Not-A-Rally Meet - interest?

[mwest]

Edit: Moved from Ride Reports -- Todd

Good stuff Mark. You planing on making any Rallys/group rides this spring?

We'll see. Won't make the AZ rally again this year...unfortunately. That is the only one I've thought about so far.

Any thoughts about another not-a-rally? I think it'd be a great idea to pick an annual date for a socal/central cal not a rally.

[guzzibob]

Last time we had the Los Alamos Not A Rally was Oct '07, & the only ones who showed up were you, me & Don. Granted, the weather was so-so, we did get sprinkled on a bit, & we three had a plenty good enough time anyway. Other than the three of us who made it there, haven't heard much demand, at least from anyone who might actually show up. The Alamo Motel in town has apparantly gotten even worse than it used to be, so for me that's out. That leaves the Union & Victorian Hotels in town, way over my budget, & the Skyview, at the top of a hill at the end of town, not within an easy walk of the bars & restaurants like we prefer. So I'm thinking we need to find another location. Got anyplace in mind? Maybe start another thread to investigate the possibilities?

[mwest]

I was thinking that if we had a fixed annual date that perhaps the location wouldn't be as important. Probably foolish on my part but if there was a fixed date like the last weekend in March or something like that then people could plan for it. Location could be moved from year to year and selected based on the not-a-rally criteria of cheap lodging within walking distance of saloon, decent riding in the area, etc. probably lots of places that qualify and if it was done in March or April, we should be off season for most places.

[guzzibob]

Hmmmm, spring or fall would be good for a coastal or low altitude location, sure, esp since we're not really looking for much if any out of state traffic anyway. Maybe, like, 1st weekend in April or otherwise maybe last weekend in September? I think if we can actually find a couple of good locations, one kinda more northerly not far south of SF, the other more southerly not far north of LA & just alternate every other year that might work better than trying to reinvent the wheel every year-unless the location kind of goes to hell like Los Alamos seems to have. There may be lots of locations that qualify, but I don't know any off hand. You? Anybody else looking in here? Certainly you have correctly defined the criteria of what we are looking for.

[guzzi jon]

There are some cheap motels that OC Johnny and I used to visit for a few days at a time near Paso Robles, lots of great roads and few leo's....One motel in particular had decent rooms and was appropriate for a not-a-rally environment, outside fire pit, picnic tables and cool to sit around and have a few brews in the evening. bars and resteraunts in crawling distance. I'll see if i can find it on google earth and post a pic. We went there 2-3 times a year evert year in the 90's, again, great roads all around and fairly centrally located (and cheap at the time) I dont know what the wine industry has done to the rates but I dont know when wine season is anyway

The first not-a-rally I went to at Los Alamos was a blast, Mr. Crump rode all the way, then spent most of the time in his room and split.... but it was a great time, even with the dicey rooms.....

[jamileh]

I would think there would be a number of places between Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara that would qualify in theory: Paso like Jon says, Atascadero, SLO, also Santa Maria, Nipomo, Arroyo Grande, Pismo, Morro Bay, Cayucos, Cambria, Carmel Valley (too pricey?), maybe even god forbid Coalinga or King City, if all you're looking for is cheap lodging, invisibility, libation, and a jumping-off spot for some good riding. Lucia has some lodging also. Hard to imagine a suitable place couldn't be found in one of these places... Can you tell I'm interested?

[guzzimark]

Try Morro bay, I did last year. We met and left Ventura, up and over the 33. Thru Taft to the 58 west (the first 30 mile are amazing), across to Santa Margarita and the the 41 into Morro. Reasonably cheap motels and plenty of bars etc. We carried onto Monterey and then back to San Simeon using the 1. Then home on a Sunday following the 1 south thru guadalupe. Great riding, very little freeway.....

[Cat City Rider]

My vote is for September (ish). I believe that this is also the beginning of the wine season. Grapes are starting to be harvested mid September until mostly the end of October me thinks. Motel rates will most likely climb.
Wife has health problems which will most likely keep me busy the rest of this year.

[guzzibob]

Try Morro bay, I did last year. We met and left Ventura, up and over the 33. Thru Taft to the 58 west (the first 30 mile are amazing), across to Santa Margarita and the the 41 into Morro. Reasonably cheap motels and plenty of bars etc. We carried onto Monterey and then back to San Simeon using the 1. Then home on a Sunday following the 1 south thru guadalupe. Great riding, very little freeway.....

"Reasonably cheap motels" in Morro Bay, really? If so, that would be great. Define reasonably cheap-& also, what time of year were you there? I would think that might make a big difference in a touristy place like Morro Bay. Just taking a quick look in the AAA book, I see for example price ranges for individual motels at, for example,$39-$159 or $59-$219. That's a pretty broad range.

To make this work someone needs to be able to say they were there, go to this or that motel at about this or that price, with say bars/restaurants or whatever attraction within walking distance.

Cambria is a great destination that I am familiar with, although it's gotten much more touristy & expensive than it used to be.

For a different kind of locale, how about Lake Isabella/Kernville? Kernville kind of a small resort town with the Kern River going right through it. Never stayed there, but seems real pleasant as long as you don't go mid winter or mid summer.....

PS-Todd, thanks a bunch for splitting this thing off from the thread we started this conversation at & moving to more appropriate location. Was going to ask you to do just that, but you beat me to it...

[Cat City Rider]

I like your ideas Bob. Always thought that would be a great place to go. Hope I can make it.