doug5551
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- Jun 11, 2007
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So last August I was in Denver on a Sunday night, reading the IB5K rally pack for leg one. One of the bonuses was in Hawthorne, CA, very near Los Angeles, where I live. It was a two day leg, and not worth a lot of points, so I could not visit it during the rally, but I vowed that one day I would see that bonus.
My friend Chris Ogden and I wanted to practice our rallying, so last Saturday we decided to meet at a Denny's in El Segundo at 5 am with a rally pack with all the bonuses from both legs of the IB5K that were located in the Southwest, as well as the GPS points. We decided we were going to end up that night at my place in Big Bear, but were going to simulate a rally day on our way there.
We came up with two routes, one based on Phoenix and one based on Northern California. We decided to do the NorCal route.
So we were off to Hawthorne to see the bonus I had wanted to visit since last August:
Fosters Freeze that inspired the Beach Boys to write "Fun Fun Fun until Daddy takes the t-bird away"
Next was Morro Rock:
Ogden completing his paperwork:
Highway 1 through Big Sur was closed due to a rock slide, so we took 101 up North and went through Salinas on our way to Monterey to go to have our photos taken with the John Steinbeck bust along the Cannery row sidewalk:
It was very crowded as we filled out more paperwork:
We got out of those crowds and headed north to Capitola. In the morning, neither of us had ever heard of Capitola, which turned out to be near Santa Cruz, and now we were heading to the Capitola Mall.
Why, you might ask???
But of course, to go to the middle of the mall and buy something from the "As Seen on TV Store" I bought a soap caddy for $2.99:
We hurried out of the mall and back to our bikes and then headed to Hollister.
We were heading to a place called "Wizard's Cafe" I imagined it was a small mom-and-pop dive breakfast joint.
I was wrong:
You can just imagine my surprise when I found out that the cafe was actually located at the Corbin Factory. Surprise is always just around the corner when you are on a rally.
We then headed south to Cholame to our last bonus, the James Dean Memorial:
This was my first time here, and we had a quick dinner at the Jack Ranch Cafe as the sun set:
After this, we high-tailed it through the cold Tehachapi mountains and the windy desert and up twisty roads to 7,000' of Big Bear, where I took a picture of my surprise bonus:
Our Dachshund Sadie.
We arrived after 900 miles at 12:45 am, a little cold and tired but happy from a great day exploring California and visiting places we would only see because of the rally.
The next morning we had breakfast and headed back to LA.
However, in Yucaipa, I got a flat. No visible puncture. Would not inflate using the portable compressor.
So I called Allstate Roadside Assistance. They tried calling 3 local Yamaha dealers and all were closed, as it was Sunday.
So they covered a 90 mile tow to my residence at no charge. Just a $20 tip to the good tow truck driver. It would have been $300 otherwise.
I highly recommend the Allstate Roadside assistance. I wont leave home without it....
Many thanks to all IBR staff and volunteers. Please know that your work lives on much longer after the event was over, and it was a real pleasure to see these places that I could not visit during the IB5K.
Special thanks to Lisa Erbes for her efforts last year in the rally. You are still sending people to places they would otherwise never see.
And of course, Eddie James....”Far away is far away only if you don't go there."
My friend Chris Ogden and I wanted to practice our rallying, so last Saturday we decided to meet at a Denny's in El Segundo at 5 am with a rally pack with all the bonuses from both legs of the IB5K that were located in the Southwest, as well as the GPS points. We decided we were going to end up that night at my place in Big Bear, but were going to simulate a rally day on our way there.
We came up with two routes, one based on Phoenix and one based on Northern California. We decided to do the NorCal route.
So we were off to Hawthorne to see the bonus I had wanted to visit since last August:
Fosters Freeze that inspired the Beach Boys to write "Fun Fun Fun until Daddy takes the t-bird away"
Next was Morro Rock:
Ogden completing his paperwork:
Highway 1 through Big Sur was closed due to a rock slide, so we took 101 up North and went through Salinas on our way to Monterey to go to have our photos taken with the John Steinbeck bust along the Cannery row sidewalk:
It was very crowded as we filled out more paperwork:
We got out of those crowds and headed north to Capitola. In the morning, neither of us had ever heard of Capitola, which turned out to be near Santa Cruz, and now we were heading to the Capitola Mall.
Why, you might ask???
But of course, to go to the middle of the mall and buy something from the "As Seen on TV Store" I bought a soap caddy for $2.99:
We hurried out of the mall and back to our bikes and then headed to Hollister.
We were heading to a place called "Wizard's Cafe" I imagined it was a small mom-and-pop dive breakfast joint.
I was wrong:
You can just imagine my surprise when I found out that the cafe was actually located at the Corbin Factory. Surprise is always just around the corner when you are on a rally.
We then headed south to Cholame to our last bonus, the James Dean Memorial:
This was my first time here, and we had a quick dinner at the Jack Ranch Cafe as the sun set:
After this, we high-tailed it through the cold Tehachapi mountains and the windy desert and up twisty roads to 7,000' of Big Bear, where I took a picture of my surprise bonus:
Our Dachshund Sadie.
We arrived after 900 miles at 12:45 am, a little cold and tired but happy from a great day exploring California and visiting places we would only see because of the rally.
The next morning we had breakfast and headed back to LA.
However, in Yucaipa, I got a flat. No visible puncture. Would not inflate using the portable compressor.
So I called Allstate Roadside Assistance. They tried calling 3 local Yamaha dealers and all were closed, as it was Sunday.
So they covered a 90 mile tow to my residence at no charge. Just a $20 tip to the good tow truck driver. It would have been $300 otherwise.
I highly recommend the Allstate Roadside assistance. I wont leave home without it....
Many thanks to all IBR staff and volunteers. Please know that your work lives on much longer after the event was over, and it was a real pleasure to see these places that I could not visit during the IB5K.
Special thanks to Lisa Erbes for her efforts last year in the rally. You are still sending people to places they would otherwise never see.
And of course, Eddie James....”Far away is far away only if you don't go there."
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