Today, I hit the road for my seventh major ride in seven years. If I had any writing ability, I’d call that an annual event.
But this time there’s a big difference: Sarah’s coming along.
That’s right, I’ll have adult supervision. To help kick off my 2015 ride through the Sierras, Sarah will trail in the Boxster – sort of a high-class “sag wagon.” Sag, as you may know, is an acronym for “support and gear,” or “support and grub.”
Either way, it’s awesome to have her on the road with me.
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Over the past six years, you may recall my riding partner on these mountain excursions has been Ray Sanders. Ray was raised in Kentucky’s coal country, had a distinguished career as an engineer, and now lives in Farragut, Tennessee. Ray, who will be 85 in November, is married to Sarah’s cousin, Tina.
Together, Ray and I rode to Lake Tahoe and back twice, along the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina and Virginia, to Civil and Revolutionary War sites, New England in the fall, and scaled the highest paved road in North America – 14,130 feet — just below the summit of Colorado’s Mount Evans.
After 65 years of riding, Ray is moving on to other adventures.
So it’s somewhat bittersweet today as I begin a 2,000-mile ride in search of some of California’s more spectacular sights, knowing Ray won’t be a part of it. I think of all the places we’ve been together – probably 15,000 miles on the road – and it’s hard not to be wistful.
I am deeply appreciative of all Ray taught me during our rides, and I will miss him greatly.
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As we pull out of the driveway of our La Quinta home, it’s 8 am and already 90 degrees, with an expected high of 113 by 5 pm. We’ll be stuck in the blistering desert heat most of the day, unless we’re lucky enough to find shade or shelter in the mountains.
It’ll be a blast-furnace-like experience for me; riding at 50 miles an hour, the wind in my face isn’t the least bit refreshing. It feels Saharan and stifling. And poor Sarah: she’ll miss the guilty pleasure of driving topless (the Boxster is a convertible). Motorcycles and ragtops aren’t much fun when the temperatures are, as the Urban Dictionary calls it, “Africa hot.”
Today’s destination is Lake Arrowhead, a mile-high town northwest of here in the San Bernardino Mountains. Lake Arrowhead is only 65 straight-line miles from La Quinta, but our route will be a full 175 road miles. We’ll either be lost, or intentionally in the mountains to avoid the crushing heat.
In 20 minutes, we arrive in Palm Desert, home of the El Paseo shopping district. It’s our valley’s version of Rodeo Drive. Bill Gates has a home in Palm Desert. So does Phil Condit, former CEO at Boeing.
No time for retail therapy or breakfast with Phil and Bill, so we head south on Highway 74 into the San Jacinto Mountains. The road immediately becomes steep and twisty – what most self-respecting motorcyclists and their sag wagon drivers live for.
A side note: on my Harley rides for the past six years, I constantly reviewed my rear-view mirror, making sure Ray wasn’t far behind. It’s a little odd this time, as Ray is not there, but instead I see Sarah following me.
About 45 minutes after leaving home, we arrive at the Paradise Valley Café, a favorite biker hangout at the intersection of Highways 74 and 371. If we turned left onto 371, the road would take us to Temecula, in the heart of Southern California wine country.
A very cool thing happens our way up Highway 74, something you Harley riders will relate to. A California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer passes me going down the hill. He gives me a “Harley wave,” first time that’s ever happened to me. How neat was that! A peace officer giving peace a good name!
But we continue straight, heading toward Idyllwild, a rustic mountain destination known as one of the “100 Best Small Art Towns in America.” With a population of about 4,000, Idyllwild was once the summer home for bands of Cahuilla Indians who migrated to the area to escape the heat of lower elevation deserts. Their thought process was similar to mine and Sarah’s – except they probably didn’t arrive here on Harleys and Porsches.
Today, Idyllwild is home to artists and musicians, including drummer David Atwood of the 1970s rock group America (“Ventura Highway,” “A Horse With No Name“). Casey Abrams, from American Idol season 10 (2011) is an Idyllwilder, as is PGA Tour golfer Brendan Steele.
