At 6:10 am Saturday morning, Patty Giambitti texted me to tell me it was 39 degrees at her house. I then looked at my phone and saw it was 37 at my house – this was going to be a really cold morning. The group at Starbucks was all bundled up in their warmest riding gear ready for the ride. Since this was the first meeting of the year we had some business to take care of, ride waivers for all and the reading of the Charter. This was a major feat as we had 49 members attending our meeting – all needing to show proof of insurance, their licenses and registration. Luckily we were ready and it went pretty smoothly. Thanks to Larry Barton, Chuck Giambitti, and Taz Green for getting all the paperwork done.
We started the year out with a great raffle and 50/50 with Rac Cossart winning the 50/50 and Cindy Reeves, Carol Wolfe, Pattie Giambitti, Glenn Sandstom and Mike Fry taking home the raffle prizes. Also, thanks to Cindy Reeves for again bringing cookies to the meeting – they were great!
After the meeting we were 37 riders on 32 bikes all eager to go to the USS Iowa so we broke out into three groups with myself, Dan Dobler and Brian Hefter leading three groups.
The ride was really great. The day was clear and the views from the Palos Verdes Peninsula were spectacular. We rode out the 22 to the 405 to the 110 to Pacific Coast Highway and out to the top of the peninsula where we started our way around. The homes in this area are amazing and the views they have are stunning. Of course then there was Portuguese Bend – this is an area where the hillside is constantly moving and the road is never the same each time you ride it. We had fun going up and over the dips and bends. We then completed our way around the point ending at the Korean Friendship Bell. This bell was a gift from the sister city of San Pedro following the end of the Korean War. It sits at the tip of Point Fermin right near the Fort MacArthur Air Force Base. If you ever want to see a great view of Catalina– this is the place to be.
From the Korean Bell we continued on to the USS Iowa. The USS Iowa is a 900-foot, 45,000-ton battleship which served our county for over 50 years. It has been commissioned and decommissioned three times and can, if needed, be re-commissioned again. Several of our members served on this ship or one of its sister ships. The tour included six rather steep stairs – well really ladders which wore everyone out.
This was a wonderful tour and I am guessing several will return to see more.
We left the USS Iowa which required each bike to go through the gate and pay the parking fee – 32 bikes each stopping to hand the girl $2 – it actually went faster then I thought it would. Then we were off to lunch. This required us to travel over the Vincent Thomas bridge (oh I hate bridges) and the Gerald Desmond bridge into Long Beach. We stopped for Lunch in Shoreline Village at Famous Dave’s. If you have ever been down there you will know that the only parking is valet – we made a great deal with the parking lot there as they let us park in all the loading ramps for free. This meant that we were able to park 24 bikes for free and only needed to extra parking spaces for another 8 bikes. So great. Famous Dave’s was really great to us accommodating over 30 of our riders with awesome service – we were in and out in a little over an hour. Great barbeque too!
We left lunch and headed back to El Torito. Today we were lucky enough to vote in our first Star Kid, Matthew Clark. Matthew has ridden with us (with his dad Ed Clark) on and off over the last couple of years and we were so happy to vote him in. Matthew is a great kid – congratulations!
With the business concluded the ride was called – next month Mt. Helix.
