It is late but I just had to give the first report on the HOT Rally going on in Austin this weekend.
It got started off Friday with check in and a check up for each trike. Mike, Mark, and Kansas worked their fannies off going over the trikes. Some trikes had MAJOR problems that were found and fixed. The check up for the trike was included in the registration. We are incredibly grateful. I think we were all thrilled with that part of the event alone.
Sad to say, the Time Trials were washed out. We all got started on the warm up lap around the INCREDIBLY neat Veloway, and halfway through the 3 mile lap, we had to pull out life preservers. It was pretty funny -- we all know I am the slowest going, but add rain so hard I could not see from my glasses, my total ignoring the warning to shift WAY down to get up a hill, my trying my &^%$est to keep my cochlear implant and camera dry, and I ended up laughing so hard I could barely keep from falling off my trike. Since we could not have time trials, I suggested making it a wet t shirt contest, but that didn't seem to make any one laugh (but me -- man there were some WET t shirts).
And wouldn't you know it, after we got back to Mike's shop (Easy Street Recumbents) and got as dry as we could, the sun starts coming out. We had an information session from Bike Texas about what miracles they are trying to pull off with legislation for bikes. Mike had the drawings for the prizes. GOODNESS they were nice!!! Mirrors, a kick b*tt cool tire pump, Catrike jersey, Catrike bag, Catrike water bottles COLORED RIMS (I am pouting because Mike didn't rig the drawing like I asked so I could win those!!!), Catrike chain bash guard, $200 chain (LUCKY PATTI!), a set of 3 YOUR CHOICE Schwalbe tires, some stuff I don't even know what it was but NICE -- WOW. Mike then gave an info session on trikes that was just AWESOME. He covered that whole trike and we learned VOLUMES. THANKS MIKE!
Then off we all ride on our trikes to Phara's Restaurant for an incredible buffet. They had us a super nice tent outdoors so we could just pull our trikes up. Uh oh. Was that thunder? The knights in shining armour got with it and moved ALL the trikes into the tent with us. Then the bottom fell out. But while it did, we got to chow down on some INCREDIBLY good food. And here in Texas, we aren't going to let a little rain stop the fun. Out comes the belly dancer. She had VERY cramped quarters to perform. But that didn't dim her smile. And some of the Cats managed to have a little fun on the side. If we can't ride, we'll find other forms of entertainment, right? Get a load of these shots:
Ed from Wimberly dancing the night away.
Key (Action Lad) Is that a smile or what???
Mike (our host) relieving the stress from putting on a first class event.
).
Mark on a "business" trip. How do you like Texas Mark?
The rain paused long enough for us to trike the mile back to the shop and load up and head to the hotels. Greg and I had to head back to H Town (sniff sniff). Tomorrow morning (Sunday) the army is heading out for a ride through downtown Austin to the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial. Sure do wish I were there to cause trouble like I always do (by the way, thanks for retrieving my water bottle in that down pour Arif. It fell off when I had to get off to pull up the hill on the Veloway because I didn't shift down in time and was laughng so hard because I couldn't see because the rain was streaming down my glasses). Bless Sam's heart for making sure I made it back to the start. bet he didn't know a 700 could be THAT slow, huh Sam?
There were the BEST PEOPLE AROUND at this rally. Goodness I consider y'all all such good friends and wish I could have visited a LOT more with some of y'all. I'll name names and post more photos later.
Thanks so very, very much to Mike and Easy Street for hosting the off the charts fun event. Mike is THE man for us here in Texas. He and Kansas and Sam (you are such delights Kansas and Sam!!!) live and breathe trikes and are EXPERTS. We are so lucky to have a dealer in Texas with their compassion, knowledge, and willingness to DO IT RIGHT. I think all of us realized we found the answers to a lot of our worries about quality dealers.
I am going to start in on Mike right now pestering him to do this again next year. Y'all all help me.
TEXAS ROCKS!!!
It got started off Friday with check in and a check up for each trike. Mike, Mark, and Kansas worked their fannies off going over the trikes. Some trikes had MAJOR problems that were found and fixed. The check up for the trike was included in the registration. We are incredibly grateful. I think we were all thrilled with that part of the event alone.
Sad to say, the Time Trials were washed out. We all got started on the warm up lap around the INCREDIBLY neat Veloway, and halfway through the 3 mile lap, we had to pull out life preservers. It was pretty funny -- we all know I am the slowest going, but add rain so hard I could not see from my glasses, my total ignoring the warning to shift WAY down to get up a hill, my trying my &^%$est to keep my cochlear implant and camera dry, and I ended up laughing so hard I could barely keep from falling off my trike. Since we could not have time trials, I suggested making it a wet t shirt contest, but that didn't seem to make any one laugh (but me -- man there were some WET t shirts).
And wouldn't you know it, after we got back to Mike's shop (Easy Street Recumbents) and got as dry as we could, the sun starts coming out. We had an information session from Bike Texas about what miracles they are trying to pull off with legislation for bikes. Mike had the drawings for the prizes. GOODNESS they were nice!!! Mirrors, a kick b*tt cool tire pump, Catrike jersey, Catrike bag, Catrike water bottles COLORED RIMS (I am pouting because Mike didn't rig the drawing like I asked so I could win those!!!), Catrike chain bash guard, $200 chain (LUCKY PATTI!), a set of 3 YOUR CHOICE Schwalbe tires, some stuff I don't even know what it was but NICE -- WOW. Mike then gave an info session on trikes that was just AWESOME. He covered that whole trike and we learned VOLUMES. THANKS MIKE!
Then off we all ride on our trikes to Phara's Restaurant for an incredible buffet. They had us a super nice tent outdoors so we could just pull our trikes up. Uh oh. Was that thunder? The knights in shining armour got with it and moved ALL the trikes into the tent with us. Then the bottom fell out. But while it did, we got to chow down on some INCREDIBLY good food. And here in Texas, we aren't going to let a little rain stop the fun. Out comes the belly dancer. She had VERY cramped quarters to perform. But that didn't dim her smile. And some of the Cats managed to have a little fun on the side. If we can't ride, we'll find other forms of entertainment, right? Get a load of these shots:
Ed from Wimberly dancing the night away.
Key (Action Lad) Is that a smile or what???
Mike (our host) relieving the stress from putting on a first class event.
).Mark on a "business" trip. How do you like Texas Mark?
The rain paused long enough for us to trike the mile back to the shop and load up and head to the hotels. Greg and I had to head back to H Town (sniff sniff). Tomorrow morning (Sunday) the army is heading out for a ride through downtown Austin to the Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial. Sure do wish I were there to cause trouble like I always do (by the way, thanks for retrieving my water bottle in that down pour Arif. It fell off when I had to get off to pull up the hill on the Veloway because I didn't shift down in time and was laughng so hard because I couldn't see because the rain was streaming down my glasses). Bless Sam's heart for making sure I made it back to the start. bet he didn't know a 700 could be THAT slow, huh Sam?
There were the BEST PEOPLE AROUND at this rally. Goodness I consider y'all all such good friends and wish I could have visited a LOT more with some of y'all. I'll name names and post more photos later.
Thanks so very, very much to Mike and Easy Street for hosting the off the charts fun event. Mike is THE man for us here in Texas. He and Kansas and Sam (you are such delights Kansas and Sam!!!) live and breathe trikes and are EXPERTS. We are so lucky to have a dealer in Texas with their compassion, knowledge, and willingness to DO IT RIGHT. I think all of us realized we found the answers to a lot of our worries about quality dealers.
I am going to start in on Mike right now pestering him to do this again next year. Y'all all help me.
TEXAS ROCKS!!!
