The ride from SW Arlington:
Several folks had said they would meet up at the old Minyards and ride down. OK, it's a motley looking bunch.
That's Kevin (KCG), Michael (ItchyBob), Bill (wasabi), and Linda (ladybeemer).
Chris (sharkey) rolled in just after I put the camera away.
Linda rode over from Dallas. She is originally from Scotland and has a cool far East Texas accent
Haven't seen Bill for awhile. He busted his foot back around Thanksgiving and he was very happy to be able to get out and ride again
Michael is a Tarrant County regular & decided to try a "group" ride
Kevin was new as well and has had his V-Strom since last fall
It was still a bit nippy in the morning and several of our group (me included) added liners and winter gloves for the trip to Mansfield and then FM157 to Venus.
Ed (ridingmyklr) had a brother-in-law and some friends riding in from east Texas and meeting up in Midlothian. They then met us in Venus (FM157 and US67).
part of the group of bikes - the two on the right were just pulling out and were not with us
The rest of the bikes. I think this is Mark with Janet
Ed was riding another BIL's (Tom) ST1300. That was a shock - I have never seen Ed when he wasn't on his KLR.
A V-Strom snuck into the group:
There were a bunch of new faces & I should have written names and bikes down but I didn't.
Maybe Ed can fill us in...
We left Venus a bit before 9:30 - I think there were 12-13 bikes in the group. Thanks to Janet for riding sweep since I could easily see her dark bike and helmet and silver gray jacket to make sure we had everyone.
It was a bit over 100 miles from Venus to Stephenville and I thought everyone was gassed up to handle a leg that long but we ended up stopping in Glen Rose. That, plus a fairly easy pace on the FM and county roads put us into the Hard 8 about 20 minutes late.
No worries except that I missed a couple of folks that had to eat and get going again quickly.
There were quite a few bikes in the parking lot and the "Hog Pen" was full of a bunch of non-hog type bikes. I recognized a couple of bikes and parked behind Yeeha Stephen's Beemer.
Inside were a bunch of folks - an Austin group, a Burleson Aprilia and KTM group, several DFW small groups, and other folks with familiar faces in singles and doubles from all over the north Texas area.
Folks drifted back to the parking lot. I was talking with a couple of the Austin V-Strommers that were wanting to figure out how to change the clock. I got side-tracked and didn't see if they got it done - there were a couple of Zuk riders that had been able to pull it off.
I think Janet is in there somewhere:
Bill (Graubart) asked to bring his new Concours rather than his Wee-Strom - I didn't get a picture of him with it but you can see that it is used to parking next to a 'Strom in his garage:
Bill has off talking with other folks but it sure looks like a fine machine!
Our large group broke up into smaller ones and singles as folks had different plans for the way home. Bill, Chris, Janet, and I took 205 to Glen Rose for a gas stop. Janet took 67 so she could go visit a friend who is recovering in Parkland. Chris and Bill and I took a scenic trip thru Nemo and by Cleburne State Park on the way home.
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Thanks to all who joined us for the 4th annual V-Strom-only
ride to eat BBQ!
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I wanted to say how much I enjoyed the ride and meeting everyone. You've all been so kind. 
Breakfest at the Blue Hanger Cafe in Roanoke.
. Thanks for the company, I had a great time. Talk to you soon, looks like we might be heading your way next weekend.
