were able to walk around the grounds where they had some gardens and a bird park. Fortunately it had stopped raining by the time we got out. The castle itself is surrounded by a moat several meters deep.

Next was Canterbury and Canterbury Cathedral. Again, it was raining when we got off the bus. We headed to lunch at a place called Panteli's Cafe Bar Restaurant where I had chicken and chips and a cider. They served everyone some tea at lunch and then gave us some apple pie afterwards. After eating, we were on our own for a while to explore the cathedral and the town. The cathedral was impressive on the inside. It was extremely large and the architecture was amazing. After the rain let up a bit we walked around the cathedral and got to see some of the gardens and outlying areas.

After that we got back on the bus and headed out to Dover. When we were leaving the rain finally stopped and it cleared up. We got to the coast and it was so clear that we could actually see the coast of France from the shore. We got out of the bus and were able to walk around on the beach and see some of the cliffs and a big entry port for ships from the rest of Europe. We only spent about 15 minutes here, but that's all we really needed to see everything. There was a castle up on top of some of the cliffs that would have been cool to explore if we had a few hours.

We got back into London and headed to Shepherd's bush where we ate at Gourmet Burger Kitchen again and I got a new 2012 Olympics sweatshirt. We got a text from Eric's cousin's friend again asking if we wanted to meet up, so we met up with them again around the Hammersmith station and went to a bar called Blue Anchor. We had a few ciders before they called last call, which is only around 11 here. We came home and went to bed so we could get up for our tour of the Cotswolds tomorrow.

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Thursday, June 9, 2011 @ 11:45 PM in 2011 London

Today was our first full day tour. We had to get up at 7 this morning to get ready and eat before we got picked up at 7:55 in the lobby. We got on the bus and ended up driving around our area for another hour before they finally took us to the station where we'd get on the real bus to take the tour. We also learned that we needed to pre-print our boarding passes, they didn't just accept our name and confirmation number. So we had to go to the ticket booth and get them to print our passes before we could get on our actual tour bus.

Once we got on the bus, we headed out for Windsor which is just west of London. Windsor is where the Queen lives and her family has lived for many many years. It's the oldest inhabited castle in the world. The initial rush was a little crazy, as we got a late start due to some people not being on time. We had to run to get into line before the entrance filled up too much. We walked through some of the castle (all that was allowed to the public), went through some of the other buildings on site and saw some of the changing of the guard. We had about 2 hours to spend there and got to see pretty much everything inside the castle walls. There was still a lot outside the castle to see, but we weren't able to. It seemed like it was mostly just a lot of shopping and tourist places.

After Windsor we went to Bath. It took about 2 hours to get there from Windsor, so we had some time to see the english countryside. This is the site where the oldest roman bath house is in Europe. We had about an hour and a half to spend here, so we did the tour of the bath house then walked around the city of Bath a bit. Bath is a beautiful area and you could easily spend an entire day walking around and relaxing. There were several old roman bridges and awesome scenery everywhere. While in Bath we also ran to an O2 store so Eric could fill up his cell phone data plan so he could use it again.

We made it back to the bus and headed out toward Stonehenge. While on our way it started to rain pretty hard. By the time we got to Stonehenge it was still raining. We got out and ran up to it and did a lap around taking photos. After the first lap around it started to let up and finally the rain stopped. We were able to enjoy it rain-free for a little while before heading back to the bus. In all, we had about 45 minutes there which is more than enough to see Stonehenge. The ride back to London was about an hour and a half.

For dinner, we went back to Covent Garden and ended up eating at Pizza Hut because it was quick and easy and we were both craving some pizza. It ended up tasting nothing like what I remember of Pizza Hut in the past and we had a beer with dinner. After that, we went to the grocery store by our hotel and got some snacks and Wagners hard apple cider.

