10 January 09 Hondo Ride

Thanks Charlie brown for leading the ride, taking the pictures and doing the write-up!!!

Frosty, windy, biting, those were my first thoughts after my quiet, powerful and smooth Harley carried me swiftly down the street this morning. (Couldn’t hear it above the wind) (Couldn’t feel the vibration for the cold) (Was riding with the wind).  Surely no one else would be crazy enough to climb on a bike and head into this wind to go to a car show,  Well Breakfast at Sammy’s will be great, it has been a long time, then I can turn around and go back home climb back into bed.  I didn’t see any other crazies on the road on the way out to Castroville, till I turned onto US 90 from 1604 for the short trip to Sammy’s there were two Wings headed the other way.  As I pulled into Sammy’s the reality hit me I was the fourth bike there and that shiny red Thunderbird looks familiar.  Sure enough I joined Mike Mills, Archie Haley, Steve Currie and Darrell Knippa for a wonderful Breakfast and great conversation.  The customers and staff at Sammy’s always make you feel like part of the family.

Bikes in order of arrival at Sammy's                                          Archie's beautiful Thunderbird

Somehow after the great breakfast and camaraderie, the wind became calm and the temperature rose, it was no longer biting and we enjoyed the ride to Hondo and pulled into a sparsely populated car show.  There were some nice cars there and the reception we received from the chamber of commerce and participants in the show made up for the lack of quantity. 

 Archie entered the Thunderbird which is beautiful and shows well.  There were a lot of visits down memory lane at the car show.  Other chapter members talked me into entering the Smooth Quiet Powerful Harley in the Car Show it made sense till I found out that the only category for Motorcycles was the Peoples choice award and there was a small chopper there that was gathering all sorts of attention. In spite of obvious attempts at ballot box stuffing it was destined that the Smooth Quiet Powerful Harley was not destined to win a trophy.  Not so with Archie’s Thunderbird He beat out some powerful competition to win the trophy

Pavilion and BBQ at fairgrounds. on the edge of great riding

.  As the participants and visitors departed we mounted up for a trip to the fairgrounds to look at a possible venue for a future rally. The Chamber was very positive about the possibility of holding a rally at the fairgrounds.  At least we can look at it. 

Arrival at OST in Bandera.                                                 Steve Curry arriving at OST

We followed the stop at the fairgrounds by a nice ride up SR 462 to Tarpley and a right turn onto SR470 for the short trip into Bandera timing was perfect for a late lunch at OST again a perfect atmosphere, good food and great company.  We finished the day by heading down SR16 from Bandera to SR46 where Steve Curry departed on his 1800 for the trip back home to Laredo, yep he left Laredo at 6:30AM this morning to meet us at Sammy’s.  We had said our good byes at OST and thanked Steve and Darrell for their company and headed back toward home.  Darrell is a very recent transplant from the El Paso area and rides a Yamaha Road Star.  Ho Hum it was just another fantastic day with Chapter UUUUUUU. 

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