Historically, 23-26 has their annual sanctioned event closer to Texarkana at 67 Landing, but ... ownership there has changed and they opted for a different venue. They ventured south towards Jefferson where a few of them hang out often and secured a one block area for the weekend events.
Auntie Skinners was the anchor spot and behind it they had a band and beer garden. The street out front was blocked off and had plenty of parking for hundreds of motorcycles. Few times, that area was packed! With a Poker Run (not called that of course) on Saturday, lot of folks were in an out during the day.
The route for the run was a great one... only about sixty miles or so, but our stop by the river's edge at Big Pines Lodge was a nice one and one I'd like to return to on a Chapter Ride of sorts.
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| Big Pines Lodge |
My buddies from MS rolled in from 399 miles away ... Gruntpa from 44-2 and Sloshy and his bride from 44-5. Folks rolled up from San Antonio over 400 miles away. Lots of AR and LA folks in force. And quite a few from neighboring chapters. Folks from 23-24 looked to be there in force at one point, from nearby Marshall. My Chapter, 23-11 did a fair showing. We had ten folks on hand over the weekend, not too bad but we IMHO should have had twice that. Chapter 23-26 came from 23-11 so I tend to push harder to attend their events and believe we as a chapter should. But ... that's my personal opinion.
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| Friday evening |
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| The Playing Field |
Did become aware of one .... issue... apparently in the mix. I'm not even sure what my opinion is other than, in the future it'll dictate how I handle locations chosen based on what I heard. We are an Association so we don't 'claim' territory, but we still deal with distances for where Chapters are located/created. Situation here was 23-26 is out of Mt Vernon and Jefferson is closer to 2 other chapters. Hell, 3 if you count LA (which isn't a player this being a TX event).
Distances from 4 chapters to Jefferson.
- Greenville 117 miles
- Mt Pleasant 65 miles
- Shreveport LA 55 miles
- Longview 36 miles
- Marshall 17 miles
So, the question becomes.... what are the ground rules for when one chapter has an event near another chapter's home location? Interesting one.... I'll just leave it at that.
Though it was a hot n muggy one, the A/C was awesome inside Auntie Skinners, food was good, and drinks were cold. We'd stay dry the entire weekend though had some close calls to include throughout both Friday and Saturday nights. I expected the worst but was met with nothing but sunshine. We'd rock that place Friday afternoon Through Sunday morning. But Sunday is there soon enough and rolling home. Mama caged it so she's behind in her Jeep for 120 miles arriving home safe. We as a chapter did have a close call though. About 1/2 home, Swamprat, Bear and Goldyloxx were running down Hwy154 when power lines fell in front of them .... literally, Swamprat had one of the 3 lines about hit him at fairing level, while he ran over 2 of the other lines. Everyone made it through the potential death trap .... and joking had to stop for a beer and change their shorts :) Thank God nothing else but a story came of that one.
Next year could be an interesting one after I became aware of potential drama. Crossing my fingers I'll be writing another positive review next year after the next one.........
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| Auntie Skinners knocked it out ! |
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| Yep.. She's Tiny and they are Giants! |
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The Carriage House Bed n' Breakfast
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Breakfast Provided!!!
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Just thinking. ........ Lessons Learned type Stuff. By 1600, drawings began. 50/50 was at 1700 hrs. Around all this time, an auction. Problem is.... Shit Load of people night before. Shit load during the day... then as always... people wander off . Things slow down. Makes one rethink.. .when is the BEST TIME? Problem is if you do it too early ... people leave.. Never easy planning this stuff
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