Almost done! We had a full day planned for Saturday so we were up early for a quick jaunt to the ocean–Rob had never been to Del Mar-and then we were off for our breakfast at Robertos consisting of a Carne Asada Taco and 2 Crispy Chicken Tacos–YUMMY. We ate this first batch at 9:51am.  Here we have Rob Rowe carefully studying the menu to make sure he “optimized” his experience with Shred freaking out next to him he is Jonesing for Robertos so bad! Yes, he has been there before.

SOOOO good.

Next we did some sightseeing and shopping in Solana Beach and Del Mar and then we decided to hydrate after such and arduous ride:

We then had a quick rest and were back in the car at 2 for our second Robertos run followed by a jaunt to the Glider Port. We went with the Ryloride tradition of 2 Crispy Chicken Tacos.

Isn’t that spectacular. It was super windy and there were a TON of them. We wanted to do it but they said we had to wear a safety harness and we would have none of that we are well trained in all forms of extreme air sports.  We then did a minor trip down Rylo-Memory lane before heading back to meet the team for pre gala baseball–there happened to be a wedding above us and the Groom was a Navy Seal–so were all the groomsmen. It was inspiring and reminded us all of our dreams of being Navy Seals. I trained young.

Next the Low Bar then the Gala then the Dinner Im going long! Give me the hook!

Here Nathan and I congratulate each other before taking the stage at the Gala for our 2 hour presentation on how we achieved such greatness:

What a day. I consumed 7239 calories and about 95% were from fat. And, I dont think the good kind of fat. It was fantastic. I’ll finish this up next week I’m at a Celebrity gig the next few days but I cant tell you where. Here I am trying to get past the Paparazzi:

Hello again! Before I get to the non riding portion of the ride lets get to a few comments/questions as I have been scolded for not doing a better job of that–#1 is more of a statement than a question I guess: “I love Rob Rowe he is fantastic he has been the #1 Rated Agency Strategist for 17 straight years and is one of the greatest assets at Citi. But, you on the other hand suck. I mean you really suck.”

Sincerely,

Tom Tierney–Hope the Girls are all doing well!

“Is any of the blog true?” I refer you to post #2 when I address that.

“How the heck did you get Bill Walton to join RR4-The All Star Edition?” -I asked very nicely and we are buds so yeah that.

“Do Dom and Maust actually have fun on this or is this a court ordered punishment?” I am going to ignore this and get to the blog!

I dont even know where to begin on this one and I have to show restraint on posting pictures as we were allowed to enter the inner sanctum and obviously there are some restrictions on posting those pictures SO I will make sure all the photos have Ryloride participants in the picture….After we arrived at Torrey Pines we were met by STR who informed us that they had pulled the ultimate Ryloride coup…we were going to eat dinner at Bill Walton’s house. Ok, sit down and take deep breaths we will get through this. Now, at first I thought this was some sort of cruel joke but I was being told by Dom and well he is the Global Director of Vibes for The Ryles Institute so there is NO way he would torture me like that….so…was it true? Yes, it was. HOW?? HOW??? Normally I would take full credit for this but I cant this is too big this was ALL Dom and Maust. Turns out one of the snr CAF people and her husband (who did the ride and was on my ride in 2014!) are HUGE CWK fans and recognized Maust at the Cliffs in Laguna. They had met before and after hugs and pictures they invited All of us to Bill’s house for the post CAF dinner. After we triple confirmed all 7 of us could show up at Bill’s house we decided–YES WE MUST GO! We loaded into some ubers and fought traffic for over an hour but then….we were at Bill Waltons house. Now I wont tell you where that it is but lets just say it is absolutely the most amazing house we have ever seen. He has 52,189 pieces of Dead Memorabilia. Still dont believe me? lets get to some pictures then shall we!  Nathan who is that to the right?

Rylo who is behind you and Bobby?

Who is behind team RR?

Dom’s smile says it all..

Bill–what do u think of Rob Rowe?

WOW a BIG thumbs up. Rob you ROCK!

