Travel Log Archive

November 20th - 23rd 2009 Pink's Hot Dogs Ride-To-Eat & Bonus Rally

Getting There Making the trip to Hollywood for the annual Pink’s Ride-To-Eat is something I have wanted to do since 2004 when Mr. Dean Tanji first put this event together. Each year a hundred or so like minded riders take advantage of this opportunity/excuse to go for a ride and hang out with friends and acquaintances from all over North America, (and sometimes beyond). To add enticement, Jerry White had put together a 12 hour bonus rally for anyone who wanted something to do on their way to Pink’s. It was to be a just-for-fun event and had a rather unorthodox, (if anything about any of these events can be considered orthodox), twist. This presented itself as a perfect opportunity for me to get some much needed practice at bonus pack processing. In the few rallies I’ve participated in, this aspect has been what I’ve struggled with the most so, even though we were emailed a very detailed bonus pack a week prior to the start, I had given myself a maximum of 2 hours to process everything and form a decent route. While I did get a route out of this exercise, I have to admit to tweaking it many times over the next few days. So much for self imposed time limits. To be fair, much of my tweaking had more to do with my ever changing schedule than second guessing my initial decisions. Being a 30+ year North westerner, I know all too well that any plan to ride south in late November is, by necessity, subject to change – or cancellation. My original plan was to ride south after work on Friday to Roseburg, OR and pick up the rally sometime Saturday afternoon. With 6 to 10 inches of snow forecast in the Siskiyous, this quickly morphed into taking Friday off and riding to Grants Pass, taking US-199 to Crescent City and getting as far south as I felt like riding. This meant riding in a pouring rain for more than 12 of the 17 hours I was on the road but I didn’t have any snow or icy pavement. The good news with this was that it would allow me to start the rally at 10 AM with everyone else. One of Jerry’s unique, (at least to me), ideas was the way the rally started. You could start from whichever bonus location suited your route plan. The Tumble Inn bonus was the farthest north along I-5 so it was perfect for me. In this rally, not only was the team concept allowed but it was encouraged. Jerry had devised a system where including other rally participants in your bonus photos would multiply the points for that bonus. So, 2 extra rallyists would allow the points to be multiplied by three, one for each rallyist there – yourself included). It became obvious after opening the Bonus Pack that, with this multiplication of bonus points, it would be nearly impossible to score well if I rode the entire event by myself. Two or three riders together could visit far fewer locations and still score more points than an individual rider who visited more bonii. In fact, many of the folks who were registered had been busy organizing with other riders to plan out routes that they could ride together. Again, all perfectly legal and encouraged. My only problem with this strategy was that I didn’t even know until Thursday afternoon when I would be leaving and when I’d be starting the rally. This made multi-rider coordination rather difficult. There was one exception, however, to Jerry’s scheme to promote more camaraderie among the participants. This was the “Shoot the Moon” combo bonus. There were a total of 41 individual bonus locations in the pack and if someone could make it to any 39 of them, it was worth 1,000,000 points. Given the spread of bonus locations, the time allowed and notoriously bad traffic in and around the LA area, this would be nearly impossible for even the strongest of rally riders riding alone, (although we can all think of names of some of the biggest of the big dogs who could make it happen if they set their minds to it). Still, this is the plan I had my eye on. I knew it was folly to expect to complete it; I just wanted to start out trying and see how far I could get before I had to bail and head for Pink’s. This was a strategy I refer to as the “What would Ken Meese do?” plan of attack. Besides, what better event to go for broke in than one that was designed with fun and fellowship over uber competitiveness? Let The Rally Fun Begin After a decent nights sleep at Los Banos, CA’s finest Motel 6, I had an easy 2-1/2 hour ride to my chosen start locale. Years ago the Tumble Inn was a hotel up in the mountains near Tejon Pass. All that’s left now is a stone foundation and a really crappy road to access it. I hadn’t ridden very far on the broken, patched, sand strewn, hole ridden roadway before any glimmer of hope I may have had