Well if you have found this blog you either know me or
wished you didn't LOL. I will say I'm a
bit rusty at this whole writing deal, back in the 80's and 90's I wrote
hundreds of magazine articles for Radio controlled Car magazines. But then again that's not something you will win
a Pulitzer for I'm sure, then again I did enjoy doing that even though in the
beginning I wrote everything by pen and paper (my poor Editor Richard
Dowdy) and once again my ADD kicked in and
I'm rambling about something completely unrelated to the purpose of this
trip. So let get down to it, first off
I'm a child of 66 spent most of my early life either traveling the Southern
California portion of 66 also known as Foothill Blvd or Living on it.
I was born in San Berdo as we
called it, San Bernardino as you know it as the jewel of the Inland Empire
LOL. So how did I get here to begin with
well that's simple like other folks in the 1950’s west was a place of big
dreams and both my Grandfathers made their way down the mother road. First was my Grandfather Melvin Dallager he
with his Wife and my Mom moved to Rialto in in 55' from Duluth MN to manage a
paving company, then in 1958 my Grandfather Earnest "Jack" Wright
brought my Dad, Uncle JD and my Aunt Carol and his Wife Pat from Flint MI to Fontana take a
job at Kaiser Steel. So we fast forward
to 1966 and here I 'am as my parents met in 64' and were married in 65',
growing up a poor kid in Fontana wasn't all that bad I will say my parents friends
were colorful to say the least. Ill never
forget my Dad's friend Marshall Toole he loved his Caddy's and his booze as did most of
the folks that came around the house but he did take good care of his Kid's.
However he was still a great man in my book, he gave me my first bicycle
in 73' ill never forget it was a red Schwinn stingray. Yea it was rusty and beat up but it worked
and that was a great bike from where I was sitting, now I had two wheels
instead of the three wore out wheels on my Big Wheel I had. Mind you I was happy little kid even
though we moved around a lot at first and then finally settled down in an actually
nice trailer park in Fontana near Rialto. So once I
got my first set of real two wheels I was out at sun up to sundown riding the neighborhood
looking for anything to jump, oh yea that’s right jump. Of course at that age my hero was none other
than Evel Knievel. So with that came
many sprains cuts and bruises and none of them stopped me, of course Fontana
was known for two things Semi’s and of course Bikers. Fontana was the founding home of the Hells
Angels so it was common during my childhood to see my Dad’s friend’s and their
bikes.
So needless to say with such great influences I know what I
wanted to ride a big bad chopper so my first new Bicycle came in 1977. My dad with the help of Marshall’s wife got
my dad some money that was owed to him legally for a change, and with all the
years of him taking my birthday and Christmas money he wanted to pay me back
and he did with a brand new Montgomery Ward’s Open Road chopper, yes a chopper,
real springer front fake gas tank man this thing was a trip (still searching for one to this day)
Now I was feeling like a king and then when my mom sewed a
Harley One patch on the back of my Levi jacket, I never cared again what anyone
thought me period LOL. With that I
changed I truly didn't take crap off no one, laugh at me for being poor no
problem I just knocked ya dam teeth out oh yea I didn't necessarily turn for
the better as I became a teen, all the years of folks picking on me due to status
was no more. Thankfully I reformed before
it did any permanent damage, thanks to an old 1%er named Pappy he pulled me
aside one day and told me to straighten up and not be like him. So I
did cut my hair ditched the earrings and cleaned up and the rest is boring LOL
and moved east for work. Today I live in
North Carolina married to a great lady that is helping me to pull this trip
off. As she knows I miss my hometown, I know
some of you who know me think I’m crazy to love Fontana but whatever it’s my
home and it will always be home.
Everywhere else is just a place I live, so there you have it now that I’m
nearing 50 (trust me there is a lot of folks that lost money on that bet) I
want to do this take my Bike and make my way down the mother road and see old friends,
friends and family that are no longer with me as well as some of Evel’s most
famous places Las Vegas, Twin Falls ID, Butte MT and some of the sights that I miss
so much.
So stay tuned if you like as
starting Aug 29th 2014 I will be posting daily pictures and videos
from the road. As I used to say at the
end of all my articles back in the day “keep it Shiny side Up”
