My first waking moments of 2013 went something like this:
In the dark I could hear an unfamiliar noise while I lay under the blankets. As my eyes slowly opened that noise became more recognizable...hmmm...wait...that is rain! Rolled over to take a peak at the side table alarm clock...5:40. "Well, at least it's not cold" I thought to myself...
Wrong! The temps were in the lower forties and it was raining. NOAA weather had got it completely
WRONG!
Even still, I didn't think I was going to need long johns because it was going to be near 60 or so...
WRONG!
Nevertheless, I had a good first day of the New Year riding out to the Blessing of the Bikes, meeting good folks, eating good food and generally enjoying a ride through the beautiful Central Texas Hill Country!
First up was to get to our meet up point in Bergheim. There I found what would be our Valkyrie group...
Fred and Chantal had ridden up the day before from Houston. Wow, you two are adventurous souls!
At this point I received messages from various parties about not being able to make it. The SARG group's numbers had dwindled quite a bit (from 28 to 5), but they where still riding out. Due to the weather, they had decided to stay on major highways to get to the Blessing of the bikes instead of meeting in Bergheim.
So, I led the VRCC group over to Havelina Harley and we parked amongst all the other attendees who had decided to ride through cold rain...
We were able to signed up with hardly any lines this year...
After sign-up we headed over to the hot Chili, Tacos, Chicken and Dumplings, Pastries and hot Coffee -- once again, no lines...
As we milled around meeting new folks and seeing familiar faces, the parking lot did not seem nearly as crowded as in years past...
Not as crowded
indeed...
This parking lot is typically crowded and full for the Blessing of the Bikes! The numbers this year fell off from somewhere like 1000 to 186! (Do not all bikers mind riding in the cold rain?)
The ceremonial part of the day started later than normal. I think the CMA folks were hoping for the clouds to part and for it to warm up a bit. That way more bikes would maybe show. (I saw later that someone from one of the San Antonio rider groups had wrongly posted that the event had cancelled. That guy is stilled being cursed and was thrown off the group's discussion board.)
The VRCC group looking on...
Then the CMA folks went through the crowd to bless the bikes...
Oh, and we did find our friends from SARG and I got a few to pose...
This is Tony and Andy Walker capturing the moment with a CMA member (Andy has the camera). These two are the organizers for SARG. They have rides every weekend and managed to put over 17,000 miles on their Ultra Classic in 2012 without actually going anywhere!
Getting a little side tracked -- this fun custom was at the event. I can't get past the "trailer bomb"!
After the Blessing of the Bikes we all headed over to the Antler Cafe near Curtis' -- Mr. Burnout's -- place. It was warm, the coffee was hot and the food was really good!
The after dinner conversation was lively, but soon we had to part ways. Managed to get a group shot with us VRCC-ers and the SARG folks...
If you look close, fourth from the right is another VRCC rider. Yep, Curtis -- who's tins are still at the painter -- caged over to just visit and to have a great meal!
All in all a great first day for 2013! Everyone made it home safe (Fred and Chantal battled crazy winds and ever decreasing temps on their way home!), we all met new folks, ate some good food and had a wonderful
First Ride of the New Year!
