Texas Adventure Ride Day 1

     Today was the first day of TAR. The trip to the host hotel and check in. It was actually a very nice ride. I am spending the weekend as The Kel's monkey. Basically, that means I am navigating, acting as the reverse gear, and trying my damnedest to keep the sidecar's wheel on the ground. 

     Tomorrow we get to actually go out and bounce around the back roads of the hill country, but check in day has a charm all its own.  We pulled in about 3:00 in the afternoon.  We were pretty much the first people here.  That means we got to watch all of the other people get in.  The range of people showing up to the rally is amazing.  So fat I have seen everything from the LiFan 200cc Enduro bike, to the normal cast of characters....BMW, KTM, KLR.  Of course, everybody is riding the best bike.  The guys on the small bikes are going to bounce down the trails that are only a couple feet wide.  The guys on the midsize bikes are going to be running dirt roads and maybe some of the trails.  The guys on the Iron Pigs...they are here to go fast on the dirt and gravel roads.  The most humorous part of this whole dynamic is watching them arrive.  The 200 to 450 cc bikes normally show up on trailers.  The 450 to 650 cc bikes tend to ride short distance or trailer long distance.  The big ones tend to ride in.  There are still a few that kind of made us chuckle though.  The guy who rode his 450cc bike in from Colorado helped a guy unload his BMW R1200 GS from a trailer that he pulled down from Ft Worth.

     While standing outside this evening, I was looking at the parking lot.  It was interesting because the parking lot only looked about half full.  For a sold out hotel, it was kind of odd.  Then I realized that there were only 3 cars in the parking lot and the rest were bikes.  I have to say that the distribution of bikes in the parking lot looked kind of like a prison movie.  The big bikes were all fairly evenly spaced around the front of the lot, grouped by manufacturer.  At the back of the parking lot, clustered up at the back of the parking lot backed up against the fence

     Then there is the RV and mobile shop brought in by the CMA.  These guys rock.  The Christian Motorcyclist Association show up at Rallys and set up free hospitality and emergency repair areas just in case you need help.  They also help coordinate roadside rescues if you need it.

    Time to fall out, lots of riding tomorrow, hopefully there will be video and some pictures.

Dave