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Ride to the Rally Meeting, 2 Feb
Chapter U was lucky again to have planned the first "Ride to the Rally Coordination Meeting" on one of those gorgeous south-central Texas winter days with clear, sunny skies and 70 degree weather! Our fellow Wingers up north must be envious that we can ride all year! Thirteen bikes and trikes meet at Yamaha of San Antonio (YOSA) to greet, meet, and drink coffee prior to a safety briefing by Charlie Brown and a route briefing by Brad Severe who was leading the ride. Organizing ourselves into two groups with Brad and Charlie leading, and Tom and Nancy Bryd and Mike and Ako Mills as Drag, we took a leisurely route south to Poth, picking up Bill Johnson in Floresville (hope Jane feels better very soon!). It was great to have Gary Lewis join us on a ride. Gary had been an impromptu participant in our first Parking lot Practice, and to have co-rider Debbie Perez along with Juan Busanet. What a great day to ride! As we pulled into the McBee's Restaurant parking lot in Poth, JD and Millie Kvapili met us in their four-wheel as their 2-wheel needed work, and Connie Jordan had four-wheeled it down by herself as Kenny had an archery tournament. Connie said they wanted to make sure they were a part of the rally, and we appreciate she was willing to four-wheel to join us!
Couldn't find a place to line the bikes up at YOSA!
A quick check of McBee's revealed that the two young girls working behind the counter didn't have any idea of us coming though Brad had called the restaurant prior to give them a head's up. When I told the girls there were 23 of us, one girl responded "we don't have brisket" and when I said that would be ok, what else did they have, they both sort of look scared and startled. Not a good sign. The restaurant also was very large, fairly empty of other customers but didn't have a private room. We decided to have the ride meeting in a lovely rest area on the other side of the parking lot which had low brick walls, bushes and some overhead cover as well as sun for those who needed more Vitamin D! This would give the restaurant time to figure out if they could handle us and we could sort out other options.
Parking downtown in Poth, lots of room!
JD preceded to run the meeting, going through the various different decisions that needed to be made, and responsibilities that needed volunteers. We already have Pickerill Park in Schertz reserved. It appears we are going to have barbecue for lunch. It is going to be a Halloween theme with the title of the rally being "Hallo-Wing." It was nice that so many people volunteered to either head a committee and be the key person, and other people volunteered to work with them. Some people were just naturals to work on certain key areas. We didn't volunteer to many people who weren't there but some people just came to mind like fun-seekers Jack Dowda and Linda Brackeen to run the off-bike games! While there are still a few key areas that need someone to take them on like designing a flier, a rally pin, and Publicity, and we certainly need everyone to sign up to help in a certain area (we never did talk about setting up and cleaning up), the meeting certainly was a great start to having a special happening on October 18, 2008! Charlie Brown had been with the San Diego GWRRA chapter for many years and worked on their rallies. He said that they usually had 100 people at their monthly gatherings but never as many people as we had today for the first, second or third rally coordination meeting! I think that made us feel even better about the first meeting for our first rally!
Our chapter has a lot of talented, giving people, and we want to host a
chapter rally that represents our chapter and sets a new standard for chapter
rallies in Texas! It is a lot of hours with "the sunny side up" and money
(gas is expensive) to go to a Texas rally and we started out planning a great
rally today! Stay tuned for more details and think about how you can help our
first Chapter U Rally be a special time for everyone there.
Nice warm day to have an outdoor meeting!
So business concluded, Bill Johnson found the number for a restaurant further
down the road that had great food and was always crowded every time we had
driven by. Brad called and they weren't busy so we winged our way further
south and found great food and a private room at Shorty's in Falls City. While I don't
think anyone ordered calf fries or frogs legs, three ordered T-bones done just
right and everyone seemed to enjoy the food and the reasonable prices! We
were very fortunate to arrive after the rush and pretty much had a nice
private room to ourselves. Everyone found a seat at the 2 long tables, and
proceeded to eat and talk...normal chapter functions. Thanks to Tom Byrd, our
chapter photographer, we have lots of pictures of our parking, meeting,
greeting and eating!
Arriving at Shorty's Place
Gary Lewis on his first ride with us! Glad to see Debbie Perez co-ride with us!
Had a room at Shorty's almost all to ourselves!
After lunch we headed back north, with riders turning off at they moved closer
to home. Six of us decided to hit the Dairy Queen close to the rally
location, hoping we could start a relationship with the manager and perhaps
gaining donations for the rally next fall. Well, at least that was the
excuse, but it appears 50% of those on the bikes are ice cream die-hards and
several are Dairy Queen die-hards. Anyway, there is always room for a Turtle
Sundae, and we did meet the manager (her husband has a Harley!). We all need
to be working on establishing relationships with local businesses so that we
can ask for donations later this year for our rally! Now really full, we
headed home, thinking how lucky we are to live in south-central Texas in the
winter AND be part of Chapter U! Come join us on the next "Ride to the Rally
Coordination Meeting." You will enjoy the ride and be part of the fun in
planning and hosting the first annual "Hallo-Wing!"
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