The Road Behind

Twenty-Eight years ago it was 1985, the year Sherry and I were married. It is also the year we took our first road trip on the motorcycle I bought not long before, a maroon-colored, 1984 Harley Davidson Electra Glide. It ran fine that first year and never leaked a drop of oil. Okay, maybe that's an idle boast, but I never needed a drip pan until the second year. We won't talk about our second out-of-state ride, in 1987, at least not right now. For now I will bask in the memories of that first ride so many years ago.

I grew up in California but Sherry, a native Oregonian, had never been there. It was a perfect reason and time to show her my homeland in the Santa Ynez Valley, 800 miles to the south. In honor of those memories, I put together this 10 minute slideshow from scanned 35 mm slides taken with my1971 "Nikromat" camera, now in mothballs.

I traded the bike in the fall of 1988 on an '89 Electra Glide at the dealership in Salem, Oregon. I believe it was during a servicing visit to the dealership a few months afterward that I learned my old bike ended up in Australia.

1985 California Ride from Glen on Vimeo.

 

Click Here For Smugmug Version

The Santa Ynez Valley (Circled In Yellow) is 35 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, over the San Marcos Pass, and separated by lower hills from Santa Maria, 30 miles northwest.

 

The Santa Ynez Valley comprises five small towns -- Santa Ynez, Los Olivos, Ballard, Buellton and Solvang, once a simple Danish village but now a renowned tourist town. (Click To Enlarge)