Eats & Rides
Favorite Eats:
| Name | City | Location | Description | Phone |
| Gizdich (Apple) Ranch | Watsonville | It is located E. of Watsonville on Carlton Rd. between Hwy's 152 and 129. Turn left on Peckham Rd. into the Ranch. | Another chapter favorite for fruit pies, especially apple. JD's choice is the olallieberry pie. Go there after Phil's Fish Market. | (831) 722-1056 |
| Lou La Bontes | Auburn | Next to the Golden Key Motel off Hiway 80. | (530) 885-9193 | |
| Olema Farm House | Olema | At the west end of Sir Frances Drake Bvld. At Hiway 1. | Great place for breakfast or lunch on trips up the coast. Inside and patio dining. | (415) 663-1264 |
| Original Mel's Dinner | Placerville | Main St. and Hiway 49 - Placerville. | 626-8072 | |
| Phil's Fish Market | Moss Landing | Between Watsonville and Monterey on Hwy 1. Go into Moss Landing bear right and go across the bridge. Phil's is on the left. Good stop for runs down the coast. | This is has been a chapter favorite for many years. An almost unlimited seafood menu. | (831) 663-3355 |
| Stinson Beach Grill | Stinson Beach | Good food and outside dining right on highway 1. | (415) 868-2002 | |
| Tarpeys | Monterey | Take Highway 101 South. In Prunedale, look for the Monterey exit Highway 156 West. Follow until the Highway 1 interchange. Head south on 1 towards Monterey. In Monterey connect with Highway 68 east to Salinas. We are approximately four miles from 1 on 68, left side of the highway, bottom of the hill, one mile past the airport. | A fairly recent discovery. Great place to have a nice lunch. Inside and patio dining available. Ask John M. about the Eggs Benedict -- with Salmon. He still talks about them. | (831) 647-1444 |
| Tony's Oyster Bar & Seafood | Marshall | Just N. of Point Reyes Station. | Specialty is BBQ'd oysters plus many good seafood dishes. Open Fri-Sun Only from 12 noon to 8 PM. Get there by 11:30 to make first seating. | (415) 663-1107 |
Signature Rides:
| Ride | Author | Description |
| Annual Lighting of the Original light at Pigeon Pt. Lighthouse | JD (John Davis) | California has some of the best restored lighthouses in the country, several in No. Calif. It is interesting to visit the lighthouses and their museums to see what they looked like over 100 years ago, the technology used to light the warning lights and how the lighthouse keepers and their families lived. One of the best is Pigeon Pt. lighthouse. Each year on the second Saturday in November the original oil fired light is lighted from 6 to 8 PM. This event draws a pretty good crowd. It is very interesting to see the "rays" of light generated by the over 100 year old Fresnel Lens. These warning rays could be seen by ships about 30 miles out to sea (weather permitting). We do an afternoon - evening run to Pigeon Pt. to view this lighting. We leave Cycle Center around 3 PM and arrive at Pigeon Pt. about 5 PM. This gives us time to walk around the lighthouse facility, peruse the museum and have some hot drinks before the light is lit. On the way home we stop for dinner at a nice restaurant. |
| Auburn Sweetheart Run | Sauls | A two day weekend run usually on the 2nd weekend of February, it travels along Hiway 49 and other scenic Mother Lode roadways with stops either at Jamestown H-D or Placerville H-D and lunch at Original Mel's diner in Placerville. Saturday evening dinner is at Lou La Bonte's next to our motel, the Best Western Golden Key. Dinner averages $20.00/person, with lodging around 80.00 |
| Death Valley Run | Sauls | A three day weekend run usually around the 1st weekend of April, it travels to Los Banos for breakfast, then either I-5 or 99 to Bakersfield, then 178 thru Lake Isabella, Ridgecrest, Trona, and into Stovepipe Wells. Saturday's tour includes Scotty's Castle, Artist Palate, Badwater, and other areas of the park. (This run usually alternates with J.D.'s New Cuyama Run.) |
