December End of the Year Pie Run XII 2007

[Squeaky]

Now who's bringin me some pie!?!

Might want to ask one of these people...

 

[M38A1]

Re: OFFICIAL: Pie Run XII 2007 End of Year Pie Run Event (Third Annual!)

Well, for those wondering, I made it home safe and sound after the party. It was a quick 115 miles back to Austin with crisp temps. Pulling into Austin, every thermo was showing 39*F but it was a 'dry cold'. lol...... I can't say enough for heated grips and a heated vest.

Thanks to EVERYONE who pulled the EOY Pie Run off. I had a blast.

 

[anaconda]

Re: OFFICIAL: Pie Run XII 2007 End of Year Pie Run Event (Third Annual!)

Well??? Where is the ride report people!!!???? (We need a cross-armed, foot tapping smiley...)

 

[Jbay]

Re: OFFICIAL: Pie Run XII 2007 End of Year Pie Run Event (Third Annual!)

a few photos: 1) who's the Harley hater, any guesses?, 2) courthouses are so last year 3) the Bluebell incident, forthcoming???

 

[DFW_Warrior]

Re: OFFICIAL: Pie Run XII 2007 End of Year Pie Run Event (Third Annual!)

Brandy and I made it home safe and sound! What a great event, it was just awesome.

Chuck, and Becca, thanks a MILLION for the effort that you put into the slide shows. They were amazing, and we wouldn't have been able to enjoy them if it wasn't for you two going all out for us.

Pie Man (aka. Chris, aka. hooligan), thanks for putting this whole shindig together. It was a great time.

Scott, thanks for running the site that steals so much time away from my work and personal life. Without you and your site, I would have to be a much more productive member of society, and who would want that??? Thanks buddy!!!

I didn't take any photos, but trust me it was an grand two days. Blue Bell incident James??? I don't seem to recall just what you are talking about???

 

[Squeaky]

Re: OFFICIAL: Pie Run XII 2007 End of Year Pie Run Event (Third Annual!)

2) courthouses are so last year

...thanks a MILLION for the effort that you put into the slide shows...

My pleasure. Thing is, only those who read as many posts as we do would know who a lot of the folks in the pictures are - so as I see it, there's more incentive for everyone to read ALL the posts and take LOTS more pictures for next year's show!

 

[Gilk51]

Re: OFFICIAL: Pie Run XII 2007 End of Year Pie Run Event (Third Annual!)

I are also home & getting pictures uploaded from the camera. Last I saw of Rich, he was turning north onto the I35W access road at FM917. Hope everyone made it OK (thanks M38A1 Scott for letting us know).

Special thanks to Rich (Simmons1), Bill (DFW_Warrior), Brandy, and James (Jbay) for putting up with my crazy route ideas and frequent photo stops - ya'll are great folks to ride with.

 

[sparkyphotog]

Re: OFFICIAL: Pie Run XII 2007 End of Year Pie Run Event (Third Annual!)

Uploading my photos now. Should have them posted later this evening.

 

[DFW_Warrior]

Re: OFFICIAL: Pie Run XII 2007 End of Year Pie Run Event (Third Annual!)

So is there going to be a seperate "Story Telling" thread?

 

[Gilk51]

Re: OFFICIAL: Pie Run XII 2007 End of Year Pie Run Event (Third Annual!)

So is there going to be a seperate "Story Telling" thread?

We need the appropriate moderator or admin to start it - working in the "TWT Sponsored Events" area is not for us peon moderators!

 

[Simmons1]

Re: OFFICIAL: Pie Run XII 2007 End of Year Pie Run Event (Third Annual!)

I am home as well. I pulled in the garage at 5pm on the nose with 540 miles for the weekend.

Chuck planned a nice route for the trip. I'll spare everyone of any more photos of court houses. Although because of Chuck I may have indavertantly started collecting pictures of Court Houses.

Besides Court Houses we made one other stop at the Mecca of Ice Cream, the Blue Bell Creameries, in Brenham.

Here is Bill trying to get some fresh Ice Cream right from the source:

 

[Tourmeister]

Re: December End of the Year Pie Run 2007

We got back about 1:00am. Great company and food! The slide show presentations were fantastic I think I am still a bit full... That apple pie was real good

 

[sparkyphotog]

Re: December End of the Year Pie Run 2007

Here is a selection of photos. You can see all of my pics here.

Mollie helping set up the room...

The Zimmerman kids and the sparky kids made signs....

Mollie, Squeaky, and Bill - I have no idea...

And of course, PIE!!!!