to get to 39 bonuses was snuffed out. It just took me too long to get to the inn. Although the ride in was not on rally time, the ride out would be and it was just too slow going. No matter though. I arrived at the Inn at about 9:25 AM so I had some time to kill before I could snap my photo and get going. I spent that time getting everything ready that I could so that I could leave as soon as the pic was taken I also removed the passenger seat to access my AutoCom components and source a problem I was having with the audio signal from my radar detector. As I was buttoning all of this up, a black FJR pulled up and parked right next to me. The rider introduced himself as Bill Wood and said he was meeting Jerry White here. Great news. I hadn’t seen Jerry since Spokane and it would be good to talk to him again. Before long Jerry showed up and the three of us shot the breeze for a few minutes until 10. As we were taking our photos we discussed their plan versus mine and discovered that we had many of the same places in mind. We figured we might as well stay together for as many of them as we can and earn the extra points. They had planned to get Vasquez Rocks and the Cascades and then start on a group of Hollywood bonuses. They were going to do them in the reverse order that I had planned but, since I had already decided to skip the Long Beach stops, it made no difference to me in which order I went. To Hollywood it was. Jerry and Bill at The Tumble Inn Here they are again at Vasquez Rocks Park And again at the Cascades There were 8 separate locations in and around Hollywood and, while each one was not worth much by itself, if you got all 8 there was an additional 2000 point bonus – the largest of the entire rally. One of the bonuses, Pink’s Hot Dogs, had to be obtained during daylight hours so it made sense to get all of them before heading east to some of the outlying bonuses. As we were making our way down Wilshire Blvd., heading to the Whiskey a Go Go, I heard an unusual noise and caught a glimpse in my mirror of something large bailing off the bike. I turned to see my left saddlebag sliding on its expensive side down Wilshire. A couple of cars had to swerve to miss it and it came to rest against a curb. I stopped, ran back to retrieve the bag and discovered to my great relief that it was still in one piece. The outer part is scratched up pretty good but it is still functional. I was a long way from home and wasn’t sure I wanted to ride all the way back with a saddlebag duct taped to the passenger seat. Apparently, I had not properly secured the latch that holds the bag on when I replaced the seat way back at the Tumble Inn bonus. I am amazed that it stayed with the bike as long as it did. If it had escaped during the dozens of miles of freeway that we rode in the interim, the damage would likely have been much worse. My left bag after going AWOL on Wilshire Blvd. At the Whiskey a Go Go One of my favorite bonuses of the rally was Tommy’s Hamburgers. I had heard a lot about the place and, being a huge fan of In N Out, I wanted to compare a Tommy’s burger. I’m not much for chiliburgers, however, which seems to be Tommy’s true claim to fame. As a result it probably wasn’t a fair, best vs. best comparison and I have to say I still prefer In N Out. Still, this made for a nice rest stop and we all got to yack a bit and get to know each other a bit better. Given the intended purpose of this rally, I’d say it was a very successful stop. Why are these men smiling? Photo courtesy Jerry White Once the 2000 point combo was in the bag and the Tommy’s burgers were in our bellies we were off to ride the Ortega Highway, southeast of LA, for another combo bonus. This one involved collecting Cook’s Corner, Hell’s Kitchen and a wind sock that stands on a ridge overlooking Lake Elsinore. This was a nice change of pace after riding all of the crowded surface streets earlier. Even at night the Ortega is a fun road by motorcycle. Fortunately for us, just as we were packing up to leave the 'E' bonus, two more Rally riders showed up and we took new pictures. This gave all of us an extra 772 points each. Cook's Corner - a biker bar along the Ortega Hwy. Bill and Jerry at Hell's Kitchen Chuck, Bill, Lorraine and Jerry at the 'E' With another combo in our pockets, we turned north towards Lake Arrowhead. There were two bonuses there, Running Springs and a little pull out along the Rim of the World Highway near Crestline. The Crestline waypoint had been a mandatory checkpoint during the ’07 SPANK rally and I was really looking forward to getting back up to it. It’s an absolutely beautiful vantage point offering a breathtaking view from several thousand feet above the city lights below. The fact that the twisty mountain two-lane