It's showtime!

Well, after three months of working on the project I've been referring to, it has finally come to fruition. This is the first copy off the press...and was followed by 5,000 more.

Here's my name to prove it...

And some sample pages from the inside...

Word is apparently getting around in the Black Hills of this "book on motorcycle rides," so this little adventure sounds like it will become an exciting venture. Just in time for the 2010 Sturgis Rally during the second week of August, we're thinking we may have to do a few reprints to satisfy the nearly 700,000 riders coming to the Black Hills for that. Stay tuned on that one.

On another note, I got back from Colorado last night and didn't feel like posting. I'll have to go through the hundreds of photos I took first to look for some blog-worthy ones. I'll start out with just a couple here, though. Since I live in such a flat state now, I really appreciate the opportunity to see some real mountains...not to mention welcoming the cooler temps with no humidity. Stay tuned on this one, too!

ROT Rally...and some other things...

This past weekend was the ROT (Republic of Texas) Rally. It's actually held at the Travis County Exposition Center. I don't even know where that is, so I went on-line and found out it cost $65 to get in. Well, that wasn't going to happen, so I just went downtown to see if there was any activity on 6th Street. Sixth Street is an area near the capital where there are a bunch of bars and restaurants and it is THE place to go in Austin. Congress Avenue is another hot spot where all the yuppies go.

I suppose there was probably a lot more activity at the Exposition Center, but I wasn't too impressed by what I saw downtown. It's supposed to be the biggest rally in Texas with a draw of about 50,000 participants. It's held from Thursday through Sunday, but I think most of the activity happens on Thursday and Friday because Saturday downtown wasn't nearly as crowded as I thought it would be.

When you've experienced the Sturgis Rally in South Dakota, every other rally pretty much pales in comparison. Sturgis is expecting about 700,000 people in August, so 50,000 doesn't seem like much to me. So they say everything is bigger in Texas, but that doesn't apply to their motorcycle rallies.

The thing about the Sturgis Rally is that it's held in a very small city in the Black Hills, so when a half a million people come there, it's a very big deal. Besides not charging any kind of entrance fees, one of the best things about it is that bikers are able to ride through the beautiful Black Hills as opposed to riding around in Austin where the traffic is horrendous even when there's NOT a rally going on. But I took some pictures anyway since I was there. This is the old part of downtown so the buildings are very historical and eclectic...with lots of tattoo parlors. People can get really crazy on 6th Street at night...you see all sorts of things. But it was pretty tame today, even with all the bikers.




That's the Coyote Ugly bar on the left...




Like the combination of old architecture against the new here...

I like all the details in this building.

I didn't see any unusual characters which made it kind of boring...especially for a rally...

And then there are the bikes. Again, I didn't see anything that really stuck out...




Dallas Cowboys bike...

This was a strange looking thing. I'm not a fan of crotch rockets.

I happened to be walking by this little scene so they posed for me. The sign on the creepy black guy says, "Keep Austin Weird." That's their slogan here and you see a lot of bumper stickers that say that. Pretty dress, huh?

So much for the ROT Rally. I'm sure I could have gotten some much better photos if I had spent the $65.

So, anyway, my motorcycle safety course is two weeks from this weekend, and I am really excited about that! Jared's taking it with me. The teacher came into my office last week and asked me whether I wanted to ride a motorcycle where I'd have to shift gears, or a scooter. Duh...silly question. I was reading the requirements for the course and one of them was that you had to have a pair of leather gloves. I don't have any leather gloves (because you don't need them in south Texas), so Paul sent me these. Yay! Thank you, Pablo!

He also sent me this vest thingy. Cute, huh??

On another note, I bought a jalapeno pepper plant about a month ago when I was getting all the flowers for my garden and I checked it the other day. Look at these bad boys!

Perfect! And these turned into...

Some homemade pico de gallo on top of a chicken breast. I use the frozen herb/garlic chicken breasts I found at Target one day...they are great! Lots of flavor.

And I thought the new bloom on my rose bush was worth a shot. I haven't even planted this thing yet...it's still in the bucket I bought it in. Maybe I'll get to that today.

That's it...the end.

Let's go to Luckenbach, Texas...

I decided to take a little trip to Luckenbach, Texas. We've all heard of it, thanks to Waylon Jennings. And like so many other places in Texas, it's out in the middle of nowhere. I visited Luckenbach a few years ago when I first moved to Texas...drove by it three times before I realized that was the place. The next few pictures are literally all that's to it. It's kind of a biker place to go, but there were hardly any bikers there today...mostly just yuppy types. Maybe all the bikers are in South Dakota...which is where I wish I was. This is the little gift shop...anything you want with "Luckenbach" printed on it is here.

This is the dance hall.

The feed lot.

Howdy. Yep, that's how they greet folks down here in Texas. "Howdy, ma'am. I'll be fixin' to holler at y'all." No lie.

Side of the post office/shop.

Their bathrooms are covered with license plates from all over North America. I found South Dakota.

A little Texas music type band was playing.

And you could board the neighborhood bull if you got the hankerin'.

So much for Luckenbach.

Passed by the Gruene (New Braunfels) Harley-Davidson dealership and it looked like they were having a little "rally" themselves (emphasis on "little"). Hardly anyone there, but I took a few pics.

They had a parking lot full of bikes...most of them had to have been for sale because there weren't enough people there to be riding them. Didn't find many unique ones, though...just a few.