Rides to Collect ABC Letters, January, 2015

I'm collecting points for my 2015 HOG ABC's.  Each new calendar year, I start over with a blank slate.
I try as early in the year as weather allows to begin with the local points.

January 3rd, Collecting the nearest points
My first ride has usually been just about 10-15 miles for the nearest few letters

My first stop is the Cupertino Post Office
This photo can be used for the city, the state,
and/or the country - A sort of three for one.

The next photo is for Santa Clara county
There is a convenient fire station that works nicely

The next three photos are for the nearby cities of
Saratoga, Los Gatos, and Monte Sereno

Five locations, five photos and I can get credit for seven points.
(see my ABC page for the rules)

January 7th, Up the East Bay
One of my customary rides has been up the east side of the bay

My first stop is the Newark Civic Center

In past years, next stop has been
the Union City Historical Museum.
But HOG ABC's no longer allow museums to earn points
There is a Union City Post Office next to the museum
but my GPS pointed me toward a different one
This post office on a busy street is hard to get a close photo

My next stop was the Oakland Harley-Davidson Dealer for a dealer point.
HOG ABCs allow a dealership to be used for a point for the city in which it is located
and there are not very many "O" cities around here.

Final two stops for this ride were Fremont and Alameda County

January 10th, Up the Peninsula
I often pick up a few cities on the peninsula
I need to be in some of the photos so I brought a tripod and camera with a timer


The town of Atherton has offices
in a building shared with a post office
Redwood City has a couple arches
over the main steets
A pair of nice ladies walking by
were nice enough to take my picture

Belmont has a city hall
with a large name on the back
The little town of Portola Valley has
a very convenient sign for my photo

The town of Woodside does not have all that many photo ops.
The city hall does not have a prominent city name on it.
A lot of cities assume that you must know where you are so just say "City Hall"
This fire station is actually in Portola Valley. I will cheat and claim it for a "W" point

January 17th, Over to the Coast
It has been too long since I have ridden the coast so I rode up to Half Moon Bay
and down Highway 1 to Santa Cruz and then headed home.
Fortunately, there are some letter opportunities that I need for this years collection


The town of El Granada  just north of
Half Moon Bay has a post office and
"E" is a tough letter to get.
From There I headed back to
Half Moon Bay for an "H"

There is a nice post office
in Pescadero that I have used
in the past for the letter "P"
but I already have Portola Valley.
So I will use this for the country
About 2:30 and I was hungry.  I had
planned on grabbing something in
Pescadero, but it was so crowded
that I could not even find a parking space
So I headed down to Davenport and
the Whale City Bakery

While there, I grabbed a photo of the
 Davenport Resource Service Center for my "D"

January 18th, Hollister, San Juan Bautista
My step-brother, Jason, and I have often wanted to ride together,
but somehow, we never seem to get around to it.  So we planned a day for a short ride.
He lives in Hollister, so I headed down there
and we had a nice visit and headed over to San Juan Bautista for lunch.


On the way to Hollister I stopped
at the House of Thunder HD
in Morgan Hill.  During the year,
I can get up to
ten points for HD dealers
Next stop was a quick photo
in Gilroy for a "G" letter

We rode down to Tres Pinos
for a "T" letter
I have used the Tres Pinos Post Office
several times in the past but
I never went inside.
Jason urged me to mentioning the
vintage service window.

San Juan Bautista is always a fun place to visit.
Warning! editorial opinion follows:
At this time, the Catholic Church is in the process of making Junipero Sera a saint.
There is a grave yard up on the grounds of this mission that is filled
with the native indians that the good father helped into early graves.
Sort of a "convert and be our slave or prepare to meet your maker" policy

January 31st, Salinas
There is a Harley dealer in Salinas and an opportunity for another county
Monterey for an "M".  So I headed down US-101


My first stop was at the
Monterey County Harley-Davidson
They were having a barbeque later in the day
a benefit for our servicemen.
I looked at and drooled over the new
"Limited" bikes
My next stop was at the
Monterey County Sheriff's Office
There are a number of buildings
from which to choose for my photo
From Salinas, I decided to head west to Moss Landing and up the coast.
The roads through the Salinas Valley were beautiful on this nice weather day.
Many fields were already planted with little sprouts promising a wonderful havest
 In Moss Landing, I stopped at the Haute Enchilada Cafe for a bite.
I had "Tamal Trio" which is three tamales with three sauses.  Very good.
Then happily to home.

The weather this January has been unusually warm and completely dry.
Suffering from cabin fever, I have been in the mood for riding.
As a result, I have been able to gather more ABC points in this one month
than I ever have in any single month before.
Check it out: 2015 HOG ABC's

Now, what will I do for the rest of the year?