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!
Nice warm day to have an outdoor meeting!
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!
© Copyright 2008 Chapter U, Texas District, Gold Wing Road Riders Association, Inc.