You want to see the superfan who helped make this happen (well it was really his wife but this picture is too good)…in order to thank him Dom busted out a CWK shirt for the guy and teed up a Maust photo…ladies and gentlemen one of our hosts–JOE! Isn’t that just fantastic he is awesome-now that is a fan.

We spent hours at the house mingling/exploring (he has a teepee) and just talking with the people. It was amazing how many of the people knew about RR4. Bill’s wife actually asked me about it extensively and told me I was welcome back anytime. It’s happening. Since this is SUCH a big development I am going to put up some more pictures of our team at Bills and will post one of the LAST few entires tomorrow.  The drum collection:

And now a series from the teepee…

Our serious pose:

My more appropriate George pose we decided I should keep the shirt on:

And one of the greatest pictures in Ryloride History:

I’ll be back tomorrow.

Hello. I think we covered day 1 sufficiently, thanks for the outpouring of support after my wipeout by the way!, so we move onto really what was the most amazing 3 days in Ryloride History and keep in mind we have had a LOT of mind blowing memories from the experiences we have been through the last few years so I know of what I speak get ready for greatness–that reminds me of my favorite quote from Say Anything–Get ready for greatness Lloyd.

We rose at a leisurely pace and prepared ourselves for day 2 in the Carport of the Laguna Cliffs Hotel:

Now, get ready, it was at this point that we unveiled our second celebrity for RR4 (Maust is clearly Celebrity #1) –Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen I am proud to announce that Bill Walton agreed to participate in day 2 of Ryloride 4- The All Star Edition. When I explained to Bill that the Fans had strongly voted him  in as an All Star he realized this was bigger than him and well I give you Ryloride 4 Special Celebrity Participant…BILL WALTON!

Yes, I am sporting my RR3 shirt with Bill ALWAYS giving a shout out to the fantastic charity we support The CAF! Yes, you read it correctly we got Bill Walton to come on RR4! Come on that is big–lets take another look:

Wow. I will let you take a moment to gather yourself……This is big. We are already in discussions about his joining Ryloride5 the Anniversary Edition.  Bill was a super easy rider to have along with his only special requirement being his special chair cause well he is a giant–its a bit hard to see but I was so excited.

We grouped together and headed out from Dana Pt for day 2 which offered less treacherous conditions, bigger bike lanes, beautiful views and all around fun. We of course dined at the same spot in Oceanside but NOT before we cruised through Pendleton where we were treated to an Osprey and Chopper landing!

By the way, because our ride is becoming so popular they put these signs up along the route to warn other people that we owned the roads today:

As we rode through North County we came upon the greatest halloween decorating we have ever seen…

The guy has Cannons! Cannons Jerry! The weather was iffy with some raindrops falling but we powered through until we got to the dreaded Torrey Pines Hill where Shred got a flat near the top. I was able to effortlessly assist in the fixing of the tire:

After this minor setback we cruised into Torrey Pines for the traditional ending beverage and this is where we unveil our 3rd and final Celebrity Participant…

Yes ladies and Gentlemen I give you ROB ROWE! I will wait a moment while it all settles in….ROB ROWE! I know I even outdid myself this year…? Rob, who we all love, not only joined us for the 2 days of festivities–oh boy do I have some FANTASTIC material–but thats the next few posts-he also joined The Ryles Institute! He was a bit skeptical at first but he made it through the initiation and was given his official Ryles Institute Business cards–in fact, here are the cards for our newest batch of recruits–CONGRATULATION AND WELCOME TO THE INSTITUTE!

I know this is all a LOT to digest–we have a wipeout mile 8, We have a famous Rock Star on the trip, We had Bill Walton join us, the 5 was shut, we had broken bikes/flat tires/smashed Rylo/Rain/Willmington oh the list goes on and on but we mauled the route despite the obstacles and got ROB ROWE to join us. That man can optimize let me tell you. We have hardly even gotten to the fun stuff of 2 days in Del Mar but I need to go take all this in so I will throw up some more pictures and get to the last few entries over the next few days. ITS HAPPENING!

Here is the immediate post wipeout picture u can see where I bounced along and thats my skin on the ground.

