20 October Ride Coordination Meeting & Ride Afterward!

Thanks Tom Byrd for the pictures

Sixteen people gathered on a gorgeous October day for the quarterly Chapter U Ride Coordination meeting.  We had people from the farthest stretches of Chapter U...JD and Millie Kvapil from Pleasanton to Mike and Ako Mills, our new Ride Coordinators, who live right in New Braunfels!  We were glad to see Bert and Linda Navin back in the saddle...and there seems to be a lot more special blue chrome on their Goldwing! 

8 Bikes and a trike at the Freisenhaus in New Braunfels.

The Friesenhaus German restaurant had set up a separate room for us and we settled in for coffee and breakfast.  First things first!  While waiting for breakfast, we talked a bit about possible locations and plans for the first Annual Chapter U Christmas Party.  Platters of American and German breakfasts soon appeared and the chit-chat and catching up quieted down quite a bit as every seriously attacked their breakfasts.  After filling up on good food and coffee, Mike Mills began the serious part of the morning get together.  After introducing a few ideas he had developed, Mike opened up the suggestions to everyone who had gathered, and we worked away around the room with everyone throwing in a few suggestions of places to go, restaurants to visit or different activities which may help attract members or support motorcycle safe riding and car awareness of motorcycles. 

Checking the menus for great German or American breakfasts!

 Lots of room & plenty of discussion!                                                 The whole group!

Suggestions were flying around the room and Mike was busy writing down lots of great ideas.  He will be putting together a draft ride schedule for us all to look at.  If you suggested an idea, and the draft date is not good for you, please let Mike or Brad know.  Also, we are looking for volunteers to lead rides and/or plan specialty rides.  If you have something special you think would be fun or something special to do for a chapter ride, please let Mike or Brad know.  Charlie Brown will be running a Road Captain's course at the District training day in Lufkin in November, and hopefully we will also be able to have some Road Captain's training locally at some point.  We have some special Road Captains pins to give out but you have to attend the training and get certified by GWRRA to get one of these special gift pins!

            Mike & Ako Mills Running the meeting!                Great to see Bert & Linda Navin again!!!

We closed the meeting by 11 and adjourned to the parking lot.  Jack Dowda on his Classic GL 1000 headed home and the rest of us took off to drive River Road with Tom and Nancy Byrd pulling drag.  What a gorgeous day it was to wind our way down River Road.  The idea of having a Chapter rally at some point had come up at the Ride Coordination meeting and we noticed how easy it was to get from downtown New Braunfels to River Road which is listed as one of the most scenic rides in Texas in many magazines.  Possible idea for a "Fun Run" at a future chapter rally!  After riding River Road, we headed up the scenic overlook at Canyon Lake dam where we took a great group picture of bikes and people, and one couple took the opportunity to hold hands  (Wonder who that can be Dave and Lana!?). 

The Bikes at Canyon Lake Dam.

Taking a break at the dam.                                               Looking over the spillway.

Since it was such a nice sunny Texas fall day, we decided we needed to take a DQ break which found us winding back through New Braunfels only to end up at a Baskin Robbin!  As we munched a variety of full-fat, no fat and no sugar cones, we decided a future impromptu ride would need to be to compare the ice cream of DQ, Baskin Robbins and Freddy's Frozen Custard, all 3 available in our riding area!  Sounds like a possibility for a really hot summer day next year!

Couldn't find the DQ but everyone loved the Baskins & Robbins back in New Braunfels!!

As we all headed our separate ways, it was another great day to ride with Chapter U.  The people who came to the ride meeting came with suggestions and ideas that will make this next year unique and special for this chapter.  Even "work" like planning rides can be fun when you do it with the FUN people!  No one seemed to want to go home until we had talked rides and ridden quite a bit...even if it was looping around the New Braunfels area.  Chapter U can look forward to many more FUN rides thanks to the group that met October 20, 2007!