Texas State Meeting 2021

 Hard to believe it's come and gone...    went too quickly.   I joined in '18.  Since then State has been held in Galveston, Temple, South Padre Island and now Denison.....   bam!  Next year is New Braunfels, but.. getting ahead of myself.

Soon as this popped up last year, I jumped on the reservation search and as always... nada .. zilch.  Guessing, the hosting chapter gets their fill all before they publicize it and all their closest buddies... then.. it goes public for their rest of us to squirm?  Happens just about every time... js. Hell, I'd do the same. Good news is, found a non participating hotel few miles away, got a military rate locked in for ourselves and the Kennedys' before they figured out an event was in the works.  So for less than $100 a night, all good. Others trying to get rooms late in the game, north of $200.  Was looking at AirBnB options but finding the hotel just simplified things.  Had we had a bigger group (6-8), that AirBnb would have been the way to go.

Later in '20 they  opened up the ordering for the shirts.  Lucy didn't realize I'd ordered hers along with mine so she ended up doubling up but ... always room in the closet for these.  Kicker is, with all the "R" trademark stuff going on as late, the vendor fucked up on our logo and late in the game ( month ago?) all hell broke loose and they had to REPRINT all new shirts for us.  The original one's are relegated to wearing during yard work or rags?  Anyways ... after receiving the shirts in the mail, we got new ones when we checked in.  Problem is the "State Store' wasn't set up anywhere officially so if you didn't get them on day 1 well...  who knows where they were. And if you didn't order them by early Aug '21 .. you were shit out of luck.

Well, Thursday finally got here and it was time to head out.  Beaudreaux's bikes were down so they were caging it and Lucy opted to jump in with them on Friday. So headed out after lunch and a quick 1.5 hours later I was at the Hilton on-site and sipping a cold beer. Grab my goodie bag, my shirts from the pile, and few vendors are setup.  Koozies .. check. More Tee Shirts... check.  Challenge coins .. check.  Then one of the chapter's asks me if I like whiskey .. duh.   Pulls out a decanter; last one left.  They can't sell them anymore due to some BS that went on, so I offer up a donation and ...  score.  They have Beer mugs as well .. .. donation .. score!  Hell, been here an hour and I've filled up a saddle bag. Well, the 'party' is next door at HeyDays so I eventually meander over that way where the Kenndys' have setup camp and we're soon sipping.  Dutch rolls in quietly and we're slowly growing. These drinks are flowing a lil too easy so before I'm past the point of no return I sneak out the door and head to the Best Western.  But.... almost to my destination I see the North Rig Grill, sneak in, park it at the bar, and a JD/Coke and Chicken Friend Steak Sandwich later... I'm happy.  Now... back to the hotel.  Before I get into the elevator I run into a guy that seems a lil' off to me; guessing he's sipped more than I have at this point.  He's authored a book called Drawing Fire about a WWII vet whom is of the Pawnee tribe out of Oklahoma, Brummet Echohawk.  We chat for awhile (he's seen my vest/patches) and he's soon off to get me his last copy, signs it for me and I hand him a CVMA Challenge coin in exchange.  He's as psyched as I am; score!  Okay .. .now ... call it a night.

Up early, and headed over to IHOP for some grub with Dutch. Then, to the meeting site to connect up for a ride.  They have 4 or 5 separate rides and I pick the one to Whitewright they called the Texas Tail of the Dragon, which got my attention.  We've got about 50 bikes and head out through Denison and Sherman. Eventually we pop out on a country road with the twisties but we're running about 10 under the speed limit.  Have to admit, I was a little disappointed.  Had I been leading that ride, I'd found a better path to get us to the beginning of it all away from lights and traffic, then get it at least up to the speed limit.  Then .. maybe.. just maybe.. it'd been okay.  At Whitewright we've invaded "The Loft Pizza Pub."  They were given a heads up but were unprepared for 50-60 people walking in at once. Luckily I quickly found a place at the bar followed by Ratt and Dutch.  We're first up for drinks and food... score!  Boots and HoneyBadger showed up late but are ready to go after we've had a few and some grub... so ... we decided to head back separate from the group.  I had zero desire to crawl along at a snails pace; we rolled at 80mph back to home base.  Hmmm.. "tail of the dragon?" .. I want some of whom called it that, is smoking? Good news is Lucy has caged in with the Kennedy's so back over to HeyDay!  Few drinks there, over to the convention center for a few hours.. then ...  we decide to pull the plug and head back to the hotel.  We've got drinks iced down waiting for us, and Pizza and Wings is a phone call away.   Few hours later.....zzzzzz

Picture Time

502 TX Members in attendance

 The big day is here.  We finally connect up with the Dittels since they didn't come up until now, living just down the road towards McKinney.  Saturday is the official meeting but first we've got to jump into the fray with 500 others for a quaint group pic!  Drone is buzzing above, they herd the cats and our webmaster is pulling the trigger on his SLR.   We're released from our cage and we head to the meeting.  Few hours of good info, Dudeman is running a great meeting, we've got the National Commander on hand with some good words, and then we're voting for a new State Secretary and SAA which takes longer than expected, followed by a swipe for attendance.  Eventually, we're out of there grab a few drinks, head back to the hotel for a quick power nap .. and .. bam .. .lets do it again!   Around 1800 hours folks are streaming back into the convention center (converted to Skully's Lounge) for
music, karaoke, drinks and .. well .. more drinks! We've got a Bull Ride in the corner and damned I want to give it a shot, but I always suck at it and Lucy keeps pointing out my back issue; grrrrrrr.  Anyways.. .few hours go by ... and .. time to pull the plug.  I get us back to the North Rig Grill, we grab a spot on the side patio and enjoy a really nice evening with friends and snacks and ...  maybe.. a JD or two. Then ... yep ... zzzzzzzzzzzz