Tomorrow I bring you the absolute most exciting part of the trip AND Rob Rowe meets a Crispy Chicken Taco…ok here is a preview! Back soon.

I wanted to finish up day one and begin day 2 which I will finish tomorrow Shred and I have to drive back today. Im about a day behind on the blog due to the wipe out so just pretend its a day earlier than it is.

I wanted to elaborate on day 1 as there are some very memorable parts of the first leg of the ride. After the rocky start that had us still in Hermosa Beach at noon we knew we had to make up time so we put our heads down and motored thru the always lovely Rancho Palos Verdes and down into the valley of death Wilmington. Now I know you think I am apt to exaggeration but no kidding that 10 mile stretch is just pure madness. It is like Mad Max Thunderdome on Steroids. Everybody has a big rig, a pit bull, multiple tattoos and guns and they all HATE bikers. This is where we really needed the extra muscle of Bobby and Dom. Each year we are prepared for the gauntlet but it always seems to be worse than I remembered and with my injuries I knew I was the weakest of the herd and you’ve all seen what happens to that poor animal when the lions show up!

We did prevail but it was a tough ride with the wind messing with us the whole day. Here are some pictures of that part of the ride:

After we got thru the Death Gauntlet with only minor mishaps we powered thru to mile 50 which is where STR met us for our  traditional fish  taco lunch on the pier. Nathan spiced it up this time with lo-cal nachos:

After a fast lunch we got to the pretty part of the ride, The OC, but we were hours behind schedule so we boogied thru the area pretty quickly to get to Dana Pt. Due to the late arrival we decided to stay local so we hung at the hotel and dined on giant burgers and local beers to make sure we were supporting the local economy.  Because I need to pack and hit the road I’m going to end this early and just throw up some more day one pictures and I will unveil Celebrity Number 2 tomorrow in a more complete blog entry! Bobby is quite strong check this out:

After arriving at the Huntley and doing a few brief fan events we headed off to situate ourselves for the Cubs/Dodgers game at the Water Grill and began the festivities.  A bit later our good friend Bret Barker joined us–he had to arrive a bit late as he is teaching part time at USC where he chairs several departments.  He did look quite professorial if you ask me but you can judge for yourself shortly. Whenever Bret is around a seafood tower cant be far behind so Bret treated the table to some fine wine and a very hefty bounty from the ocean including Lobster and Scallops! We had a grand old time and were really happy that Bret was able to take time away from his busy schedule to join us so thanks Bret! As you can see we did a good job of calorie loading and hydrating pre Ryloride 4-The All Star Edition.

The next morning we were up early to prepare the bikes and ourselves for the ride!

And we were off…but alas we didnt get far before chaos ensued..Yes, sadly for the first time in Ryloride history a rider went down and yes it was me. I know, nobody is more upset about this than me as I constantly preach safety and preparation but alas biking is a dangerous sport and sometimes you smack into the pavement. We were 8 miles in weaving through the beach streets of Marina Del Rey when we came to a maze of turns–being the team leader it was my job to point out the way so I took my hand off the bars to give directions right when I hit some sand and well then it was 8 seconds of chaos as the handlebars got torn out of my other hand when I hit the sand I went over the curb (that hurt a bit) with no hands bounced up a bit and then slammed into the pavement on my right side with my left knee and hip stopping me. Did it hurt? Hell yes man it hurt bad. I am TOO old to smash into the ground. After determining that nothing seemed too broken our lead Medical Officer–Bobby J–deemed me fit to ride which I did. But, at mile 14 the bracket that holds on your derailed snapped off and that was just bad. So, I immediately started to weep uncontrollably but Bobby and Nathan took control of the situation and believe it or no we found a bike store in Torrance I took an Uber–the rest of the team went back to Hermosa for beverages and then STR picked me up and returned me to my team 2 hours later!  Yes, day 1 had some issues. I thought it was over I was prepared to buy a new bike but the bike gods took care of me. This did put us way behind schedule so we had to battle some hefty head winds and didnt get into the hotel until almost 6 vs our 3 pm target–thanks for helping me out team! Here are some pictures of that and the store that fixed me up and the transport back to the group!