The biggest event every year in Idyllwild is the two-day Jazz in the Pines festival, which just wrapped up on August 16. Featured bands this year included the Euphoria Brass Band and the Graham Dechter Quartet. For more, visit http://www.idyllwildjazz.com
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Over the next eight days as you read this blog (“Travels With Harley”), you’ll note links to additional information – film clips, YouTube videos, websites and more. Those links, which look like the one for the Jazz in the Pines festival in the previous paragraph, should be easy to spot. Many are eminently clickworthy; just depends on your hunger for knowledge. Apologies, in advance, if YouTube causes you to watch a few seconds of ads before the video begins; that’s how they pay the bills.
Full disclosure: if you click on all of them, be prepared to waste a considerable amount of your life viewing this blog. Your choice. As I like to say every year – if you happen to learn anything or derive mild entertainment value from reading these blog posts, well, you’re welcome.
I look forward to having you along for the ride over the next nine days – and I welcome your feedback. Feel free to comment on the photos, the route, the writing, the weather, our culinary choices – whatever. You can make your comments directly on the blog. Or keep them to yourself.
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One other thing about communication: over the last month, I have moved up a step on the technology food chain. I now have a Twitter account. Yes, I tweet. I’m a novice at this, so don’t expect hashtag-o-mania right out of the gate.
Every day during my ride, I will tweet some information or photos not available on this blog. You could say I’m saving some special (aka, exclusive) stuff for you Twitter followers, or Twits as I like to call you.
To find me on Twitter, I’m: @LQHarleyBoy
If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can still see my latest tweet by going to twitter.com, and entering @LQHarleyBoy in the search field.
My Twitter coach is @DanLewisNews … so if you don’t like what you see, it’s probably his fault.
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From Idyllwild, we head north on the Banning-Idyllwild Panoramic Highway, as the road climbs to 6,165 feet, then begins descending into Banning, about 30 miles away. Banning is on I-10, in the San Gorgonio Pass, also known as Banning Pass.
Named after Phineas Banning, a stagecoach line owner, the city has a population of nearly 30,000. Banning sits at about 2,350 feet, but it’s still darn hot. So, to cool off, we head up into the mountains again, this time the San Bernardinos.
We jump on I-10 for a few miles, then exit in Beaumont, French for beautiful mountain. The road takes us through Oak Glen, a charming orchard town with less than 700 residents, but zillions of apples. The Oak Glen apple orchards produce the Vasquez and King David varieties, which are grown exclusively here. For you apple aficionados, antique varieties once grown here – but no longer commercially available – include the Ben Davis, the Gravenstein, and the Pink Pearl.
There’s a wonderful five-mile scenic loop through Oak Glen with more than 30 ranches, farms and businesses, and we enjoy every turn.
Before long, we turn onto Highway 38 and begin climbing toward Big Bear Lake. CA-38 is a terrific, twisty road that rises to Onyx Summit. At 8,443 feet, it’s the highest highway pass in Southern California.
I wouldn’t say the air is frigid, but it’s certainly a welcome departure from what our friends in La Quinta are now experiencing. The air temperature is generally about five degrees cooler per 1,000 feet of elevation gain. So, as we cross Onyx Summit, it’s about 70 instead of the 110 it probably is in La Quinta.
Soon, we arrive at Big Bear Lake, a small mountain town sitting at 6,750 feet. The lake is Southern California’s largest recreation lake, teeming with fishing activity in the summer. It’s quite scenic, and made a nice backdrop for 1960s TV Westerns, including a number of Bonanza episodes. In the winter – if there’s snow – many Southern Californians ski and shred (snowboard) at nearby Snow Summit.