 Sunday morning is here and a few clouds are in the air.  Looks like possible rain with the wind.  The weather up to now has been PERFECT.  Now, I'm on my bike with zero rain gear with about seventy miles to go so I kick it up about ten over and rolling down 69.  Halfway home the drizzle starts but as luck would have it, never got wet.  Soon I've got KRUSH in the garage, bags emptied and .... found my recliner.

TX State 2021 is in the books!

 

OCT 2021 - BOO RUN! (sanctioned)

 

Meet in the Middle - The Ride .. few thoughts

 

CVMA Chapters 23-14 and -23-24 put this together.  Chapters 23-11 and 23-26 also rolled in to Big Sandy for some comradarie, good food, cold beers and enjoy the ride and nice weather (we got lucky!)

 Had a nice ride yesterday with a small group of 23-11 for about 150 miles total myself (I had the shortest of the group).  Thought we'd get soaked but turned out to be a beautiful day.  Still, got to thinking while in the pack about a few things.  The good thing is everyone rode tight and it was basically almost a perfect ride.  But my position in the pack got me to thinking ....

Up early, ready to roll

For the last 12 years or so I've found myself leading the groups 95% of the time I ride.  It just happened that way.  In the beginning, I didn't want to .. but the group I was with always asked me to lead so I did. After awhile it was second nature. Over the years I've blogged about this as I've learned all the dos and don't s.  Gotten a little opinionated about it all. But yesterday I started off #3 which hasn't happened for awhile.  Since we weren't in twisties and mostly 'straight' roads, we were able to ride tight.  DP, our  lead bike took the inside as most do (Should? Not all do), #2 was Orion on him really tight so I did the same to him.  If he fell back, I did as well.  The leader rode like I used to, right up on the yellow line. Over the years when riding 2 up, Lucy has asked (begged?) me to get off that line so I tend to ride in a notch more now, on the car tire track for no better word. Few years ago, I was pulling up on a guy on the interstate (several bike distances behind him), we were doing about 85 when he apparently hit the edge and all hell broke loose because he rode to close to the left shoulder with the wire barrier.  That was a scary sight to see him go down.  Since then, I stay off the far left edges so to speak.  One thing that I keyed on was you have to really pay attention to two bikes not just one. No bigggee, sort of a natural thing but again, I was analyzing it.  Distancing off Orion on my upper right, lined up sort of off DP in front.  No biggee... but compared to what I'm going to discuss next, a little bit of 'work.'.  On the way back, I found myself in #2 spot. This is where I'm normally at when not leading.  In some ways, this is the easiest spot to ride.  Only thing you're thinking about is your distance off the leader.  No brainer, simple. Well, not for a guy I was behind again .. a few years back.  On a sweeping left turn he found the edge and went into the ditch hitting a 6x6 at about 50mph.  So again, I now don't ride as close to the shoulders as I used to.  One thing I've learned over the years though is pay attention to the lead bikes blinker's if he's not using hand signals, especially in town.  Had a close call few years back when from a stop, the leader was taking a right at an intersection.  Never saw his blinker.  No hand signal.  No discussion of it when we were BSing at the light.  Had I grabbed the throttle hard as I often do, would have been a different outcome.  As he began to move I noticed his front tire turn, no harm no foul. Today, I ALWAYS take a quick look over at this rear blinkers in that situation.  Always.  Have to admit, makes for an enjoyable ride in this spot.  Halfway home, DP jumped out of the pack with a wave headed home as we continued onward.  I do a quick move to the left lane and I'm in the lead.  Now, I'm smiling.  Guessing DP doesn't have cruise, but I'm addicted to it.  The majority of the time, whenever possible... my cruise is on. When back in the pack works well to rest your hand, grab a drink whatever but can be a bitch syncing up to the lead bike's speed/cruise. But when you're the lead bike, you set the speed, relax your grip and enjoy the ride.  Only thing you have to worry about is making sure everyone gets through a light. Everyone can pass with you (wait up for them if they didn't make the pass with the group) and ... look for the speed limit reductions (might have fuk'd that pooch a few times over the years!).  Otherwise, it's a no brainer and simple. I've come to love leading the rides overall.  If you're relying on your GPS .. well.. that can suck sometimes.  On local rides where you know the roads... LOVE IT.  

Who'd of thunk' all this BS crossed my mind in a few hours of riding yesterday.  DP has some nice Bluetooth earbuds I was admiring.  I've got a killer stereo system on my bike but with loud pipes and doing 75mph ... well, can't hear shit. He told me the ICS quieted things down, they stay set in his ears.... maybe .. .I need to start wearing mine for some nice tunes down the road and not blasting everyone else......

Damned that was a nice ride ... ready for the next.