My first experience with motorized two wheels was in 1965 
when a friend of mine owned a kit-built mini bike we rode in 
the hills of Newbury Park.  Back then there were plenty of 
abandoned walnut orchards and rolling hills from the exodus 
of the cattle industry.  The Borchard Ranch made an excellent playground for motorcycles and dune buggies like 
the “Meyers Manx” (no relation) that was very popular in the 
late ‘60s early ‘70’s.  My brother bought a Yamaha 250 Enduro 
just before joining the Marines.  Guess where it spent most of 
its time while he was in boot camp and away at basic training? 
It’s a good thing that I took most of my learning spills on the 
mini bike and some how managed not to damage my brothers motorcycle.  Several other friends of mine had dirt bikes that they shared once in a while like the Anderson brothers with their Honda 
Trail 50’s and Gordon with his old blue Allstate 250. 
I was saving my paper route money for a car.

I didn’t purchase my first motorcycle until four years after I was 
married. A neighbor down the street had a used bike for sale 
and my wife gave me permission to check it out. She knew I had 
longed to get a motorcycle and thought this would be a good time 
to try out a used street bike.  Well, I went straight out and bought
a new ’78 KZ400 at the local Kawasaki dealer, after all I had my
wife’s permission to buy a motorcycle.  After getting over the initial shock, she was fine with the new motorcycle since Oxnard 
Kawasaki (later known as Cal Coast of Oxnard) made me a 
pretty good deal and threw in a pair of helmets.  The helmets and 
$50 was the deal breaker keeping me from buying the Honda 
Hawk at Honda of Oxnard.  I rode that Kawasaki to work during the week and Jackie and I would take short day trips around the 
county on weekends.  The back roads into and around Lockwood Valley became very familiar territory.  On a “DARE” ride to raise 
money for drug awareness education we had the smallest two-up motorcycle of the group.  I was envious of all the Goldwing riders
and vowed that one day I would own one.

In 1996 I heard of an LAPD narcotics officer that had a 
1985 Goldwing Aspencade for sale.  A deal was struck and I 
was the now the proud owner of my first touring motorcycle. 
Jackie (my wife) and I headed down to San Diego on our first ever over-nighter trip on a motorcycle.  On the way down the power 
cut off and I determined it was a loose connection on the starter solenoid.  The connector was building carbon from an electrical 
arc and heated to the point of melting.  I was able to coast down 
hill to a hardware store where I bought a solder iron and some 
electrical tape.  The owner of the store let me borrow an extension
cord so I could work on the motorcycle in the parking lot. 
In no time the bike was fixed and the rest of the trip was a beautiful 
adventure.  A few months later and several more trips

 I finally decided to sell the Kawasaki.  Jackie loved to be my 
co-rider and the kids would fight on who would go on the next 
ride with dad.

Tour riding was now in my blood and I had a family that supported
my love for two-wheeled voyeurism of the scenic outdoors. 
A friend of mine was itching to buy my clean looking Aspencade 
and I was ready to buy a new fully loaded Goldwing SE. 
In May of 2000 I bought a new GL 1500 SE.  The family voted 
on the candy red color and after a few more accessories 
including two color matched helmets the rest is GWRRA history.