I have to go meet the team for some Post Ride Fan Stuff so I will finish this later hope its not too long but day one was QUITE dramatic!

Howdy. Before I get to the chaos/obstacles we encountered on the 5 I guess I better fill out the roster of who is attending Ryloride4 -The All Star Edition. The Ryloride Committee is very pleased to announce that we were able to gather together the original members of Ryloride–Plus Shred. For our “Super Fans” you will of course know who that includes but for you fans who are more “part timers”  let me spell it out for you!

You know about me and Nathan so next we move onto…drum roll please– Yes BOBBY J is BACK!

There was some work that needed to be done to convince his parole officer that he should be allowed to travel out of state but after a substantial bond was posted he was allowed to head West so we welcome back our good friend and inspirational leader–Bobby J!

Next we have Shred–Yes Shred is back and doing the I5 with me.

Shred is also in charge of the playlist both to and from Socal!

For the support team somehow Nathan was able to get the original Members of STR (support team ryloride) back on the road with us! YES we have Dom and Maust joining us for the entire trip! We didnt think they would be able to come due to the extensive tour schedule of Cold War Kids but Maust put his foot down and said –” Band dudes, I need to do Ryloride4 so I’m taking a week off!” Thanks Maust! Now that is dedication. Since Maust is actually famous we have decided to once again let him be played by himself–lets hope he nails this performance. So STR Head of Operations–Matt Maust:

I hope he gives Ryloride 4 a shout out on his instagram account–hint hint.

We are also THRILLED to announce that Dom is back as Director of Transportation for STR! He is also running all security which we need in this day and age. I think we have found the perfect likeness for our friend Dom:

We look forward to many good times with Dom and Maust and well you can see here we are 50 miles in already having fun:

I

In the top Photo Dom is handing Nathan a copy of his new business cards from the Ryles Institute.  Yes, The Ryles Institute is happy to announce that we are adding and initiating 3 new members on the trip. Dom and Maust were awarded admission and our secret guest who joins us Friday in Del Mar will also be joining the ranks! Oh how the Institute has grown but we will get to that later. The initiation to the Institute is quite elaborate:

I think that is it for the team. For the drive, Shred and I were on the road by 8 but about 100 miles before the grapevine they have one of those big signs that says: Bad accident 100 miles ahead take alternative routes.  Ok, what alternative route?  This is I5 i mean there isn’t anything else out there! Apparently a tanker overturned caught on fire and they had to shut the 5 at the Grapevine so Dave and I went East on 99 to 58 and then South where we hooked back up with the 5 at the 405/5 split. Yes we went around the grapevine through Mojave/Lancaster etc. It was very pretty but added over an hour to the trip! Here is what Mohave looks like:

But Shred and I kept our good attitude sang a few more classic rock tunes and made it to the Huntley by 4.  To keep with the Original cast theme we got Bret Barker to join us! Yes!  But, I gotta go so I will start with that next time and take you through day 1 which actually has some drama involved–which is bad for me but all is ok I cant say more now!  Here are some more pictures and I will be back soon. You can click on any of the pictures if you want to see them in a bigger format–oh, I think I will start with one from Kindergarten –yes we got a LOT of requests for more pictures of me from my youth–so, give the fans what they want! My incredible work ethic was evident at a young age-My pants are spectacular.

How serious did I take the Biking Bad Theme? Its my tough guy face:

Until later!

Can you believe it?

Another year has passed but your prayers have been answered as Ryloride 4 is upon us. Lets take a moment to savor those feelings of excitement/relief/and ohhh so much anticipation!  I know you are asking yourself “Can they outdo Ryloride2? RR3?”  Well it is NOT about outdoing those wonderful rides, oh the memories I almost feel a bit teary, it is about enjoying another one that is sure to be filled with tons of memories that we will cherish for a lifetime. I am still such a cockeyed optimist but the world needs that so lets step back from the negativity of the world and creepiness of the situation in Hollywood and use Ryloride4 as an opportunity to forge ahead on a better path! As you know, the Ryloride Doctrine STRONGLY supports inclusiveness and understanding so feel the love and follow along as we head down the PCH to our favorite place–Del Mar.

