This weekend was the State-wide H.O.G. (Harley Owners Group) rally in Fort Worth. It began on Thursday and went through Saturday night, however I decided to only go up on Friday afternoon and go to the rally on Saturday morning.
As it turned out, some friends were headed that way on Friday afternoon as well so I decided to tag along with them. A group was going from the local Harley dealership on Saturday morning but since I had plans to spend the night with Ellasyn, Courtney and Ethan, I opted to go Friday.
The plan was to leave from a gas station on the north side of Bryan at 1:30pm but we were delayed a bit due to some minor work being done on the other motorcycle. We hit the road at 2:00, which was going to get us to Fort Worth just in time to hit rush hour. We made a couple of quick water breaks on the way, but made good time. As anticipated, we arrived on the south side of town at 5:15. Going in to town went pretty smoothly but the traffic was going to pick up ten fold north of town. Except for dodging a few trucks on I-35, our trip north was uneventful.
I broke off from the other bike and took I-20 east to Arlington and the traffic wasn't too bad. Only one truck tried to hit me but I saw him coming over into my lane in plenty of time to get out of his way. The other couple decided to go by the rally in the stockyards before continuing their trip to Denton where they were staying with friends. As far as I know their plan allowed them to avoid most of the bad traffic.
I arrived at Courtney's house about 5:45 where was just getting up from a nap. After unpacking the bike and taking a shower, we all went out for dinner. After finding the first couple of places packed with customers, we drove downtown and went to Babe's...always a good place. We thought the place was going to be packed to the gills, judging by the parking lot, but we walked right in and were seated. Apparently, the packed parking lots were for the other restaurants in the area, plus there was an outdoor concert and the nearby pavilion.
Arriving home after dinner, Ellasyn went to bed, followed very closely by everyone else. Ellasyn let me sleep in her "big girl bed" while she slept in her sleeping bed at the foot of the bed.
Saturday morning I was awakened by Ellasyn talking about things in her room...pointing them out one by one. Ethan was already out garage saleing so the rest of us got dressed to go get donuts...a Saturday morning ritual with the McDaniels. I followed Courtney on my motorcycle as I was planning on heading down to the stockyards after eating.
Ellasyn had her normal single donut...orange icing with sprinkles. By the time her father arrived, she had eaten most of the donut and downed some juice from home...and she was wired. The sugar from the donut and the juice hit her system very quickly. I was glad I wasn't going home with them. We parted ways...Courtney and Ellasyn headed home, Ethan out for more garage saleing and I headed towards Fort Worth.
I wasn't positive on where exactly the stockyards were, although I had been there a couple of times and had a general idea how to get there. In addition, the other guy I rode up with told me which exit to take. Once I was in the general area, it wasn't too hard to find...just follow all the other motorcycles.
The signs led me right down the main street...people everywhere. There were bikers in all kinds of attire as well as the normal tourists. I followed the signs to the parking area, although there were bikes parked all along the street. I ended up parking at the far end of the parking area...which turned out to be close to the exit. The bike rodeo had been set up next to the parking area so I watched a few guys trying their luck with the slalom course. It looked really difficult...in fact, the first guy laid his bike over in one of the turns. The last part of the course was a 20 foot section and the object was to see how slow you could cover the distance without having to put their feet down.
After watching for a while, I headed for the vendor area. As I walked up the steps a woman approached me and asked if I had registered yet. As I did not have a pretty green arm band on, it was pretty obvious that I had not but she gave me the benefit of the doubt anyway. She directed me to the registration area when I promptly found out it was going to cost me $40. Since this was the first rally I had been to I figured I had to register to participate...whatever that meant.
As I discovered later, the good vendors did not require me to register. The dealerships from the Dallas and Fort Worth areas had tents displaying their wares in a completely different area and that did require registration. I later found out that you had to register to attend the concert each night...which I had no intention of doing this time around...although I heard the Friday night one was pretty good.
I found the "real" vendor area and casually walked through, checking out what everyone had to offer...there wasn't anything I needed bad enough this time. After I finished the vendor tour I noticed a lot of folks standing or sitting on the sidewalk across the street. I went over to see what was going on. One of the men said they were waiting for the 11:30 Stockyard parade. I only had 10 minutes to wait...so I did.
In a few minutes, here came the "parade"...half-dozen longhorn cattle and a hand full of riders. The group ambled down the street while everyone took pictures, and then it was over. I'm told they make the trip twice daily....going each way once. Even though it was a bit anti-climatic, the kids seemed to like it.
About the time the parade started, someone patted me on the shoulder, which was a bit of a surprise. As I turned, I found one of the guys from the College Station Harley group who had driven up on Friday, taking the long way through Stephenville. He was meeting the rest of the group when they showed up.
We walked around, eventually finding our way back to the bike rodeo area where they were starting another competition...called Pony Express. The idea was for a rider with passenger to drive slowly between two white lines...which appeared to be about 24 inches apart...while the passenger put mail in the mail boxes...there were 3 of them. Most of the participants appeared to have done this before. Most of the riders were able to drive very slowly and several of the passengers were able to put mail in the boxes. Before long there was a 6 way tie for first place. The next run became more difficult, by having the passenger open the box, put the mail in and then close the door. I think all 6 of the couples scored a perfect run. The next run, the passenger had to open the door, put the mail in, close the door and put the flag up. At the end of everyone's runs, there were still 6 participants in the competition.
For the next tie-breaker, they moved one of the mailboxes over to the other side so that the passenger had to switch from one side to the other while putting the mail in and putting up the flag. I guess I should have mentioned that if the motorcycle's tires hit or crossed over a line, the couple was disqualified. On this particular run, only one couple made it through successfully. As it turned out, the winning driver was a motorcycle cop and he was very good...as was his passenger.
Following the Pony Express competition, we strolled through the vendor area once more, grabbed a corn dog and some lemonade and then I hit the road back to Courtney's house.
I'm sure the concert on Saturday night would have been good...perhaps next time I attend a rally I'll participate. However, this time I wanted to spend time with my granddaughter.
I left Arlington Sunday morning and headed to Richardson to visit my mother for a while, then hit the road home. The traffic wasn't too bad and the weather cooperated most of the way home...except for the gusty wind. I could see it getting dark to the east and south of my position and eventually I got a little bit of rain, but it wasn't even enough to get me wet.
All in all it was a pretty good trip...all 490 miles of it. I was ready to get home and take a shower...as usual. Next trip is scheduled for Memorial Day when a group of riders will ride up to Kaufman for a visit to their Vietnam Wall erected last year.
