Alices Restaurant, Gabes Memorial & Charlies Crash.

[Papa-Ken]

Friends, I am writing this article in response to some e-mail and PM messages I received inquiring about the absence of my Wednesday ride reports with The Oldfarts, and the reason is due to my poor health for the past three weeks. Not sure exactly what was ailing me but Kflex and Naseral seem to have won the battle for the most part. Still a little weak but hoping to take a ride this Wednesday.

So this article will be about a past ride in 2003 when five of us took a ride to "Alice's Restaurant" for the memorial of Gabe Petersen.

At sunset on a hot June day in 1954, a mob of muddy riders leaned their steaming BIKES against the Levee slopes. They collapsed down on their own tracks to Rest, laugh and, lie. When the "BULL" had all been passed out, the conversation swung to real RACIN'.
They were all feeling ready and eager to try-on some of the Thirty field-meets, Scrambles and Enduros scheduled in the Valley that year.

Getting to the races, getting the Racing done, and gettin' home (with any success), without HELP was a hard business.

Each rider really needed the help and support, and even the drive of the others to really make it.

They began to understand, that as each rider could count on the help of several others, their combined effort could "outnumber" their enemies.

As dusk forced them back onto their machines to race the dark back to the garages, they vowed that: since there was not a club to JOIN, they would be one.

Within the next few days, colors were chosen, charter was sent for, jerseys were being stitched-up and helmets were being borrowed.

"THE POLKA DOTS Competition MOTORCYCLE CLUB" was LAUNCHED.
Over the years, the CLUB has participated in and promoted a great number of competitive motorcycle events. In order to bring more motorcycle enthusiasts together to promote and preserve the sport of motorcycling, the CLUB enacted major changes in the by-laws in December 1987. These changes allowed non-racers to join the CLUB.

Founding Members

Ron Adams, Ray Ayers, Les Dunning, Gene Green

Jim Hackley, Don Hearth, LeRoy McDonald, Paul Minor

Gabe Peterson, Gordon Septinelli, John Smith, Jim Stowe

Dan Sullivan, Walt Vaughan, George Woodhouse.

The above written text is the history of "THE POLKA DOTS Competition MOTORCYCLE CLUB" a Sacramento based club that has several Oldfarts as members.

What made me think of this club was a new article on the Pashnit site titled "Alice's Restaurant" by sklywag in the General forum section.

Bill started his article about "Alice's Restaurant" in this manor.

A little history........................
Unlike Arlo Guthrie's famous song, you are limited by what's on the menu at Alice's in Woodside. Perched atop Skyline Boulevard, this small wooden building is almost 100 years old, having started as a general store for the logging industry. It became a restaurant in the '50s and was bought by Alice Taylor in the '60s, who renamed it after herself and Guthrie's song. It changed hands once again in 1972, when it was bought by Rick and Amanda Rogers.
The Rogers sold the restaurant a year ago to Andy and Jamie Kerr, who were looking for something new to do after selling their printing business.

It does raise an interesting question for discussion here in the Forum and that is.

Do you remember what year was it when you made your first trip up to Alice's?

[Papa-Ken]

My first year to visit Alice's was for this memorial in 2003 but I have traveled past this location many times since the late 1950s while hauling lumber in and out of the bay area.

Went there in June of 2003 on a memorial ride for Gabe Petersen. Gabe moved to that area after he retired and continued in his second love (being a jazz musician). He also loved to cook and sail boats.

He had a strong affection for Alice's and that is where they held his memorial. We filled the whole back section out by the pond and on each table in front of each place setting, they had a Tootsie Pop Sucker, CD of Gabes favorite music plus an orange bandana and the lyrics to the song "Alice's Restaurant" and his kids had us all sing along to the music. Quite a tribute and send off to a great guy.

[Papa-Ken]

Even more exciting was our ride getting there as Charlie had a head on crash with a bicyclist coming down some steep curving terrain in the foothills of Berkeley.

I don't recall the route we took to get there as Bubba was riding point that day and there were five of us going to pay our respects to Gabes family from the Polka Dots. I do recall that we traveled a lot of old Hiway 40 before going south on 680 and after crossing the Benicia bridge we got up in the foothills on I believe it was called skyline drive.

I do know that at the top we had a great view of the San Francisco Bay and surrounding landscapes.

Prior to reaching the top, we were tooling along very slow as the road was steep, narrow and curvy. After making a fairly tight right hand curve, I noticed Charlie and big Mike stopped in the middle of the road.

It seems that a fast moving bicyclist (there were hundreds of them) failed to keep his bicycle on his side of the double yellow and hit Charlie head-on. Bad call as it sent him airborne for several feet before landing in some scrub brush.

Totaled the bicycle, injured the rider (a man in his early 60ts) and did over $3000.00 in damages to Charlies 1800 Goldwing. Mostly cosmetic and didn't hinder our ride other than removing a front fender and some other minor plastic that was shredded.

After losing about an hour with the first responders, we climbed up to the top of this road to a wide spot and took a closer look at the bike, made a few adjustments took several pictures and then continued on to the memorial.

It turned out to be a long day with a large group of people celebrating the life and times of a very popular person as he had many different groups of friends due to his diverse interests and hobbies.

We stayed for a few hours, enjoyed a great buffet accompanied by music, personal memories spoken and some nice mementos given each of us that came.

By the time we got home the sun was setting in the west and even though the trip was remembering a lost friend we did encounter some amazing roads, a little excitement, a variety of people, covered about 350 miles and another day in paradise for the Oldfarts..........Ken

[Backmarker]

Ken, first off, I'm so glad to hear that you are starting to feel better. I was a bit concerned. But ahhh, better living thru chemistry. Second, even though you are a bit under the weather, the story is wonderful as usual. Thank you so much for telling us about your friend and your adventure getting there. Sounds like it was a beautiful send off and tribute.

[MyLife on TwoWheels]

Thanks for checking in with another great report Pappa-Ken, we were starting to get a little bit worried about ya!

That Boss Hoss looks pretty cool, I'd love to ride one of those some day.

Something tells me my "memorial" will prolly be a lot smaller than Gabes, he must have been quite a guy.

[Papa-Ken]

Thanks for your concern and response.........Ken

[OrangevaleFJR]

So Ken, what is stuck up in that tree? It looks kind of like a car door, but the colors are suspect.

[Papa-Ken]

Originally Posted by OrangevaleFJR

So Ken, what is stuck up in that tree? It looks kind of like a car door, but the colors are suspect.

I think it was a bumper from a car Andrew. Not part of our accident on this day. Charlies was missing his front fender and some other cosmetic plastic......Ken