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Wednesday, June 8, 2011 @ 11:45 PM in 2011 London

We started off the day by heading to the British Museum. The museum had a so many rooms it would take several days to walk through them all and see all the various artifacts. Some highlights were seeing the Rosetta stone, one of the Easter Island statues and the sculptures that surrounded the Parthenon in Greece. We walked around there for a few hours and then decided to get some lunch and go to the National Gallery. We had lunch at some place called Eat where I got another ham and cheese (jarlesburg) baguette.

After lunch, it started to rain really hard on our way to the National Gallery. We got in and walked around and got to see some Monet, Van Gough and Manet paintings. There were quite a few religious themed paintings and paintings spanning many eras. We finished walking through the gallery and took some photos of Trafalgar Square. By this time, our feet were hurting pretty bad from all the walking we've done over the last few days.

The plan was to meet up with Eric's cousin's friend Jackie and her fiance (Ryan) who live in London and have drinks, dinner and a movie with them. We went to Westfield mall by Shepherd's Bush station and got there a little early, so we walked around the mall. We met up with them and had some drinks, then went to a burger joint and had some food. During dinner we found out that Ryan and I share the same birthday, only a year apart. After that, we saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4 in 3D. The movie was alright, but wasn't nearly as good as the first or second movie. After the movie, we went out for a few more drinks with Jackie and Ryan and then headed home so we could get to bed. We've got to get up early tomorrow for our tour of Bath, Windsor Castle and Stonehenge.

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Tuesday, June 7, 2011 @ 11:15 PM in 2011 London

The weather today was perfect. We started off by eating breakfast and then heading to the Tower of London to take a tour and see the crown jewels. We got there expecting huge crowds but ended up relieved when we didn't have to wait in line for tickets and as soon as we got through the gates there was a tour starting. The tour was conducted by a Beefeater that showed us the highlights of the tower and gave us some history about the place. After the tour we walked through the Crown Jewels exhibit where we got to see may of the old crowns and items used in coronations and high profile events. Next, we walked around the wall along the top and got to go into several of the towers. In the center of the Tower of London was the White Tower that housed the armory originally, but now had several museum type exhibits, some hands on. We decided to get some lunch and head to the London Eye.

For lunch, we ended up eating outside the Tower of London where they had some mixte sandwiches, which tasted pretty good, but not quite as good as the ones we got in Paris. We had lunch with a perfect view of Tower Bridge. We got back on the tube and headed to the London Eye. I had purchased the tickets online earlier that morning and just had to go up to a kiosk and get our tickets printed out. We got right on and got to see a great view of the city. The ride lasts a half hour and each pod holds about 20 people. After the eye we took the tube to a station so we could walk down the Millennium bridge and then go to the Tate Modern.

The bridge was pretty cool, as you could see St. Paul's Cathedral on one side and the Tate Modern on the other. Next, we went into the Tate Modern and looked through the exhibits. Many of them were very strange, but we got to see some big named artists' paintings, like Picasso and Monet. Some of the stranger exhibits included a video of trash blowing around on the street and another of baby sea horses swimming around. We spent an hour or two in there and then decided we should grab something to eat before going to the Shakespeare Globe to see a performance of Much Ado About Nothing.

For dinner, we went to the Anchor Bar where we had a few drinks and I ordered a steak and ale pie. For drinks I had Bulmer's Original cider, which had more apple flavor than the Strongbow I had been drinking. We headed to the globe where we got our tickets. We had a few minutes before they'd seat us so we went through the gift shop where they had a ton of Shakespeare items for sale. Our seats where on the 3rd level in the first row, so we had a pretty good view of the stage. The performance was really good and kept the crowd engaged the whole time. The seats were just wooden planks but they had little pads for rent, but we opted out. It was a little cold because I was still in shorts, but luckily I had my jacket so it wasn't too bad.

When the performance ended, we walked back across the Millennium Bridge to the tube station, taking pictures along the way. We got off at the Embankment tube station and got some pictures of the London Eye and Parliament/Big Ben at night. At this time, it was already after 11:30pm so we headed back to the hotel to call it a night.

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