Not to be confused with Morro Rock (with TWO Rs) in Morro Bay, California, this is a video
Not to be confused with Morro Rock (with TWO Rs) in Morro Bay, California, this is a video of the fun hike to the top of 6,725 foot high Moro Rock, located in Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California.
The two "mountain" songs used in the video are: "There Is A Mountain" by Donovan, and "Go Tell It On A Mountain" by Peter, Paul & Mary.
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Added: 2 days ago
Views: 68
Here are some video clips I took of the peaceful solitude that can be found at 6:30 AM at
Here are some video clips I took of the peaceful solitude that can be found at 6:30 AM at the 2008 Hollister Motorcycle Rally in California. This tranquil time of day is obviously BEFORE approximately 130,000 bikers and spectators arrive at the event!
The photos of the bikes and bikers that follow the video clips are ones I took at the Hollister Motorcycle Rally in 2003. The two songs I used for the video are "Solitary Man" by Neil Diamond and "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf.
The Hollister Motorcycle Rally is known worldwide as "the birthplace of the American biker", with bikers attending from as far away as France and Australia. The vendors at this event make Hollister the largest motorcycle marketplace in the west.
This event got its historic birth on the 1947 Fourth of July weekend, when approximately 4,000 motorcyclists descended on the sleepy little town of Hollister, California and created havoc. This invasion was the spark that eventually led to what is arguably the quintessential outlaw biker movie of all time, entitled "The Wild One" in 1953, starring Marlon Brando as "Johnny", and Lee Marvin as "Chino". At one point in the movie Johnny is guzzling beer and dancing with some of the ladies in the bar, and one female dance partner questions Johnny: "Hey, Johnny, What are you rebelling AGAINST?" While tapping out a jazzy beat on the top of the jukebox, Marlon Brando raises his eyebrow and drawls his amorphous reason for rebellion: "What've you GOT!?"
For more historical perspective on the 1947 biker riot, here is an account from the time from the San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.cestcop.com/chron1.htm
and a followup article from July 6, 1947: http://www.cestcop.com/chron2.htm
Here is an excerpt from the articles:
HOLLISTER. July, 5 1947
State Highway patrolmen tonight imposed informal martial law in downtown Hollister to curb the riotous activities of an estimated 4000.
Almost 60 persons were injured, three of them seriously. Several more arrests were made and a special night court session was convened to punish those charged with reckless driving and drunkenness.
The outburst of terrorism - wrecking of bars, bottle barrages into the streets from upper story windows and roofs and high speed racing of motorcycles though the streets - came as participants in the annual "Gypsy Tour" sponsored by the American Motorcycle Association converged on Hollister for a three-day meeting.
Armed with tear gas guns, the officers herded the cyclists into a block on San Benito street, between Fifth and Sixth streets, parked a dance band on a truck and ordered the musicians to play.
Hundreds of individuals who invaded the town yesterday for the motorcycle show, about 10 percent of them women, halted their riotous "play" to dance. Their formal ball at the American Legion Hall was canceled by police orders.
The dancers scuffed their way through inches of broken glass, debris of bottle barrages thrown during the day. The officers stood almost shoulder to shoulder along the curb."
The "tour" brought the largest amount of transients in recent history to Hollister. Hundreds slept in "haystacks" according to police and in the city park and squares.
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Added: 3 days ago
Views: 145
I always try to motorcycle on the "road less traveled" whenever possible, so here are some
I always try to motorcycle on the "road less traveled" whenever possible, so here are some scenes from another of those wonderful roads. It's such a joy having such vistas pretty much to myself, without a sea of RVs, trucks, and cars all around me. This narrow, winding, seldom used, 9,655 foot high, snowy mountain pass is on Highway 31, between Fairview and Huntington in the Manti-La Sal National Forest in central Utah.
The song for the video is "Snow" from the CD "Eventide" by Grey Eye Glances.
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Added: 2 weeks ago
Views: 186
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Here's another of the national parks I motorcycled through on a recent trip around the Sou
Here's another of the national parks I motorcycled through on a recent trip around the Southwest. This national park has always been my favorite for seeing arches, natural caves, and huge monolithic stone spires, so I wanted to share it with you. It's difficult to fully grasp the enormity of how many millennia it took for erosion and weather to create these amazing works of art.
On a side topic, non-motorcycling friends have asked me over my 40 years of motorcycling why I SO much prefer to travel by motorcycle versus inside my 4 wheeled vehicles. I was really happy when a friend recently sent me the internet link to a great article by a motorcyclist that states the many "whys". I've made this article website one of my browser favorites for the next time somebody asks me "why?" :) Here is a great quote from the article: "No longer isolated, huddled behind a wheel disconnected from nature, motorcycles bring you into the world at large. It's Lawrence of Arabia in Cinerama versus a daguerreotype of a camel." http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=51 8431&topart=pickups
The song for this video is "Come Along" by Titiyo. I had never heard of this musical artist until today. I found out about her via a serendipity moment, by listening to one of her songs that happened to be on the MySpace page of a person who had linked to one of my videos, and since I enjoyed that song, I went onto iTunes to listen to more of her interesting music, and I found this song which I really liked for this video project.
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Added: 3 weeks ago
Views: 139
Yosemite is my favorite National Park, and I've probably now been there over sixty times i
Yosemite is my favorite National Park, and I've probably now been there over sixty times in my life, and I never tire of the beauty of the scenery there, so when I was motorcycling from the San Francisco Bay Area eastward on my recent trip around the Southwest, it was a no brainer type decision for me that I'd go through Yosemite once again, and take Tioga Pass Road over the summit, and on down to Lee Vining at Mono Lake, California. Tioga Pass Road had only recently been cleared of winter snow and opened for traffic again, so it was great seeing all the snow and seasonal waterfalls beside the road.
