By Dean Adams
We were fortunate enough to spend some time in San Diego recently, enjoying the 70-degree weather, the numerous In-n-Out burger joints on seemingly every corner, and the 90 mph freeways. What’s not to like?
One afternoon, after walking for a few hours, we were able to locate the cemetery where Cal Rayborn is buried. We even helped a funeral director clear away the years of leaves, dirt, and sticks that had accumulated on his gravestone. Unfortunately, it appeared that nobody had visited the grave in ten years. It’s in a lovely location, though – if you’re dead. It’s situated under a big tree and right next to a pond.
The cemetery where Rayborn is buried is enormous. Even with a golf cart, a working knowledge of the graveyard, and a map, it took the funeral director a good ten minutes to locate the grave. We informed her that Rayborn is a world-famous motorcycle racer, still revered around the globe today. However, she had to attend to other matters and didn’t seem too impressed.
If you happen to be in Rayborn’s native San Diego and feel like paying your respects to one of America’s greatest motorcycle racers, here are easy directions to find his grave.
The physical address is:
Greenwood Memorial Park and Mortuary
4300 Imperial Ave,
San Diego, CA 92113
Cal is buried in the Rest Haven portion of the cemetery.
Soup has had a working Rayborn sticker floating around since at least 2013. We finished it last year as sort of a weird tribute AND “what if” decal. What if Rayborn hadn’t been killed and Harley-Davidson had gone GP racing in the 1980s with a square-four, two stroke, Ohlins forks, spoked wheels and drum brakes? (It does sound like something HD would do, doesn’t it?)
Thanks to FoS Clyde Akers, if you venture out to Cal’s grave, there are some Rayborn stickers there. They are in a plastic bag under the small rock on Cal’s gravestone.
While I was at Rayborn’s grave, I almost wished I had a piece of my sticker collection with me. Since it was apparent that nobody had visited in years, I thought it would be a nice way to show that Cal wasn’t just another dead human – he was and still is remembered. I didn’t want to go overboard like Jim Morrison fans have with his grave, but just enough to honor Rayborn’s legacy.
Next time.
