Okay... Let's see....
Here is Kenny "10-95", his wife, and a mess of people who were really nice but whose names I totally forgot...except "Lucky"...
Standing in back are Rick "prhaussies" (left), David "Cagiva 549" (center) and "Soozy". No clue who she's talking too
Beth "Blue Bomber" and Daniel "DualSport"
I moved outside to sell T-shirts and stickers out of the back of the minivan. The parking lot was FULL as was the inside. As was mentioned, we kind of overwhelmed their serving system with our numbers and there were some folks that waited pretty long to get their food. However, for the most part they did a real good job and the food/deserts are really good. I spoke with the owner and she was very thankful for the business. After eating and visiting, I grabbed the camera and headed for the parking lot.
Got out just in time to see this guy roll in. I did not get to meet him though so I am not sure if he is a TWT member or not. Cool bike though
James Cain, Jon, David again, and Steve "Desmo"
Daryl "Chirpy", Don Davis, and Tony "Hemibee"
Kevin Graulty giving rides in his immaculately restored 1966 BMW R stroke slash 60 something BMW
In case you wanted a close up of Chirpy and Hemibee
Susan "Tortuga" and Chuck "Gilk51" getting ready to head back up North...
Daniel is not too sure about this side car thing and refused a ride, but agreed to sit in it
He was less enthusiastic about sharing with little sister, five month old Rachel.
He came around though
The it was time for the BIG SURPRISE!!
JustJ had PM'd me with some confuzzing message about popping the big question and making sure things were setup
Once I understood that he planned to ask her in front of everyone to marry him, I of course had to ask, "Are you sure she will say yes...??" That could be a tad embarrassing you know...
He assured me he had a pretty good idea how she'd respond and that it was Squeaky's job to remember to bring tissues... (she forgot
).
And so here it goes... She was still a bit confused at this part...
She started catching on here...
*sniffle sniffle* What a sweet moment...
I never heard it, but I would speculate this means, "YES!!"
The happy couple
The happy couple and "Harley" (her son I think...?)
Okay, enough of the mushy stuff and back to the boring pictures...
Greg "Diderich" and Jenna(?) - Yes, I know... her eyes are closed. I'd say it was my radiant presence but she said something about the sun
Kevin and Cheryl heading out in the hacker
Here is Brian "SparkyPhotog," Molly "BMW Babe," and the kiddos about to pull out
A few moments later as Brian and Molly are pulling away, I am not looking their direction but I hear tires squealing and look to see Brian doing a panic stop and Molly doing the same behind him so she does not hit him. At first I can't figure out what is going on, then I spot Daniel running between two cars on the other side of the parking lot...
He was behind me and shot out from behind my bike right in front of them
Thank goodness they were paying attention and neither of them dropped their bikes. That could have been ugly. Daniel had been doing really good all afternoon... but all it takes is that ONE time
As folks started clearing out, I ran back inside to thank the people for hosting us. Here is the owner... no clue what her name is
And her busy assistant
After saying goodbye to everyone, Raul "houstonredrider" and I decide to run up FM 149 through the forest to have a coke at Drifters, a bar outside of Richards. I have been cutting WAYYY back on my coke intake and was jonesing in a really bad way
I dragged him down a few bumpy little backroads to get over to Montgomery and then we started up 149. Not too far up the road we happen upon an accident. Had there not been a car in front of me on the brakes more than normal, I would have clipped through here pretty good without any idea what was around the corner. Fortunately, most everyone was over far enough that it would not have been a problem, but as we passed, I thought this might not be the case for other folks coming around the corner.
I pulled over and turned back, Raul followed. I pulled over onto the left shoulder to tell the people that they needed to get someone up around the corner to flag traffic to slow down... The last word was still hanging in the air as I heard that dreaded sound of metal on pavement...
I glanced back to the right just in time to see a bike slide past me and into Raul, who was parked behind me
Fearing their might be more coming, I hauled down through the ditch around people to get over to the corner where people could see me and know to slow down. Another guy came over to where I parked and offered to wave down traffic while I ran back to check on folks.