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Now on Highway 18, we continue west toward Lake Arrowhead, eventually arriving around 1 pm. Lake Arrowhead is a beautiful mountain resort town in the San Bernardino Mountains, set amid pine, cedar and dogwood forests. Its economy is based almost entirely on tourism. Nothing wrong with that. You could say the same for La Quinta, and it works fine for us.
After 175 miles on the road, we’re ready to call it a day.
We arrive at the mountain home of my old Boeing boss and good friend, Dave Bowman. By old, I mean “long ago.” Dave’s actually 10 years younger than I am. And a foot taller.
At Boeing, I supported Dave when he was VP/General Manager of the C-17 Globemaster III program. I strung together subjects and verbs to tout the C-17’s achievements, and Dave had profit-and-loss responsibility for the $3 billion-a-year program. Then, I retired in 2008, Dave left the company in 2010, and it’s been all downhill for the C-17 ever since. Just sayin’ …
After assembling about 270 C-17s for the US Air Force and major international customers over the past 25 years, this fall Boeing is building the final C-17 and shutting down its Long Beach factory forever. It will live on forever in pictures and video.
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Following a distinguished career at Boeing, Dave recently retired as Senior VP of Program Management at Eaton, a global leader in power management, with $22 billion in annual revenue. Dave worked in Eaton’s Cleveland, Ohio, office, which wasn’t entirely conducive to motorcycle riding – though it is home to Rock-N-Roll City Harley Davidson, named for Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In May, the Hall of Fame year celebrated its 10-millionth visitor. Rock on!
Retirement, apparently, means Dave finally has the time to ride his Harley in a meaningful way. He has mostly used his 2008 Ultra Glide for day trips from his Fullerton home. Now, he’s going to join me for the next eight days as we ride through California’s mountain ranges and along its Pacific coast.
It’s great to reconnect with him, after years of communicating primarily through this blog.
Dave and his wife, Gail, are graciously hosting Sarah and me at their Lake Arrowhead retreat before the boys begin their journey.
We have a lot of catching up to do.
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It’s a festive atmosphere at the Bowman Lake Arrowhead home. The setting is perfect for relaxing before we terrorize California’s coastline and mountains.
Sarah and I are catching up with Dave and Gail. We reminisce about the good old days, and look forward to even better ones ahead.
When the Harley ride begins in earnest, Sarah will head back to La Quinta and it will be just the guys. Dave and Gary.
Oh, and Scott, too.
Scott Donaldson will be the third of our riding threesome. He’s with us tonight as we chill at the lake.
Scott is Gail’s uncle. You’d think that would make him an old man. Not so much.
He’s Dave’s age (55). Scott and Dave have known each other for more than 40 years, starting when they were students together in Mrs. Fox’s 8th-grade algebra class at Alexander Hamilton Junior High School in Long Beach. You remember algebra: integers, single-variable equations, polynomials and the Pythagorean theorem. Pythagoras was quite the mathematician and philosopher.
Scott and Dave both went on to Cal State University at Long Beach after high school, and have remained best buddies ever since, often riding their Harleys together.
What do you call your wife’s uncle who’s also your good friend? Didn’t know there was a term for that until I looked it up on genealogy.com. Scott is Dave’s “fruncle-in-law.” Seriously.
Scott is a native Southern Californian who lives in La Habra with his wife, Jackie. They’re just a few miles away from the Bowman’s primary residence in Fullerton.
After a career in grocery retail management, Scott is now a Superintendent in vessel operations for SSA Marine – Stevedoring Services of America at Terminal C60 in Long Beach, the second-busiest container port in the US. The facility is dedicated to supporting Matson Navigation, providing service to the Hawaiian Islands, Guam and three ports in China.
Scott rides a 2007 Road King Classic. Dave has a 2008 Ultra Glide. I have a 2001 Softail Heritage Classic. All Harleys. Why ride anything else?
Speaking of riding … let’s fire up the bikes and get moving! Vroom, Vroom.
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To view today’s route from La Quinta to Lake Arrowhead, click here.
Riding With Gary 