And lots of fellowship. If I don't caption the photos with names it means I can't remember them. Feel free to help me out.

Brandy and Mollie

Squeaky and Blue Bomber

Marty, Kathy, Betty, Buck

Chris and Bill

Chow time...

Thanks, Tourmeister, for hosting the site!!

The new super storm-trooper helmet...

Thanks for the slideshows Squeaky!

Some the attendees didn't quite make it all the way through...

Thanks again to Tourmeister, Squeaky, wczimmerman, and all the rest for making this a memorable event. You rock!

 

[Gilk51]

Re: December End of the Year Pie Run 2007

Amazingly, I didn't get many usable pictures this year.
I guess the camera didn't get taken out enough. But I did see other folks taking pictures, so they should appear here.

-------

The previous 2 years, I have motored down to the Zimmerman mansion in Temple and ridden with them over to CS. However, this year, they had to get back home quickly so that they could leave for a week of Colorado.

So, I wanted to try some roads that I had never taken or missed. I plotted a route around visiting some county courhouses (an ongoing project) in that general direction. Rich (Simmons1, from Fort Worth) wanted to ride down with someone (anyone!) and didn't care how we got there. Rich just loves to ride and will even humor an old, slow geezer.

Bill (DFW_Warrior) is also in Arlington (like me) but tried to complicate things by taking the SO, Brandy, to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert on Friday night and wanting to meet up with us somewhere near Hillsboro where Brandy lives. Soooo, we altered the route to meet them in Hillsboro - where else but in front of the courthouse. Bill didn't care how we got there either - he just loves to ride and will even humor an old, slow geezer. I think Brandy is starting to enjoy this riding thing, too...

One more fella was interested in joing up - James (Jbay). He is based in Waco and McLennan County just happens to be a courthouse on the list, so we swapped phone numbers in order to connect when the rest of us arrived in front of - you guessed it - the courthouse. James had some ideas about where to stop for lunch and also some better roads around town. Other than that, he would be happy to just ride along. James just loves to ride and will even humor an old, slow geezer.

It was cold - Rich was better prepared than I was. I planned for the higher temps later in the day and didn't take my heavy jacket. I got chilled but I think I made the right choice (not having enough room for both jackets).

Rich (right) and I met Brandy and Bill in Hillsboro:

After completely missing that SH22 was right in front of us at the courthouse , we took SH22 and FM933 to Waco and found James waiting for us in the parking lot across from - the courthouse...

(Rich and James discuss stuff about Rich's ST1300)

I also found out that Brady was a Waco local, too, so James and Brandy found us a good place to eat lunch. Undeway again, James led us out of town and to another road on the way to Marlin. Then on to Franklin where I got confused when the GPS got confused and we ended up taking US79 and SH6 instead of SH46 and OSR (Old San Antonio Road).

As per plan, I had never tried most of these roads before, so it's great to have a local to steer you in the right direction.

We made it to the hotel in College Station just after 4:00 and found some more bikes parked outside. We then proceded to bring stuff in and see what was needed to help Chris (wczimmerman) and others what was needed to set up. I had brought a laptop and speakers just in case they were needed but they had those covered.

Folks kept coming in and I met a bunch of folks for the first time, including several in the DFW area that I had missed. There was plenty of food and pie and anyone who went away hungry didn't try hard enough.

Mr. Zimmerman was honored by Scott (Tourmeister) with a check for all the effort getting the new server set up and running and kudos for all his efforts with that and the pie runs.

Rebecca (Squeaky) showed the Pie Run version of the "Everywhere Texas" project slide show that Scott (M38A1) ram-rodded. Most everyone wanted a copy of the DVD, so it seemed to be a hit.

But then Squeaky unleashed her epic slide show of all the photos that she had grabbed from the various "story telling" events, including the dual sport (DS) and off-road sections. I recognized a lot of the images from various reports but there were a lot that I missed. It's always fun to see pictures of events you attended and maybe even a pic of yourself!

Well done, Rebecca!

A lot of folks stayed around to talk and WC played a humorous video clip about British "Caravaning" later on. Several of us stayed and jabbered until about midnight or so when eyelids began to get out of control (mine anyway).

Our little group of 5 assembled at 8:00 to eat breakfast. I guess my only gripe of the weekend was having to pay for a continental breakfast when I am used to having it complimentary (room price, off season, etc.). Nobody was really in a hurry to get home other than maybe before dark, so they all ratified my crazy theme of visiting some more courthouses... These folks just love to ride and will even humor an old, slow geezer.

