The ROT Rally Weekend

I left last Thursday and only returned late last night so no time for upates the past few days. So without further ado, here is a brief recap:

Thursday: Left in the morning for Austin. Rode down I-35 with a brief couple stops. There were about 7 of us in that group. Upon arriving at the Hilton everything went well until I was told that it would be $13 per day per bike. I replied, "But both bikes fit in 1 space." They were adamant -- $13 each. As luck would have it, that was my only run in with members of the service industry -- I'm not renowned for being on the same sheet of music with the service industry. I do try.

So after freshening up, we all met for an early dinner at Serranos on Red River. As it had begun to rain we had to dine indoors. The drink special was "Raspberry Ritas" so most everyone promptly sucked 2 of those down. My partner in crime was feeling particularly giddy after consuming those on an empty stomach. So bearing this in mind, when Johnny B makes a comment about a situation by summing it up with, "That's as fucked up as a soup sandwich!" it somehow hit the my partner as hysterically funny.

What is so funny about that is that he's usually so in control of his emotions -- he will smile or kind of chuckle but to laugh deeply for an extended time doesn't happen often. When it does, it's so fantastic to see.

After everyone had an excellent dinner, we headed out towards 6th Street to venture about.

Friday morning the parnter and I headed towards the ROT grounds to check things out by doing a quick walk thru. As usual the poser that said I was hooked up with passes failed to live up to his promises. The Rally graciously allowed me and my partner in though. We agreed to turn in our passes when we were done and the Rally was so stunned to see me returned to turn them in.

The Rally was ok -- a bunch of the same stuff though. You can only see so much black leather and patches.

Friday afternoon the setup began at Coyote Ugly and the builders pulled into town to exhibit. Scott Arndt, Denny Garley, Jimmie Lee & John Coen and Danny Davidson. It was very good diversity in bike styles -- something to please everyone.

The partners in crime took me to dinner at Finn & Porter at the Hilton --- very nice.

Saturday was decent -- had brunch with Amy while the guys decided to go to the Hill Country for some riding. We were at Coyote Ugly again by 11:30 having Corona. I went to the hotel for a couple hours to chill out and chatted with some guys I know that were hanging out in the bar.

Back to Coyote Ugly around 3pm to oversee the set up. Amy called to say the guys were 3 hours away -- I said, "Where the hell did they ride to? The Mexican border?!" Thankfully Country showed up about then with his van stuffed full of Rockstar "Energy Juice". It's carbonated mango -- that's all you need to know -- it rocks! Even Scott Arndt said, "This is GOOD!" and he's not the kind of guy to be drinking fruity drinks.

Lori is already planning drink concoctions to have on hand at the North Texas Rock Rally in their Scott's Hardcore Kustoms booth.....I think I'll be hanging out there a lot!

As everyone was hanging out on the corner of 6th and Neches watching the action pick up, various critiques were being made. Denny was watching the buffoons revving their engines and then peeling out as fast as they could possibly go in the 100 yards 'til the next red light. He rightfully commented that it was just stupid to ride the bikes like that -- it's far cooler to cruise by slowly so people can check out your bike and the riders can check out the girls.

John, who had been sitting on the pavement 'til is ass fell asleep was commenting about the affects of various body parts when they fall asleep. The most memorable one was that when his hand goes to sleep he can play with himself and it feels like it's someone else doing the work!

The partner in crime shows up around 7:30 -- well tanned after 400 miles of Hill Country riding ad wedges of apple pie from Medina in his tour pack -- ahh yes, the hardships of today's Harley rider. He parks his bike in a high profile location at Coyote Ugly then walks the whopping 1 block to the hotel to shower and change for dinner.

About 8:30 we take off for the Inter-Continental Hotel at 7th and Congress for dinner with Johnny B and Magoo and various corporate types. Magoo is telling me a funny story about standing in a barn in Leakey Texas as they were n a drink break earlier that day and this guy starts looking at him really weird -- his mouth is trying to move but nothing comes out. Johnny B is standing next to him and tells the guy, "Yea -- that's him." Then the guy spurts out, "Hey, you're Magoo!" Yessssss....? "Where is Bike Night next Thursday?"

Magoo said the concept of being 150 miles from no where, standing in a barn drinking water and having some guy recognize him and ask him about KZPS' Bike Night was just surreal.

So after recovering from the laughter we glance up to see this younger, better looking version of Fatal Attraction Glen Close glaring at a guy in our dining party. Upon looking at this girls' eyes some words came to everyone's mind ---- Crazy -- Insane -- Fucking Nuts -- etc.

She demanded that the guy follow her to the lobby and he complied. Amy, who had been in the ladies room came back to tell us that Fatal Attraction was screaming at the guy at the top of her lungs calling him all sorts of vile names. Evidentially, since he was on the afternnon ride -- miles away from the closest cell tower -- he MUST have found some girl to boink and all these other guys were covering for him.

So througout dinner she would venture in and we finally had management and hotel security fluttering around us trying to determine if we, the placid quiet group having a nice dinner, were the crazy instigators. But alas everyone was on their best behavior so no it was just the psycho girl.

Meanwhile a few blocks away at The Drink some people were just getting hammered. If you know biking and weren't there, you will figure this out pretty easily. One of the Brothers was so drunk he coulen't even keep his head up and was proppped up in the corner. Also, some mohawked Brit was so blitzed he turned and walked right into a door.

Sounds like that's one open bar that should have been shut down a bit earlier!

Also on Saturday night, we caught the last 30 seconds of the Dallas Mavericks game -- they won. For the first time in franchise history the Mavs are going to the finals -- nicely done!

Sunday we headed out and took back roads to Crawford. The president wasn't in residence so we didn't have lunch with Secret Service guys -- just a bunch of "after church" types. Magoo flirted shamelessly with ladies from The Red Hat Club and one of the other ladies was kind enough to tell us to turn right at the Fina station and we would find "the falls". We did and it was a lot of fun.

Upon exiting the water the local police was waiting to talk to us about the bikes. He was very nice and said they liked everyone -- but not Cindy!

Magoo, in his infinite wisdom, waited patiently for the cop to leave -- he didn't, so Magoo proceeded to completely uncloth right in front of the cop car. He sat on the picnic bench to get redressed -- his bare doodads right where God fearing people sit down to munch on watermelon.

Thankfully for all parties concerened he was reclothed mere seconds before a van load of Girl Scouts pulled in.

All in all - an interesting weekend.