Harley Owners Group Training - Day 5 & 6

We left Albuquerque at 6:15am headed for Abilene...a long day.  Due to the potential crosswinds, now coming from the west, we planned to stay on I-40 all the way to Amarillo to make good time and keep the wind at our backs.  The biggest problem was the temperature...41 degrees.

We drove down the highway to Tucumcari, NM where we pulled into a truck stop.  After getting gas, everyone went inside to grab something to eat and a warm drink.  One of the guys was so cold that he was literally shaking.  I headed to the glove rack and bought some fleece gloves to put on inside my other gloves.  My hope was that my fingertips might stay warmer...didn't really help.  For some reason, my handlebar grip heaters weren't working very well.  Of course, with two pairs of gloves on I wasn't going to feel much heat from the grips anyway.

We continued down the highway to Amarillo where we gassed up again and made a short stop at a popular attraction just west of town...the old Cadillacs stuck in the dirt.  This "art" project has been around for many years but in all the times I've either passed through or stayed in Amarillo I had never visited the site.  Apparently, the owner encourages people to paint the cars and sure enough there was a couple of people painting faces and other designs on one or two of the cars.  Of course, their art work wouldn't last long until the next artist showed up and covered the previous artwork with their own.

Back on the road, our next stop was for gas and lunch in Plainview.  As we turned south in Amarillo onto I-27, we discovered the crosswinds hadn't gone away.  Fortunately, they were not as strong as on the day we rode into Albuquerque but they were strong enough to require your full attention.  The good news was that the temperature had increased to 70 degrees so we weren't freezing anymore.

We made good time and arrived in Plainview without incident.  We gassed up, ate a good lunch and headed for Abilene.

By the time we arrived in Abilene, the temperature was up to 75 degrees and it was about 7:00pm...a 12-hour day, considering the hour of time change from Mountain time to Central time. We were bushed, so much so that everyone dragged themselves to their room without even discussing dinner plans.

A few minutes later, the text messaging began but a plan never developed.  I chose to go next door to get food and bring it back to my room to catch a little basketball on the TV.  Others chose pizza...which I had had the night before.  I don't know what everyone else did.  Our departure time the last day...6:00am, what else.  An early bedtime was in order.

Wake up came way too early...We actually hit the road about 6:20am...still dark...temperature 51 degrees...still chilly but not as bad as 41 degrees.  Our leader wasn't wasting time getting home.  We were on Hwy 36, which we followed through Hamilton, Gatesville and Cameron.  Just out side Cameron we turned off on a Farm to Market road and enjoyed the central Texas countryside over to Hearne where we got on Hwy 6...a straight shot home.

We arrived in College Station about 12:00pm...Our trip completed. 

We travelled about 1700 miles without incident, had some good food and fellowship and got trained on how to run a better H.O.G. Chapter.  All in all, a good trip.

Harley Owners Group Training - Day 4

Day 2 of the actual training started with breakfast at 8:00am and a short General Session.  Following that we split up and went to sessions we didn't go to the first day.  As with the first day, we enjoyed the sessions very much and I believe each of us learned a thing or two.

In each session, the instructors would try to prevent members from the same chapter from sitting together.  They wanted to encourage the sharing of ideas.  I think it went pretty well.

Being the last day of training, the last session of the day was extra special with the Vice President for the Harley Davidson Museum the special guest speaker.  As you can see from the picture, he's a Davidson, directly related to the founders of Harley Davidson. 

We finished the day about 4:00pm...too early for dinner...so we all retired to our rooms for a little rest.  We planned to walk a couple of blocks over from the hotel to the Brazilian Steak House .

At the appointed time, most of the group met in the lobby and headed to the restaurant.  When we arrived, we quickly learned that it would be at least an hour wait so we decided to try a pizza place we had seen on the way over.

The sign said New York style pizza...whatever that means.  We were seated in what reminded me of a college town hangout.  After deciding what looked good, I chose to order a special...two slices and a soda.  I chose one of their specialties for one slice and the other was simply Canadian bacon and pineapple.

As the picture below shows, the special slice of pizza, called "Upstate" had a lot of meat...meatballs, Italian Sausage, Pepperoni, Canadian Bacon and Salami.  I thought I would probably have indigestion the rest of the night, but it didn't happen.  By the way, the pizza was delicious.

Following dinner, we went back to the hotel and most of us loaded some of our stuff into the motorcycles so that there wouldn't be any delay at 6:00am in the morning...our estimated time of departure from Albuquerque.