What is the theme this year? Guess what there are many! Most of them will be revealed when I unveil the Ryloride Memorabilia (Oh are there some stories about that stuff) but I will let you know that one of the main themes of this years ride is–The All Star Edition.  We had SOOOO many letters with ideas for future Rylorides (along with many people begging to  be included of course) that it took us months to sort through them all but one theme that kept coming up again and again was–Do an All Star Edition!  So we asked the fans to vote for their favorites and those lucky folks are the cast of Ryloride4–the All Star edition.  Who is riding? We will get to that in good time but for now I will only say it is myself:

and Mr. Nathan Rose:

Yes, Nathan and I held extensive auditions and decided to let ourselves be portrayed by Bryan and Ryan. I was recently asked during a Press Interview with a Non Fake News Agency exactly what is the blog and why use the Famous Actors (who want to portray us so badly)?  I guess the best way to look at it is the Blog is a Docudrama. Everything that occurs is factually correct ( well at least 72% of the time) I just am able to use my creative genius to enhance the experience for you–the Blog Reader.  You are welcome. I take my role quite seriously and will try not to let you down as we progress down the PCH.

I have a ton to tell you but I depart Moraga tomorrow at 7:30 Am so I must go prepare for the drive down the 5 with…..Oh not yet you must wait and see!  We have BIG plans for tomorrow night and rumors are circulating that Bret Barker may even join us…..But now I must go finish the treat bags–here I am putting them together:

and load a LOT of stuff into the highlander so we can begin…RYLORIDE4–The All Star Edition! Wait wait we have one fan who keeps texting me questions I guess we have time for one question–well it seems to be more of a statement …”You suck. I mean you really suck. If you look up suck in the dictionary there is a picture of you.”

sincerely,

Tom Tierney–say hi to the family!

And, so it begins–Ryloride 4–The All Star Edition–We Choose Not To Run!

It’s Happening.

Yes, its happening. Ryloride4-The All Star Edition is only 4 weeks away. Preparations are being made.  The athletes are intensely training and the route is being set up to accommodate record breaking crowds.  The participants are committed and will be revealed in due time but let me just say that we have 2 HUGE surprise guests who will be joining us for part of the ride and they are both HUGELY famous.  Yes, its happening. Ryloride4–Biking Bad.

See why I used that song lyric? Last Seinfeld episode….Its time again for me to summarize the event and let you go back to your lives until next year, I think.  Another song quote that I almost ended on was from Show of Life (yes, Trey): It’s been perfectly planned, it’s completely insane, it’s a revolving cast, but it’s the same old game.

By that I mean–well yes, it was perfectly planned based, once again, from the ever valuable advice from Mr. Martin aka the 6 P’s: Proper planning prevents piss poor performance. I can’t tell you how true that is–I also refer to it as solving for success. Which we did meaning the ride was long enough to be a real ride but you still felt great when off the bike which was helped along by our fabulous team AND the ridiculously nice weather for the week.  Its pretty hard not to be happy when its 85 degrees and this is your view for the day:

And to the rest of the lyric:  it’s a revolving cast, but it’s the same old game–that refers to the change of the group for this years ride vs last year. Both were fabulous but we did miss Maust, Dom and Bobby J.

But we replaced em because that’s how we roll on RR’s! This year we added Joe and Andrew:

Yes, they are the ones with the beards. This generation is all about the beard. If I grow one it comes in totally grey and, as my Daughter Sarah said, “you look super old with that”, so Shred and I refrained. Andrew did day 2 of the ride and is a wonderful young lad with Joe taking on the work of 2 men (well for RR2 it was 2 Dom and Maust) to run the entire support operation including driving the highlander! We couldn’t have done it without you and thanks for safeguarding our high end technology that we used for the ride! Both Andrew and Joe told me their favorite movie is The Highlander, favorite town is Del mar AND favorite food is Robertos. I concur gentlemen I concur.

