Sunday Dec 2nd. Granada Hills Christmas Parade.
Another beautiful sunny California morning. Most everybody
that attended met at the Denny's restaurant on Roscoe.
Doug and Russ were there along with a couple of other guys
that were attending the Bud Ekins memorial. I cant write about the
festivities at the memorial since we did the Parade instead. I have heard and
seen lots of pictures that it was truly a first class send off and that both
Steve McQueen and Bud Ekins would have been proud of the memorial.
There were nine of us at Denny's that went to lead the
Christmas Parade. After a a quick breakfast we headed out to the staging area of
the Parade. We got there in time, and some of us proceeded to decorate our rigs
with holiday themes. We were joined by Bruce Freisen on his
Honda Goldwing. He rode sweep and made sure that the rest of the parade
did not get too close to the pack. Santa Claus showed up in
his EML rig with his two helper Elves a half hour after we got to the staging
area. Attila Benko showed up shortly after Santa. Everybody got ready to
lead the Parade. Minutes before we started the Parade, one of the head
officials told Santa that he could not do the Parade in his costume. He was
advised that there is only one Official Santa allowed in the Parade. So
Santa did the quickest strip anybody has ever seen. Luckily for all watching, he
was wearing civvies under that suit!
So off we went with Reg and Maryanne leading the two columns.
We were told by the Parade officials to make as much noise as we wanted to.
However, most of us took that to understand that we should fly our chairs
as much as possible through out the Parade route. The officials gave
us a five minute lead in front of the Parade and away we went.
We ran crisscross patterns as well as figure eights. And
with the approval of the spectators, flew the chairs to many cheers and
applause. Santa, aka Jetdoctor did some very impressive flying with his
EML loaded with two elves in it.
That EML is a double wide sidecar, and has to be one
of the heaviest rigs out there. Way to go Jetdoctor.
It seems like Attila flew his chair the total length of the
Parade. Not bad for someone new to sidecars. All in all
it seemed like everybody had a fun time. Most of the group waited at the
end point for everybody to gather. We said our goodbyes and called it a
day. Members in attendance: Ron Gebhart, with his eye candy
Michelle, Thom Irwin, Chito Pastor, Maryanne Smith, Reggie Smith, Bob and
Pearl Vollrath, Scott Moore, Attilla Benko and me. Non-members riding in
the parade with us,
Koz and Bruce.
Saturday Dec 1st. The weather finally calmed down earlier this
morning. Judging by the lack of clouds overhead and
that clean smell in the air that always comes after a good hard
rain, I knew it was going to be a good day to ride. Doug, Russ
and Larry showed up at my front door step on time and ready to go. But
wait! there were only two bikes in my driveway. What was
missing? Russ was not on one of his own rigs. Questions
were asked. The grin only known to us that have had a break down
on route appeared on his face. Larry answered, "Russ's KLR's
battery died!"
We all bowed our heads in silence for a minute. Waiting
for our last member of this band of Curmudgeons on three wheels made
us leave later then planned. So off we went minus one of the
Curmudgeons. Traffic was good the 40 miles it took to get there. The
wind did blow us around a bit. But what do we care since we have a extra wheel
to keep us upright. When we got there, Ray Anderson and JetDoctor were
already parked. Matt Musslewhite had just pulled in a few minutes before
us. He is one of three new members that joined us for this
BBQ. Howard and Sandy Wolf pulled up shortly after we got parked. They are the other two new members that joined us for this
ride. We all shared some tales tall and short and got to know each other a little
better. BBQ was served. Pictures were taken. Having things left on the "Honey Do" list, most of us
left around 1:30 pm.
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