The song choice is "Gravity" by Alison Krauss and Union Station, which I relate to really well, 'cause I've had wanderlust all my life, and have always wanted to know what was over the next mountain, or around the next bend in the road.
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Added: 3 weeks ago
Views: 345
I always enjoy visiting the Grand Canyon. You can never truly grasp the enormity and vast
I always enjoy visiting the Grand Canyon. You can never truly grasp the enormity and vastness of the vistas before your eyes when you're there, because you lose ALL sense of scale, nor can you truly comprehend that the oldest rocks within the Inner Gorge at the bottom of Grand Canyon date back to almost two billion years ago.
I don't know how long YouTube has been doing this on videos, but I only just noticed it, so below the video viewing screen, under the word "Views" there's now a clickable link that says: "Watch in High Quality", so if you click that, then the video will play in MUCH better quality than YouTube's "standard quality" broadcasting.
The song for the video is Jimmy Buffett's "Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On". I really like the life message within the lyrics:
"I bought a cheap watch from the crazy man Floating down Canal It doesn't use numbers or moving hands It always just says "now" . . .
"Now you may be thinking that I was had But this watch is never wrong And if I had trouble the warranty said: Breathe in, breathe out, move on . . .
"According to my watch, the time is now The past is dead and gone Don't try to shake it, just nod your head Breathe in, breathe out, move on . . .
"Don't try to explain it, just bow your head Breathe in, Breathe Out, Move on...."
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Added: 3 weeks ago
Views: 168
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Here are some more video clips taken along Pacific Coast Highway during my recent motorcyc
Here are some more video clips taken along Pacific Coast Highway during my recent motorcycle trip around the Southwest. One of the areas shown in the video is the "Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area". I believe this is the only place left in California where you can still legally drive your vehicles on the beach. The speed limit on the beach THESE days is an OH so boring 15 miles per hour, but, BUT in the early 1970s when I went to a nearby university (and BEFORE!!!! all the annoying "Do" and "Don't" regulations popped up at this beach!!), I had this fantastic beach pretty much to myself on most days, and I spent a lot of time there, racing my motorcycle at 70 mph through the sand at the surf line, with sand and water flying out from under the speeding tires, as I zigzagged in and out, just BARELY avoiding all the incoming waves. It was SO . . . MUCH . . . FUN!!! I would of course have gone FASTER than 70 mph, but that's as fast as my hard working first motorcycle would GO! LOL
The song choice is "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" by Jimmy Buffett, which has the GREAT classic line: "If we couldn't laugh. . . we would ALL go insane."
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Added: 4 weeks ago
Views: 147
Here are some scenes from my favorite stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway, in California,
Here are some scenes from my favorite stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway, in California, which is the dramatic, rugged, winding, cliff-bound portion running from Morro Bay up to Carmel; this section has been, and always will be, a favorite among travelers and particularly among motorcyclists like me, who has been motorcycling this beautiful stretch of highway for 40 years now. The highway is also known as "PCH" and "Highway 1", and the vistas along this portion of the road are truly breathtaking. As a journalist once wrote: ""Traveling Highway 1 is more than just a scenic drive, it's a pilgrimage, a reconnection to California's history, environment, mythology - its spirit."
One of the bridges in the video is the "Bixby Creek Bridge", constructed in 1932. This bridge has been used in countless TV commercials, movies, and TV shows (like the short-lived 1969 "Then Came Bronson", about a nomadic guy wandering around the country on his V-Twin motorcycle (GEE, I wonder why I always related so well to THAT old TV show!? LOL)). Here is a good website that talks about the bridge: http://www.pelicannetwork.net/bigsur.bixby.bridge.htm, and a website that talks about "Then Came Bronson" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Then_Came_Bronson
The quote at the beginning of the video, is a fragment of a larger poem by Lord Byron. Here is the entire quotation:
"There is pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more, From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be, or have been before, To mingle with the Universe, and feel What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal."
LORD BYRON, Childe Harold
The song for the video is "The Wanderers" by Lacy J. Dalton, from her CD "The Last Wild Place Anthology".
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Added: 4 weeks ago
Views: 356
Here are some of the scenes I saw along Route 66 in Arizona and California, during my rece
Here are some of the scenes I saw along Route 66 in Arizona and California, during my recent wonderful motorcycle ride around the Southwest.
The video also includes some examples of the Burma Shave ads. Here are a few websites that talk about these famous, highly entertaining ads, which were seemingly EVERYWHERE on the highways "in the old days":
http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/hpolscrv/mthoma s.htm
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burma.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave
http://www.signindustry.com/outdoor/articles/2000-02-15-give usbackourburmashave.php3
The "Hollow Mountain" store and gas station is actually on a road that's north of Route 66, but it's funky nature fits right in with many of the quirky places on Route 66, so I included it in the video as well. There's an entire store carved into that mountain, with restrooms and storage rooms, etc. The store owner confirmed for me that the rock is a great natural insulator, so they never have to use heat during the winter, and only need air conditioning in the summer because of the heat that the refrigerator cooling units put out.
The song for the video is three different versions of "Route 66", one by Depeche Mode, one by Chuck Berry, and the final version by the Rolling Stones.
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Added: 1 month ago
Views: 765
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