that transports one up to it is so much fun to ride is just icing on the cake. I had hoped there would be time to gather a couple of bonuses in the San Bernardino area on our way back to Pink’s but time was now running short so we made a beeline for 709 N. La Brea, arriving a mere 6 or 7 minutes before the 10 PM deadline. I was really looking forward to seeing the Route 66 Mural too. Another reason to come ride this area again. After totaling up our points and handing our paperwork in to the Rally Master, it was time to get in the very long line and order a hot dog. Pink’s is truly a unique place filled with unique characters. A good friend of mine and recent transplant from Washington to Arizona, Rod had ridden out to meet me after the rally and was waiting for me when I arrived. Only in this community of riders would a Washingtonian and an Arizonan arrange to meet for a couple of hours over hot dogs in Southern California - in late November. It was great to get to see Rod even if for just a few hours. As to the rest of my friends and acquaintances with whom I’ve shared rally experiences, other RTE events or just conversations and emails, I can’t express how much fun it is to see all of these folks. A handshake, a few words exchanged, maybe a story or two – it really does my heart good and I count myself blessed be able to be a part of this little niche in the motorcycling world. Eventually it was time for Jerry to announce the final standings and I was happy to learn that we had earned fourth place. More important than our finishing position, though, was all of the great fun we had shared. Getting Home All too soon the 1 AM hour had arrived and it was time for Rod and I to go to our motel and get a few hours sleep before going our separate ways Sunday morning. He had plans to meet his son, an Azusa Pacific student and the punter on the football team, for breakfast the next day while I was heading to Arcata, CA for the night. I stopped in Kettleman City for my obligatory meal at an In N Out. It was here that I decided I was going to make a slight detour and go east to Hanford, CA to try a milkshake at the Superior Dairy Products Co. I have been told that this place has the best shakes anywhere and it was my intention to see what all of the fuss was about. Hanford is a beautiful little town in the Central Valley of California. Superior Dairy is an 80-year old lunch counter/soda fountain that still does things the old fashioned way. They make their shakes with ice cream that they make on the premises, mixing them in a stainless steel cup and serving them in a heavy glass. Unlike other places that have yet to succumb to the soft-serve and flavor mix method of milkshake making, Superior doesn’t bring you the mixing cup with extra shake that wouldn’t fit in the glass. Instead, they just pour it all into the glass until it stands a good 4 inches above the rim. The shake is so thick that it just stands there all on its own. Simply awesome. I have had a number of very good milkshakes in my time and I have to say that this one was among the best if not THE best of them all. I calculated that this little detour cost me about an hour and a half on my trip into Arcata but it was totally worth every extra minute. Monday morning, the weather forecasters were calling for snow levels down below 2000 feet in the Siskiyous. US-199 has a short section that rises above this level so, after breakfast at a real favorite of mine – The Palm Café in Orick - I decided to stay on US-101 a little longer. Besides, it was a beautiful, sunshiny day on the Oregon Coast. It was tough to turn east on OR-126 once I hit Florence because this type of riding weather is so rare this time of year but I knew staying on 101 would make me at least 3 hours later getting home. If I were a Super Hero or some other entity likely to have an arch enemy, mine would be Interstate 5. I greatly dislike I-5 but it is sometimes a necessary evil in my travels. On this day, it ensured that I arrived home in the middle afternoon instead of late at night. I believe it was Charles Kurault who said, "Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything." Truer words were never spoken. This little 4 day, 3000 mile trip served as a great motorcycle fix with winter set to pop here in the Pacific Northwest. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have gone. Jerry was all but guaranteeing that he will not likely put on his rally for next years Pink’s gathering. I know there are a couple dozen riders who are hoping he changes his mind. Whether or not there is another rally like this one, the Pink’s RTE is worth the ride down by itself as far as I’m concerned. It was loads of fun and much gratitude goes to Dean for putting it together each year.