As usual, I start out taking a bunch of pictures and then get distracted talking and fizzle out.
That, and I had been playing with the camera (a pox on the picture contest thread
) and left it in manual focus - you can't tell if the image is fuzzy looking at that 2 inch screen. double
Anyway, there were a bunch of folks at the old defunct Minyard at 8:00 AM:
(I hope I remember all of the names correctly)
Bill (wasabi)
Kaitlyn and Ben (shadow247) - scheuled to be married in 2 weeks
Hannah (KomodoreObvious) - Soozy's baby daughter
Susan (tortuga) - the wife unit
the famous Soozy (Soozy)
Leon (focus frenzy)
Willie (thunderbolt)
Dan (olhogrider)
The group before the Bedford ST boys rode up
Dan (DFW_Dano)
Kelly (Skull of Energy)
There was already a good V-Strom contingent.
We left SW Arlington with 11 bikes and 12 peeps and slabbed down US287 to Mansfield. We picked up Brian (drroccostein), along with Mike (mbrew) and Beth riding 2-up
That made 13 with another V-Strom!
Um, my wife doesn't like the number 13...
The ride down was nice and cool and FM157 was good until the slow pickup before the S-turn north of Venus.
A couple of miles north of Maypearl, I came up on a slower moving car and spotted the "STUDENT" emblem on the back. No way was I going to get our group to pass them and risk spooking a new driver (obvious from the rough stop at FM66), so I bit my lip and backed off...
We picked up James (one wolf) at the Post Office in Maypearl - yet another V-Strom!
The wife was happy with the number 14.
While we were stopped, a vicious 1% biker gang rode by and waved - I recognized a couple of the outlaw Tarrant County group...
The ride down was pleasant - the air was cool and almost chilly near the creek crossings.
We stopped for a short rest in Malone (there weren't many options there)
Someone had asked when we expected to go through Malone, but we didn't see anyone.
We did another gas stop in Fairfield before rolling into Sam's Restaurant from the 2-way service road (feeder for you Houston folks
). There was already a pack of bikes there.
Some familiar faces:
Kory (klb1122) and his wife (already forgot her name & she told it to me!)
Kory's folks - Karen and Larry (ST/SV)
Got to meet Nadya (SheNadya). Susan and I ate lunch with her & found out about pronouncing Russian-heritage names - Nadya is more like Nadza we found.
Brain memory fault - I forgot who this was
Some pitures from the parking lot:
This was a popular picture:
as was Hardy Baker's sidecar rig:
Lots of folks inside! I miss a lot of people when there is a large group and this one was no exception. I also was pleased with the service and food. It's never perfect but I think Sam's did a great job.
A group from Houston - that's long lost Dennis (humblerider) on the far right
The Austin group was a bit late and they lost a 'Strom due to mechanical failure
but it was good to talk to Kurt and see what he was riding:
He said my pictures of his bikes were a couple behind!
He also said Rhonda was still mad that he sold her bike (the GoldWing) but that she was warming up to the Beemer (literally, it has heated seats
)
I haven't seen Keith (Dragwn) for a while - we still need to wire his Stebel air horn!
Finally, it was time for folks to leave:
Susan said I missed it when the scooter group rolled out as well as the Stallion taking off.
Our group split up - Susan visited her sister in Fairfield. I took the slab route to Weatherford to attend the benefit for Zac Chapman - I saw Stephen (Yeeha Stephen) and Byron (Trinity) pass me as I was running the service road but I could never catch up to them!
Brian (drroccostein) caught up to me on 287 and waved goodbye as he exited in Mansfield. 135 miles from Fairfield and 10 minutes to spare. I saw fellow TWT members Marty (voyagerrider) and Kathy (ladyrider) and Paul (st_driver) there. I also got to meet Zac's mom.
It looked like a very good turnout and a sucessful eveny.
Oh, I sucessfully left with Bob and returned with Bob! A couple of new soft-shell 'dillos appeared on the parking lot!
Thanks for all who joined us yesterday - great fun!