2009 District Rally
Write-up by Court Van Sickler
Susan, Steve, Gary, Skip and I departed from Boerne about Thursday morning taking off on IH-10, and decided that we'd ride to Sonora through San Angelo to Amarillo. Made it to San Angelo for lunch then set out for the really exciting trip north through Big Spring, La Mesa and on into Amarillo. The trip was so interesting, especially the last couple of hundred miles, that we had some "Wing Dancing" going on; or more correctly "S-turns down final" (how ‘bout that Charlie).
Upon arrival Skip, Gary and I went to our hotel - Lola was absolutely no help - while Susan and Steve went to the Civic Center to drop off the Chapter's entry in the Armadillo Showcase and Races. Skip, Gary and I arrived at the Rally just in time for the ice cream social; darn the luck. We also got to watch Steve participate, and take 2nd Place in his heat of the Armadillo Races; however, we don't know what happened to his running in the next heat. After that we all went to dinner at Steve's "favorite" restaurant - Cracker Barrel; where, just after he told us why it's his "favorite" place to eat, the waitress came out to tell him they had run out of mashed potatoes! (They didn't really run out, they just needed to mix a new batch.) Guess all those "wingers" were eating mashed potatoes.
Friday morning we all got together at the Civic Center, a rather large location for a rally, and proceeded to purchase tickets in support of the Chapter's COY Basket. WHAT A JOB CHELA AND DUKE DID ON THAT BASKET!!! The competition was gonna be tough but what a job they did on it. Needless to say we also bought tickets for the Grand Prize and other items.
Friday was also the Parking Lot Practice (PLP) training, which I am very proud to say we all three - Skip, Gary and I - successfully completed; even if the exercise portion was conducted in the heat of the late morning (reminding us that we will not intentionally schedule a PLP in the heat of the day).
Saturday morning we awoke to very an overcast and threatening sky and a good amount of wind, with a bit of drizzle thrown in. Regardless it was time for Skip, Gary and I to head out but we decided to take a different route home. First, however, we stopped to say good-bye to Susan and Steve, who were attending the Level IV breakfast. The other purpose of our stop was to give them our arm-bands to use when they announced our numbers for the Rider Education Package - Zumo 550, stay at a Fredericksburg B&B, Skip's Day Spa Treatment, etc - and whatever else we bought tickets for, and to check on any participation prizes we may have won. More on that later...
Anyway - off we headed east into the Dragon's Lair! Actually, the storm was ahead of us but we were affected by the tailing winds and rain. We were heading to Abilene so we took I-40 to 287 then to 83 heading south; rained on us for most of that segment; actually it was nasty weather for most of the trip. We had advanced warning of storms and rain at home but after the start of the trip what else was there to expect. Luckily for us the weather wasn't all that bad the second half of the trip as we made it to Llano where we had a traditional Chapter U DQ stop. As the temperature warmed up the remainder of the trip went well. This turned out to be Skip's first trip to Llano and now he knows where the original Cooper's BBQ is located.
Upon arriving home I called Susan and Steve to see how everything went, and tell them about our trip. It turns out that Duke was the only winner from the Chapter all weekend - he won a portable air compressor as a participation prize on Friday. What a bummer!! We had all wished, as we know everyone did, that the COY Basket would come out on top. I don't have any of the particulars but I'm sure we'll get the full story, with pictures, from Duke and Chela, and Steve and Susan.
© Copyright 2009 Chapter U, Texas District, Gold Wing Road Riders Association, Inc.