For the riders we lost Bobby J but picked up Reinecke and Shred. Reinecke cut out a day early so missed the gala dinner hence not in the photo but was with us for the rest of the awesomeness. Additionally, Shred drove BOTH ways with me (including to and from my house) so he is a solid sport which will be remembered during next years cuts for RR4!

The main differences from last year was we did the ride about a month earlier which meant–warmer days/longer days AND a much more robust crowd scene as we moved down the coast.  At L’auberge there were 4 weddings during our 2 day stay which sold the place out. Man those Del Mar people are a good looking and wealthy bunch.  I clearly did not fit in but could see us living in a lovely house OVER looking the cool crowd…the biggest regret for the trip was not getting a better picture of Larry David–we got QUITE a few angry emails about that including this one: “You suck” Signed Tom Tierney. Ok he always did get straight to the pt.

Before I get to a plethora of high quality pictures lets get to a few recommendations shall we:

Good shows/movies to watch on the wars overseas (this comes from my near career in the Navy Seals) mixed with other shows I like: Restrepo, Battleground Afghanistan, The Fighting Season,  Korengal,  Narcos, The Wire,  War, Bomb Patrol Afghanistan, The Night Of, Both Fargo seasons, and just to keep it brief I will stop with the book Zero To One . For Alaska shows Life Below Zero is great, the Last Alaskans, Ultimate Survival Alaska, etc.

Q&A: Will you do it again next year. Probably. But like the calendar nobody knows when I move onto the next thing!

Would you consider making the ride bigger? Nope. 5 riders is the max and 1 is the min.

That seems like a good place to end it.  A bunch of pictures and we call it a day.  We start with Nathan making some emergency fixes to the rack–luckily he brought his travel Arc welder.

Ryloride3 Shirt quotation taken from this Gif:

And so we conclude RR3 with another quote from the Highlander–Have an awesome rest of the year and Holiday season you know how much I love Xmas!

“I am Rylo MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. I was born in 1518 in the village of Glenfinnan on the shores of Loch Shiel. And I am The Rylo”

The End.

Hello,

Pardon me for going a bit out of order but there is just so much to say. After a glorious “down day” in Del Mar post RR3, we packed up the highlander and headed home. She was still sporting the broken windshield from the gunfire we encountered on the ride down but fortunately I upgraded to bullet proof glass when I purchased the vehicle so we are glad I made that decision as it could have been much worse. To kill time on the VERY long 500 mile drive Shred and I played that new game that is all the rage–car Karaoke. Shred was a theater major in college and he really got into character for every round. First we banged out Candle in the Wind and Goodbye Yellow Brick road:

Then right into Do you Think I am sexy by Rod:

And then he went all Ham on us with is Lady Gaga impersonation during the Roma Tomato song of hers-we crushed that song.

The 5 was fine but we did hit some traffic approaching the GrapeVine:

But before our journey, we enjoyed the last evening gala followed by a Private team dinner at the Poseidon. At the gala everybody was in a fabulous mood as toasts were plentiful as was the praise heaped upon Rylo for another successful ride. Here we have Joe and Andrew enjoying a moment:

And Shred put on his finest garb for the evening–his Handmade Peacock Feathered Jacket that he once used to woo his lovely bride-

Nathan wore the outfit from his recent video which looked quite stunning:

At one Pt Nathan really mixed it up and got a Peach Coolie

One thing we noticed was that we were a pretty mellow crew. With the Baseball games starting at 4 we tended to be viewing them early/eating early and getting a good night sleep. This is a big difference vs last year and we all knows its because we dont have Bobby there trying to always take it to the next level:

.

I tried to make up with Bobby but well this was the selfie he sent me:

Hopefully time will heal these wounds. Well I gotta go for now but I will still comeback and finish this up with my book and tv reviews, more RR3 memorabilia, Q&A, Advice and worthwhile sayings, whats next and we finish with Nathans song that he sang us on the last night–he took his cue from last years performance by Bobby and man he really nailed it. Until then!