You may remember that last year our STARVet rep Stan Partin put together a ride on Memorial Day, and STAR Chapter 230 had a nice contingent of people going to the Memorial Day services at Loma Vista Memorial Park in Fullerton, the oldest Memorial Day services in the OC and celebrating their 80th service. You DON'T remember it? Ok, here's the link:
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1987800715075266325&postID=2391790344553269208
Our STARVet rep Stan Partin did it again!, planned a Memorial Day ride for this year to Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary for their 16th Annual Memorial Day Services.
I wish Barry could arrange to get off that day, being that he IS a Vietnam Vet, Air Force Air & Sea Rescue 1959-1967.
I sometimes feel a little weird, riding with all these vets since I'm not a vet, but they seem to be ok with me riding along. The services are for everyone to pay their respects to those who have gone before us, alive or passed on, who served to keep us free. Aw shit, I'm crying now, but I've always had a special place in my heart for our men and women in uniform. My father and grandfather were in the Army in WWII and WWI, respectively. Someplace around here I have a picture of my grandfather in pegged breeches, the typical 'doughboy'.
Since Stan's computer took a nosedive with no survivors, Johney Harper graciously posted the ride event on the Chapter 230 Forum.
THE PLAN:
Riders met at the usual place at Starbucks on Chapman by Best Buy at 9:30 AM with kickstands up at 9:45 AM. The timing was crucial since the event started at 10:30 AM and there will be a LOT of cars, they tell me. (I did some recon today, Saturday May23 and went over there to check out the lay of the land, find out about parking, how parking would be handled, and found out that the secondary entrance off of Fairhaven would be open, so we used that).
We came off the 22 freeway at Tustin Ave, went south on Tustin then west on Fairhaven.
What I personally wanted to do is plan a lunch spot for those who wish to do a luncheon afterward, or plan a ride, again for those who wish to do a short (4 hour) ride. Stan was thinking that exact same thing.
What I'was going to do is leave the event and ride up to Mt. Baldy and take some of those roads up there, stop for a bit, reflect and just rest my mind. There's just too much going on, too much to handle, and I need some R&R to just...not...THINK. I feel so stressed out, so overloaded, it's hard not to worry about kids, family, life in general, and I need some time to allow myself to NOT worry.
Didn't work out that way, 4 of us (Richard, Stan, Connie & I) went to lunch at Cook's Corner, then went our separate ways. More on that later, next blog...
Weather potentially will be a bit cool when we leave, around 61-62 degrees, around 63-64 when we get there and 65-68 while we're there. It was really nice, sun came out JUST at the end!
I wish I could've gotten a little patriotic outfit action goin' on for Lambie, but I just kinda don't have the time to futz around with it. Barry got 2 flags to stay on either side of Lambchop, which made me feel better. 
My outfit will hopefully be RWB again like last year, and of COURSE all of us will wear our colors.
From this point on there'll be a blow-by-blow description and A TON of pictures.
We had about 9 folks start out from Starbucks:
Joe (!!!) YEAH!!!
Johney
Stan
Connie
Bill (on his new trike!)
Richard
Paul
Jim Zerwekh, a member of Stan's church
Me, of course.
Left ON TIME, took the route, went in, found parking. Below are the guys admiring Bill's Trike, and two lineups of everybody. You know, it's really really nice to have somebody ask for my camera and take a picture of me with everybody. I wish I could've found an extra body walking around so we could get all of us, but again, it's nice to be in the pics instead of taking them all the time.
We 
started walking over to the stage,
and Joe realized he forgot his key in his bike. He went back 
to get it and discovered that his tire was flat, so he left to get it fixed. We were WONDERING where he was, looking all over the place, and we finally called him. He opted not to come back in because the program had already started.The event began dead on at 10:30 and BTW they DID have hot dogs, chips & waters available, which was pretty cool.
Below, Rich & Stan & Paul standing when they recognized all veterans. You can just barely see Paul's vest.The video above is one of three flyovers by some of the planes from Planes of Fame Air Museum at Chino Airport. The final flyover (and I wish I had video'd it and found out beforehand) was the 'missing man' formation.
I wrote down some of the main speaker's points which I thought were very dead on:
"Since it's inseption in 1868, the Memorial Day celebration is about PEOPLE. This morning is about people and their sacrifices. So far 1,400,000 military personnel and civilians have given their lives to the cause of freedom."
"We will probably face another Iraq down the road." (scary thought, that)
"On this day we recognize those who paid the price and those who elect to return-they deserve to know how we feel DAILY and we need to show our support DAILY for them. "
There was singing by the "Kids Next Door" from a local music school, they were so energetic that I felt tired just watching them (ok, I didn't, but some of the other guys did)The "Kids Next Door" did a patriotic song and a HUGE American flag was raised over the stage, then white doves were let loose. One of the Santa Ana Firetrucks used their hook and ladder to raise it, which in my mind was ingenious. (see video below)"Taps" was then played for the ceremony closing by dual trumpets by two Marines from Camp Pendleton. (Video below)
Here's Fairhaven's event flyer:
Here's a map of the facility and our entrance/exit points. 
Afterward, 4 of us (Richard, Stan, Connie & I) rode over to lunch at Cook's. I was surprised that there was actually parking, and we ran into Pete and Harry on their sportbikes. They had just done Ortega and came over to Cook's for some refreshments.
REFLECTION:
After Cook's, I thought about going to Mt. Baldy but given the holiday traffic and all sorts of people BBQ'ing and drinking, I had second thoughts. We passed by the cutoff for Mojeska Canyon and the Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary, and I had heard that the road was open to people, not just residents.
THAT blog is next, so see the next blog.
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