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$100 RIDES Epic Adventures Don’t Require Epic Dollars California Dreamin , T o u r i n g d o e s n ’ t h av e t o b e a f i n a n c i a l n i g h t m a r e By Dain Gingerelli As an ex-racer, my first reaction when challenged with the $100 Ride idea was that I be the writer to spend the least amount of money on an outing. So I readied myself to overnight at seedy places with names like The Dew Drop Inn and prepared to dine on daily special plates unfit for feral dogs. Heck, I’d even burn lowestlead gas in Ol’ Paint if I had to. Hungry to be No. 1, I stoked the competitive coals deep within me; it was going to be just like my glory days of racing, I told myself. Then, as I emerged from that time-warp stupor, rational thinking prevailed. I’m not a racer now, so why put myself through the wringer just to boast I could be cheaper with the dollar than the others? Yet the will to win tugged at me, probably because I still cling to some of the values I acquired chasing checkered flags, trophies, and trophy queens. Among them (the values, not the trophy queens) includes a page from Roger Penske’s playbook that states, in so many words, always use the unfair advantage to your advantage. So I pondered: If I was The Captain, how would I tackle this? I put on my cheap-think cap to consider it, realizing I had geography in my favor. I live in California, where the lay of the land is probably as diverse a setting as you’ll find on this planet (Disneyworld withstanding). I took out my manually operated GPS (an old-fashioned folding AAA state road map that’s free to us cheap members; no batteries required) to formulate a plan. And the plan was simple. I’d stay at our family cabin (herein known as Dain’s Inn) in the local mountains. From doorstep to doorstep, Dain’s Inn is 75 miles from my house in Orange County. Freed of the lodging expense and drunk with extra money to spend on gas, I’d take the long way to Dain’s Inn. My friend Mike Byrne would join me. Being a retired public school administrator, he has plenty of free time on his hands, so he packed his saddlebags, and we set out for a two-day ride. We’d make a pass through Yucca Valley, stopping at Hutchins H-D for lunch at the dealership’s 1950s-style Route 62 Diner. With about 15,000 square feet of floor space, Hutchins is one of the few remaining old-school dealerships in the state, if not the country. Dick Hutchins opened the shop in the 1980s after closing the doors to his Los Angeles dealership in 1979. The diner was added in the mid-1990s, and it serves food every day except Monday. In addition to the diner, various vintage H-D ® motorcycles and Motor Company collectibles are displayed in the showroom alongside new bikes, and with classic T-shirts and posters pinned to the wall, the shop assumes the atmosphere of a mini moto-museum. We dined on grilled pastrami and French dip sandwiches; consumed mass quantities of Coca-Cola; made a pass through the quasi-museum; then saddled up, hoping to see spring wildflowers in the desert when we turned left onto County Highway 247. Sadly, we missed the bloom; nature’s display of California poppy, paintbrush, and lupine wouldn’t happen for a couple more weeks. 40 HOG
Even without spring colors the desert offers spectacular beauty. Our vistas included clear blue skies above sun-washed boulders on either side of the road. We took a brief detour to Pioneertown, spotting an abandoned railroad dining car and boxcar alongside the road. No doubt long ago an adventurous pioneer had harbored ambitions of using the relics to establish a household. Years ago you could homestead parcels of land in this part of the Mojave Desert simply by showing up, setting up permanent digs, and filing a claim with the county. Mike and I snapped photos of the old railcars before resuming our ride up 247, stopping again at one of the various rock and graffiti-laden boulder piles alongside the road for another photo op. Mike optimistically refers to the graffiti as ... the Golden State remains a treasure trove while I enjoy my golden years as a road warrior. “modern petroglyphs.” My afternoon read taught me that Brittany loves Jason, we all need to “give peas a chance” (obviously penned by a pacifist vegan), and I can’t print what Hector wrote about Salvador. Mike had a prior commitment that evening so he headed home while I followed Highway 138 up the eastern side of the San Bernardino Mountains to Running Springs, home of Dain’s Inn. Several feet of snow greeted me at the higher elevations, a big change from the 85 degrees we experienced in the desert below. I grabbed a take-out salad and 22-ounce Sam Adams from Jensen’s Grocery store, and returned to the cabin, where I dined in front of a warm fire, using the time to reflect on the day’s ride. »
Page 1 and 2: FOR THE HARLEY-DAVIDSON® ENTHUSIAS
Page 3 and 4: Departments 10 12 14 18 20 22 24 54
Page 5 and 6: Photography: Brian J. Nelson HOG 7
Page 7 and 8: Photograph courtesy of the Harley-D
Page 9 and 10: Upcoming Tours for 2011 Mother City
Page 11 and 12: Ride Like it’s Stolen Matt King
Page 13 and 14: Another MDA Milestone With 2010 ann
Page 15 and 16: The Love of My Life daytona bike we
Page 17 and 18: * Annual full H.O.G.® membership:
Page 20 and 21: Get Going International Motorcycle
Page 22 and 23: BTL Between the Lines Going the Dis
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Page 26 and 27: 7:48 AM Motorcycle Officer Curt Rue
Page 28 and 29: a team effort Though the Milwaukee
Page 30: milwaukee’s finest Left to right:
Page 33 and 34: Drenched in chrome; dipped and stri
Page 35 and 36: ULTRA CLASSIC ® ELECTRA GLIDE ® L
Page 37: SOFTAIL ® CONVERTIBLE main street
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Page 44 and 45: The weather TURNED AGAINas we appro
Page 46 and 47: H-D in Loveland. The cloud, it seem
Page 49 and 50: PLANES, TRAINS, AND MOTORCYCLES STO
Page 51 and 52: watched as frames moved along the a
Page 53 and 54: Photography: Michael Lichter HOG 55
Page 55 and 56: More than Meets the Eye On a beauti
Page 58 and 59: Enthusiasts 41 Days to Remember I h
Page 60 and 61: Archives Photograph courtesy of the
Page 63: HOG ® Magazine P.O. Box 453, Milwa

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