The first meeting was called to order. I introduced Terry Bishop
(Past President) and he presented me with my new Chapter President rocker. All
of the new officers and appointed leads were announced and rockers presented
(Chuck Giambitti/Vice President and Vet Rep, Patty Giambitti/LOS Rep, Jim
Rawlinson/Sergeant-at-Arms, Johney Harper/Lead Shephard, John Ruhland/Lead
Tailgunner, Richard “Taz” Green/Safety Officer, Susan Palaoro/First
Lady). Rockers were also presented to past officers (Terry Bishop/Past
President, Keith Limbach/Past Lead Tailgunner, and Stacy Limbach/Past LOS Rep
[although Stacy wasn't present]). Officers who are continuing in their current
positions were also announced (Scott Hamilton/Treasurer, Ken Indorf/Secretary).
We had some visitors this time as well – Barry Shapiro with his
daughter Jackie, Doug Cort and Pat Jacques, Michelle Russell, and Carl Artinian
and his daughter Alex.
After a rousing round of Happy Birthday to Rose Cossart and Larry
Barton, raffle tickets were drawn. The four lucky winners were Keith,
Luis, Glenn and Gary. Congrats guys! Then for the first time in a
few years we had a 50/50 drawing with Charlie being the lucky winner of $50.50.
We finished up the business at hand and split up into three groups of
11 bikes each to head down the 5 fwy to San Diego’s Mt. Soledad. We
stopped at our usual rest stop on our way and as usual were greeted by a bus
load of Chinese tourists – where was Dan when we needed him to translate
lol. After a quick stop there we were on to San Diego. I
admit that a lot of the trip was freeway – but the view from the mountain is
amazing and surely made up for that. From the top you have a 360-degree
view of all of San Diego county.
Wish it had been clearer but still an
awesome view.
When we arrived we parked in the lower parking lot and walked up
the hill to the memorial. If you don’t know the story, Mt. Soledad was
built in 1931 and the cross has stood at the top of the mountain for all that
time – in the 1990s a group decided that they wanted the cross removed (that
whole separation of church and state) – so to protect it, the site was
dedicated as a memorial to our veterans in 2000. The memorial itself consists
of a large, white cross and placards dedicated to servicemen (and servicewomen)
on the surrounding walls. Plaques were located for Jimmy Stewart,
William Holden, General Pershing, Ronald Reagan, and a lot more.
A
surprise to us was the Channel 8 news van. Okay – we saw a bunch of bikes
and lots of vests – wondered what we were walking into but…relief it was a
group of Christian riders that was having a “blessing of the bikes” event on
the mountain as well. Pretty cool.
Once everyone had a
chance to look at the view and the plaques, and Scott Hamilton was able to
locate his grandson Colin, we all saddled up and started our decent down the
mountain. The ride up was really smooth and sweeping – the ride down is a
pretty good grade with a little bit of twisties – really fun. Next stop
was lunch. We all arrived at Islands in La Jolla Village and it was
really awesome. Although we had warned them how many of us would be
having lunch (around 35) I never thought they would pull it off, but they
did. We were seated and served and out in around an hour! I can’t
thank them enough they were great. I hope everyone had a good lunch – I
hear most of you did.
After lunch it was a quick stop at the Mobil and
a jump onto the 5 north. Now originally we were supposed to take a little
trip up through Torrey Pines and Del Mar, but just the morning before the ride
we found out the bridge between the two would be closed and that was
that.
We all arrived around 3:45 at El Torito with only a few peeling
off on the way. After some heartfelt thanks to all of you, the ride was
called! Funny though, it took almost an hour for people to say their
goodbyes and leave. I trust everyone had a great time. Can’t wait
until next months ride on February 4th.
