14-16 May 2009 Texas District Rally, Amarillo
Pictures by Skip, Duke& Chela and Steve & Susan Write-up by Susan Ochs
Click here for a write-up by Court VanSickler
On Thursday morning, Steve Ochs and I headed to New Braunfels to meet up with Court Van Sickler. Court was waiting in the front of his subdivision and we did a U-turn and headed to meet the rest of the group that was waiting at 46 and I-10 in Boerne in the HEB parking lot. We met Skip Surre and Gary Skorman and waited a few minutes to see if there would be anyone else joining us. We headed up I-10 to Sonora and then went up Hwy 277 into San Angelo.
The guys were very generous in letting me choose where to have lunch. I had wanted John Zenter's daughters Steakhouse and we went to John Zenter's instead and it had been renamed to Henry's Steakhouse. The food and service was excellent, at least I didn't hear anyone complain! We then headed back up Hwy 87 toward Big Springs and Lubbock and on into Amarillo. It was a very windy ride and the roads were so flat that we did a lot of weaving. As we arrived in Amarillo we headed east to our hotel and Court, Skip and Gary headed west to their hotel. After we checked into our hotel, we went to the Civic Center to pick up our registration package but we were a few minutes late. We headed to the opening ceremonies and sat with Duke and Chela Thompson and we enjoyed the root beer floats before it was time to race the Armadillo. Steve led our Armadillo in the first heat of the race along with 10 others. The Armadillo's were really decked out. Each team was given a number between 1 and 6 and then they tossed these big dice out of a bowl to determine how many steps the Armadillo would get to move. Steve and our Armadillo came in 2nd in the first heat. The second set of Armadillo's raced and the top 2 raced with the top 2 of the first race to determine the winner. Chapter Z and their Armadillo won the race.
We as a group decided to go to dinner together and we all headed to Cracker Barrel. This is not Steve's favorite choice and it seemed this night would not fair well with him. Duke, Chela, Steve and I had ordered the same thing. The waitress came out and said she only had 2 of them. Duke and Steve ordered something else. The waitress came back to Steve and told him he would have to order another side dish because they were all out of mashed potatoes. After that the manager came to apologize and said they would be making a new batch and he would have his mashed potatoes. After dinner we all said good night and headed to our hotel rooms.
Friday morning, Steve and I headed to the Civic Center after breakfast and went
to pick up our registration package and get tickets for the Level IV breakfast
and dinner in the Palo Duro Canyon. We then went to find Duke and Chela so we
could help them with their basket. We located Duke and he stated it was all
done. We went into the room to look at the baskets. They were all so awesome.
Three years ago when this started we were amazed but the Chapters really show
the love of their Chapters with these baskets. After that we headed to the
vendors and spoke with someone about shirts for the Chapter and went to talk to
Wing Bling and talked to the gentlemen about his certificate program. He
graciously gave us a gift certificate for our rally. We met up with Guy and
Joan Custer and visited with them awhile. We then headed to a LTD class while
the rest of our group was off at a PLP class. Duke and Chela headed to a
luncheon for the couples. We met back up with Court, Gary and Skip and headed
to lunch. "Lola" took us a very scenic way around. We went back to the Civic
Center where everyone bought tickets for the baskets, 50/50 or the grand prize.
Games were going on, so I tried my hand at a few of them. Duke did win a
participation prize, a small air compressor. Congratulations, Duke, you were
our big winner. Steve and I decided to clean the bike before heading to the
Canyon, while we waited for the guys to return from their hotel room. When it
was past the time we had planned to meet, we decided to head on out to the
Canyon. It was an awesome sight to see. We had dinner catered by The Big Texan
of a hamburger with all the trimmings and peach cobbler for dessert. They had
grilled jalapenos, mushrooms and onions that you could put on top or have on the
side. It was a great meal. After the meal, we went to see the show in the
Amphitheater. It had started to sprinkle and everyone wanted to set under the
roof but they wanted everyone toward the bottom so you could get the full effect
of the show. It was an awesome show. After the show, we headed back to our
hotel in just the nick of time. It was lightning on our way back and it did
rain during the night.
On Saturday morning, we headed to the Level IV breakfast at the Golden Corral.
We rode in a little rain and it was rather cold. It rained off and on all day
but we parked under the pavilion to keep the bike from getting wet. We went to
the vendors and went to drop off our newsletters and scrapbook for competition.
Duke and Chela were there dropping off their windshield cover. Steve and I
attended another LTD class and purchased more tickets for the baskets. Since
Court had dropped off their armbands to us prior to leaving, we checked
participation prizes regularly to see if they had won. We also picked up the
scrapbook and newsletters from the competition room. We won 1st for the
newsletter but we didn't place in the scrapbook. Duke and Chela picked up their
windshield cover and didn't place. We went to lunch with Duke and Chela, since
they were in a car and it was raining. We then came back to the civic center
and we ordered a few things from the vendors and we decided to go watch the
chapter shirt competition. There were a lot of red shirts competing this year.
Chapter C won a lot of the different categories. After the dress competition
was closing ceremonies. District Director Ken Peterson introduced his staff and
let us know who was replacing staff that was stepping down. Then they started
the drawings for the couple's baskets. Duke and Chela went to stand by theirs
to pull out the winning ticket when it was time. Duke and Chela did a great job
on our basket and we heard lots of compliments on it but they didn't place in
the top 3. I would like to commend them for a great job. I would also like to
thank Jack Dowda for the wonderful job he did on our Chapter Armadillo. Then
they drew tickets for the Rider Ed package, the 50/50 and Grand Prize. It was
announced that next year's District Rally will be in Killeen. After
closing ceremonies, we met up with Duke and Chela, and Merlyn and Alyce Hartman
to have supper at The Big Texan. No one tried to eat the 72 oz steak while we
were there. We were serenaded while we ate. We all left and headed back to our
hotel rooms since we would all be leaving early in the morning to head home.
Steve and I left Amarillo around 7:30 AM and headed out Hwy 83 to Abilene and
then to Hwy 84 into Brady and then into Fredericksburg to get home. It was a
pretty ride coming back because there were more trees and not such a flat piece
of land.
© Copyright 2009 Chapter U, Texas District, Gold Wing Road Riders Association, Inc.