Well, about two weeks have passed and we (wife and I) were on another scooter trip. This time it was to the HOG rally in Gruene Tx.
On Wed. my sister-n-law who just got a new sporty a few month back came into town so I could help her install a lowering kit on her bike, she is short and needed a little help reaching the ground.
After that was installed I finished packing my stuff and we loaded up the Bikes. Next morning we waited for my brother-n-law to call me so we could leave and meet them in Llano for some BBQ at coopers. It was a little out of the way but who cares when your riding.
After all the "hello's" and "how ya been"s we fueled up and headed south on 16 and over to Luchenbach Tx. IMHO, this is the best place in the world to waste time and relax. Walk into the back of the post office, get yourself a beer and take a seat on one of the many picnic tables and just enjoy the day.
After a few beers and some good conversation
we saddled up and took a nice scenic drive through the hill country over to New Braunfels to get checked into the hotel and unload the bikes.
Let me tell you this is where the fun started. When we were checking in found out that they had too many rooms reserved under my name and also under my brother-n-laws name which means since we didn't cancel the reservation with 24 hours notice we would have charged. Lucky for us after a conversation with the hotel manager the rooms were canceled and we were not charged for the extra rooms. However one of the couples in our group was not so lucky, they were not charged the group rate for the weekend like the rest of us and that was a big mess. They ended up leaving the next day and found another hotel in San Marcos just up the road.
After we all freshened up we headed over to the fair grounds to register for the rally and get our t-shirts, pins and patches. The t-shirt and rally pin comes free in your when you register, I asked the lady where the rally patches were and she pointed me down to the table where they were being sold. We got there and found out NO RALLY PATCHES!!!! WHAT THE F**** After much whining and complaining the person in charge of patches showed up and we were told that they only made 300 patches!!! Again, WTF!!! How is it possible that when a few thousand people preregister for a rally they only make enough product for 300 of them. Needless to say we were all very unhappy about that.
We walked around the rally grounds for a few hours and checked out some of the vendors and then headed over to the dealer ship to see what they had going on. I hate to say this, but the dealership had more cool things going on than the actual rally itself.
While we were there I found a light vendor at the dealer that installs LED lights on bikes and I have been wanting to get some LED's installed on the ol' geezer glide for a while so we had them installed by Trick Lights. These guys were out of Waco and did a really nice job. I found out later that these guys did my buddy's bike also and he was real happy with their work, so I was happy that I chose this vendor instead of the other one that was there. I found out that the other vendor Renegade lights does shitty work. They cause a short on 2 of my friends bikes.
Next morning we got up early and took off to do a dealer pin run. When they told me about this I wasn't all that thrilled to run to 4 different dealers to get a pin. Plus we were also told that there was a "limited number of pins" so there was no guarantee that we would even get a pin. Plus the route that we had to take took us down I-10 and the 410 loop in San Antonio during Friday morning rush hour and the traffic SUCKED!!! Once we got to the 2nd dealership I realized that the pins you collect from each dealer are like puzzle pieces and when you get all 4 pins it makes a larger pin of the Texas flag, which I thought was pretty cool and it made all the traffic on the interstate almost bearable.That reminds me... My brother-n-law told me a joke.
Mexican word for the day "texas", "My friends always texas me with stupid jokes". HA! (BTW my B-I-L is mexican).
The pin run ended back at the Gruene dealer where we were the previous day. We got there and ran into my wifes child hood friend Teresa, or "bird" as she is known to our inner circle of friends. While some of the group ran over to grab some food we stayed there at the dealer to checkout some of the store and some of the other vendors. In addition to that we spent some money in the beer tent.
The rest of the guys called and said they were heading back to the hotel to hangout at the pool and cool off for a while. We jumped on the ol' iron horse and headed back to the hotel to meet everyone and relax for a while. While we were there a guy shows up with his kid and wife. He takes his little girl in the pool and they are swimming around having a good time and we start up a conversation with him and find out he is Bubba Blackwell.
So we sat and listen to this guy tell us stories of different rally's and stunt shows that he does for Harley and he runs to his hotel room and grabs some signed posters and we each got one. I thought that was pretty neat.
Next day we slept in a bit cause we were gonna meet my buddy Mike, his wife, and two buddy's at the dealer to go for a ride through the hill country. Man I wish it was that easy. After we ate we had to take a minor detour to get through the traffic, while on our little detour my buddy Kevin bottomed out his bike going over a speed bump and knocked the spring loose from his kickstand. Lucky for him the spring didn't fall off the bike. We were able to re-attach the spring and we finally got out of town and onto some good riding. We took a ride on the devils back bone and then down river road. By the time we got down with the devils back bone two of the riders had to head back to Austin for previous engagements.
We finished up river road and stopped at a bar for some drinks and to relax for a bit. To finish out the ride we headed back down to Borne to look around the dealership there and see if we could find that all important piece of chrome that was needed for the bikes. Plus, driving out there was a lot funner than going back into town and driving in traffic.
After we got back to the hotel that evening my wife and her sister decided they had enough and were gonna stay at the room. I went over to my buddies camp site on the comal river and listen to the beach boys perform. It was pretty fun, we sat and bs'ed for a while and had a few beers and then I headed back to the hotel.
Next morning we headed back home. The ride home was pretty uneventful except when we had to dodge two buzzards flying low across the road.
I have to say that although we were able to visit with all our friends and family, which was the highlight of the rally. I was pretty disappointed with the HOG rally this year. For one, they didn't have enough merchandise and two, all the vendors and activities were free.
What did I pay the $40 bucks for? The rides were not that great, maybe cause I have rode all over the hill country and it was really nothing new. I mentioned to my B-I-L that my rally days were numbered. IMHO once you been to one rally you've been to them all. However there are exceptions to that rule. If the rally you go to has lots of good riding and far enough away then it is probably worth your time. Heck my bad rally experience might be someone else's best rally ever! Some guy who drove in from west texas might have loved it cause he has never been there before or been on any of the great rides down there. Who knows, maybe that is why there are so many rallies. Each one is different for each person. I will say this, my wife enjoyed herself and is ready for the next motorcycle trip weather it is to a rally or just to a distant location that we haven't been to before.
Here are some more pics from the rally. Until next time, keep the rubber side down.