We then said goodbye to several other couples in the breakfast area, went out and wiped the heavy dew off bike seats and reassembled across Hwy 6 for petrol replenishment.

After visiting the Bryan courthouse (which can best be described as "functional"), we took off for Brenham for the start of a ride up SH36. We found the courthouse, here Rich, Bill, and James return to the bikes.

Bill was interested in checking out this place:

Of course, they aren't open for tours on Sundays, so we looked around. As Rich mentioned, Bill wanted to check the source of the ice cream:

We tried to tell him it probably should be a real cow, but...

Following that, this group of 4 motorcycles and 5 people worked north on SH36, visiting 3 more county courthouses and eating lunch at DQ in Cameron. It was fun poking around and talking about various subjects with these folks.

Rich takes one final photo at the square in Belton:

We blasted north on SH317 to Valley Mills where we split up - James, Bill, and Brandy off to Hillsboro and Waco while Rich and I headed north for Tarrant County.

Again, many thanks to this group for putting up with my "themed" routes and keeping me company.

This is the third end-of-year PR I have attended and I have enjoyed them all!

 

[Tourmeister]

That caravan vid was a hoot!! Those guys totally missed the point though. It is not about having fun, it is about sharing a crisis and the bonding that results from surviving it!! I am sure that story will be a great memory for them for the rest of their lives

 

[Squeaky]

Upon arrival, it was evident the hotel didn't have any clue what our intent was with the room...

Managed to get it looking fairly party-like by the time the bulk of the attendees arrived

Brandy thought something was VERY funny!

And I managed to not find anyone asleep when the slideshow was over!

 

[Gilk51]

I took a bunch of notes and tried to meet everyone. Here is my list of folks (please advise if I got something wrong)

in no particular order...

Bill (DFW_Warrior), Arlington
Brandy, Hillsboro
Chris Z (wczimmerman), Temple
Jen (blazin' mama), Temple
Cassie Z, Temple
Savannah Z, Temple
Bryan (sparkyphotog), Sugarland
Mollie (BMWBabe), Sugarland
Aaron, Sugarland
Sarah, Sugarland
Bill (Graubart), Glen Rose
Loretta, Glen Rose
James (Jbay), Waco
Stephanie, Waco
Mike (mikeofcontex), Conroe
Cynthia, Conroe
Ralph (ralphn0), Dallas
Marty (voyagerrider), Burleson
Kathy, Burleson
Buck (Buck&Betty), Hurst
Betty (Buck&Betty), Hurst
Steve (RockmanTex), Bryan
Sheri, Bryan
Scott (Kawrider), Farmers Branch
Tami, Farmers Branch
David (FJR Bandit), Freer, TX or Carlsbad, NM
Mark (P-Ratt), Bryan
Scott (M38A1), Austin
Dwayne (DwayneInfo), Houston
Rita, Houston
Scott (Tourmeister), Huntsville
Beth (Blue Bomber), Huntsville
Rich (Simmons1), Ft. Worth
Rebecca (Squeaky), SW Houston
Jack (JacknTexas), Huntsville
Tina, Huntsville
Rick (prhaussies), Richards
Phil (pkiser), Huntsville
Bambi, Huntsville
Chuck (Gilk51), Arlington

Looks like 40 people - nice turn out!

 

[dbdolan]

Do you all have the slide show posted somewhere?

 

[Squeaky]

Do you all have the slide show posted somewhere?

We're going to see if we can do it as a bit torrent (?) but it's too big to host somewhere like YouTube/Google Vid.

 

[wonder91178]

Sometimes Bill just frightens me......

 

[dbdolan]

I know it is none of my business but are Brandy and Mollie related? It looks to me like you two could be sisters.

 

[Blue Bomber]

I know it is none of my business but are Brandy and Mollie related? It looks to me like you two could be sisters.

I asked Squeaky the same thing!

 

[anaconda]

Looks like everyone had fun, nice turnout! And the pies looked delicious!!

 

[DFW_Warrior]

Sometimes Bill just frightens me......

THEY LIED TO ME!!!! They said that ice cream came from there. How was a city boy like me supposed to know better?

 

[Gilk51]

Do you all have the slide show posted somewhere?

The Pie Run version of Everywhere Texas can be downloaded as a PC executable here. It is 38 megabytes and the download speed is erratic and can be very slow - just be patient, it will eventually finish. The PC program displays higher resolution images than even the DVD version.

It is also on You Tube. It's lower res but viewable...

I have DVDs made that will either run as a DVD or a PC program. I'll have some at local M&Gs - just ask for one. I can mail 'em to others - send me a PM.