I started out the morning with lots of layers on – by the end of the day I was in a t-shirt and Chapter vest! For several days I had been watching the weather forecast and I truly believed that it was going to be cold on our ride to Oak Glen – Looks like predicting the weather is not my calling in life! I was so wrong. I never thought it was going to be in the eighties up in the mountains.
We gathered, as usual, at Starbuck’s and again I was so happy to see what a great turnout we had – 35 bikes and 43 people made the ride to Oak Glen. Two new riders joined us, Howard and Linda Montgomery (they are neighbors of the Giambitti’s) and 7 members of Chapter 415 joined us as well. It’s so nice to have Frank Alvarez and his group ride with us again! We had a visit from Bob Barbano the Western Regional Director too! We also had a visit from Glen Scarberry. Now if I understand right, Glen was a 230 member a while back – hopefully we can get him to come back and ride with us! Glad to see you Glen.
After our usual mingling and chatting, we gathered up for our meeting. Lots of chapter business and then the raffle. Our lucky winners this month were Brian Beach, Wayne Moye, Ken Indorf and William Fields. Congrats guys! I am happy to see that the 50/50 is going well although I think we need a different winner – geez Taz won two months in a row.
We split up into our 3 groups with myself, Gary Felkel and Jim Rawlinson as ride captains – congratulations Jim on making your first trip as a ride captain! Good job – well, except for that little directional issue on the 60, but all good.
We could not have asked for a more beautiful day to ride – clear skies, minimal wind and warm weather. We made our way up Ortega Highway and there was no traffic, just us winding our way through the mountains. We passed the Lookout and someone said they thought Pete Black was taking pictures as we rode by – I would love to see those pictures, we looked great!
First gas stop, everyone removed the first layer of clothes – was warming up. Great to see all the bikes together. Once we fueled up, we saddled up and made our way to our lunch stop. The wind seemed to be in our favor pushing the dairy smell off to the side, so it wasn’t that bad going down Ramona Expressway through Perris. Then we were up the mountain to Oak Glen.
There was a little bit of snow on the roadsides, but not enough to make anyone stop to do snow angels (bummer). There was some discussion about Ken’s ram mount that just about caused a few of us to have to pull over cause we were laughing so hard. All in all it was great.
We made it to Apple Annie’s for lunch and they were so awesome to us (be sure to like them on Facebook). We thought we had about 38 people with us – but it turned out to be 43. Looks like we made their day. Could not complain – food was good, service was great! I am always happy when there is pie!
There was a little time to shop before we left, in fact, Carol got a new pair of jeans while we were there. I saw a few get dessert from the candy store too!
Then off down the mountain and into Yucaipa for our last gas stop. A lot more layers were shed as the temperature was at 80 degrees. Such a great day! Then off we rode back to El Torito.
Thanks to all who joined us for our ride, both our members and our guests. Sounds like you all will be back so that is a good thing. A little info was shared about the upcoming events: Skills day and the SW STAR BQ. For more info on those check out our Facebook page and the Our Rides page of the website.
Our next Chapter ride is to Mt Palomar – suggested by Richard Von Luft on April 7th.
Ride called.