| Ensenada, Baja Mexico | JD (John Davis) | This is a great ride for a flavor of the Pacific Coast of Baja Mexico. We usually do this ride on Memorial Day weekend. On Wed. or Thurs. groups ride various routes down to San Diego and meet up at the designated lodging. We gather up around 9 or 10 AM on Fri. and ride down to Chula Vista to get our Mexican liability insurance. Then it is across the border for the approximately 80 mile ride to Ensenada. We stop for lunch at the Halfway House restaurant on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In Esenada we spend Fri. and Sat. nights at the Posada Del Rey Sol which has enclosed parking for the bikes. On Fri. and Sat. we spend time being tourists in Ensenada and take advantage of the local shopping, restaurants and bistro's. The Posada Del Rey Sol has a very nice pool with a restaurant and bar on the premises. On the trip down we use the coastal toll road, highway 1, which is quick and scenic. On the way back on Sun. we travel inland on highway 3 through Tecate and into San Diego County. We overnight Sun. somewhere in the Grapevine (highway 5) and make the final short ride home on Mon. |
| Four Corners of California | JD (John Davis) | The name of this ride says it all. All four corners in THREE days. This is a true "Iron Butt" ride...... |
| Lighthouse Run | JD (John Davis) | California has some of the best restored lighthouses in the country, several in No. Calif. It is interesting to visit the lighthouses and their museums to see what they looked like over 100 years ago, the technology used to light the warning lights and how the lighthouse keepers and their families lived. Each year, usually in the spring, I do a run to check a few of the lighthouses. These include: Pigeon Pt., about 7 miles south of Pescadero Rd. on Hwy 1. Pt. Bonita in the Golden Gate National Rec. area. From Pt. Bonita you can see the remaining foundation of the old Mile Rock lighthouse that was located in the eastern edge of the Golden Gate channel. Pt. Reyes light station at the tip of Pt. Reyes. East Brothers lighthouse which can be seen from a distance on Western Ave. at Pt. Richmond. |
| New Burney Falls | Sauls | A three day run to the Shasta/Burney area to tour the famous Burney Falls and other scenic sights. Looks like average lodging costs will be $70-$80 at local motels. |
| New Cayuma | JD (John Davis) | On the way back home from the very first ride down to Ensenada with Rick Fey and John Mulcock we discovered New Cuyama in a very picturesque valley on highway 166. We picked up highway 166 just after coming off of the Grapevine on highway 5 and followed it through the Cuyama Valley to Santa Maria on highway 101. This four day trip spawned in the Ensenada and New Cuyama runs. The New Cuyama run is usually an alternating run with the Death Valley run. We leave on a Friday and return on Sunday. The route is down through Hollister and south on highway 25 to highway 198. To me this is one of the best 60 miles of riding there is. We turn east on highway 198, through Priest Valley to Coalinga. Then we head south on highway 33 about 70 miles to highway 166. The landscape on highway 33, through Kings and Kern counties is very unique due to being mostly oil pumping country. We stop for lunch at McKittrick which has what looks like thousands of pennies glued to the walls and ceiling in the lounge. At highway 166 we head west to New Cuyama and the Buckhorn Motel - Restaurant for a 2 night stay. On Saturday evening the proprietors of the Buckhorn usually put on a great BBQ for a very reasonable price. Saturday is open for relaxing or riding. Some members take a run back to the east to highway 33 and take it south through the Los Padres National Forest to the Ojai Valley. Then head northwest on highways 150, 192 and 154 through the Santa Barbara foothills and stop in Santa Ynez for lunch. After lunch it is west to Santa Maria for a stop at the H-D dealership and then back to the east on highway 166 to the Buckhorn for the BBQ. Other members have taken rides west on highway 166 to highway 101 for a stop in San Louis Obispo or Pismo Beach for lunch. |
| Waterloo | Rick Fey | Although I co-founded the Ensenada and New Cuyama runs with JD and John Mulcock, I consider the Waterloo Lunch Run my "Signature" Ride. I first discovered this restaurant through my golf club and have since started taking the chapter up there. Typically my route takes us up Vasco to Hwy 4 in Byron and then to Antioch to catch Hwy 160 North along the Delta then a quick turn on Hwy 12 East towards Lodi where Hwy 88 South awaits to take us to the Waterloo Restaurant for a great and inexpensive lunch. Lunch dishes include BBQ sandwiches with your choice of salad, or fries, or spaghetti! At times I may change my route up to Waterloo just to try to keep the ride interesting. Hell, one year we ended up in Copperopolis (Ok, I admit I got lost trying to find a new route - it won't happen again!) |