Raul was up and did not appear to be injured. A lady and her husband were coming around the corner while I had been talking. He slowed, I think to actually stop, and she was not paying attention. When she realized he was slowing, she locked up the rear in the corner and low sided. Her right front fork dug into the back of his right exhaust can and shoved him forward. The rear of her bike came around and slammed into Raul's bike. Amazingly, his foot/leg escaped without injury. The bike was not so lucky
She was up and seemed okay but for some small scrapes on her hands. Her husband was fine as well. Both were a bit agitated with each other, but after a few smokes they settled down, hehe. Once we realized everyone was okay, then we had to see about figuring out how everyone was going to get them and their bikes home.
Her bike, it is worse than it looks in the pic.
The tank is heavily dented on the left side. All the left side controls were trashed. Some kind of cover on the left side came off. Various bits and pieces were still scattered about on the road. It left some pretty good scrap marks, but amazingly I never saw a skid mark. It must have really gone down fast after the lock up
Although, I don't think she was really going very fast as the corner is posted at 30-35mph. What really miffed her is that she had just gotten the bike out of the shop as the result of a previous accident! How do you console a rider over something like that!?
At least she was okay though.
Raul's bike, doesn't look to bad right...?
Look closer
Raul managed to kind of lay the bike down on the left side as he was jumping clear. So there is a good bit of damage to the other side as well. Even the plastic up around the dash area is cracked and broken. ALL of the front and side plastic is ruined. Notice the fork seal pieces sticking up out of the right fork...? The good thing is that the fork did not appear to be bent and the front wheel was still aligned with the handlebars.
Meanwhile, Marcus, the original rider that had gone down was pretty well off. He had a bit of rash on his left forearm. I think he had on a leather jacket, but I did not get a look at it. His Kevlar jeans seemed to have done their job. His helmet certainly did its job! The bike... well... It was pretty sad looking! His girl friend was on her way with his truck. We weren't real sure how we'd get it in the truck though because it was jacked up kind of high...
Not a site you like to see...
Imagine if that had been his skull getting ground up like that...
Marcus lost the front end and went down almost instantly according to what he told me. There has been some recent cable laying right in that area so the ground had been recently graded and a big sand berm sits right at the edge of the woods. The bike must have tumbled because both ends took a beating before it hit the berm. Fortunately, Marcus did not hit a tree!! There were plenty to hit too... The entire gauge cluster, headlights, mirrors, and upper fairing were ripped off the bike. The two side fairings were laying open like a peeled banana, looking like wings when viewed head on. The subframe has to be tweaked because the under seat exhausts were sitting at very unnatural angles... However, the bike started and could be moved under power. So we decided to get all the bikes out of the blind part of the corner.
This is actually back up in the corner from the accident looking in the direction from which we had just come - a blind corner after you come through these esses.
Looking back towards where Marcus went off and where Raul was hit. The couple moved their bikes around the corner on that little side road.
Someone else must have called in the accident, none of us did.
We were standing around when I heard sirens coming... I thought, "Oh great, someone else must have had a 'bad' accident!" Then an ambulance and the sheriff's deputy pull up to us...
The ambulance people check everyone over and then have them sign something saying the people refused transport. The deputy set to getting everyone's story. Shortly after they arrived, a DPS trooper showed up and repeated the process, only taking a LOT longer. He actually got each person, one at a time, to sit in his cruiser and give detailed statements. That took close to an hour!
Meanwhile, the wrecker guy had hung around and offered to help us get Marcus' bike in the back of the truck. He was a nice guy, very much into bikes. He told us that yesterday he got a call from some LEO way up North in Wisconsin or somewhere informing him that they had found his stolen 1969 Triumph Bonneville... that was reported stolen in 1979!!!
They said it still ran and wanted to know if he planned to come claim it.
He had some straps and we used this boom to lift the bike so that Marcus' girlfriend could back the truck under it. Man that saved a LOT of back ache!!
Once the bike was in the bed of the truck, we set to getting it tied down... "Everything look okay back there??"
"No really, we're just tying down the bike!" Marcus upper left, Raul in foreground
I think it was pushing 5:00pm by the time it looked like we were about ready to wrap up things. The couple with the Harleys decided the bikes could be ridden. The husband had ridden both bikes up and down the road to test them out. All damage appeared to be cosmetic. The wife was originally wanting to push her bike back into the woods and leave it over night and ride home two up with him. We talked her out of that. I was prepared to ride it down to Montgomery so we could find a safe place to leave it and then come back for my bike. However, after so much time had passed, her nerves had settled and she was good to go. Raul had done a little duct tape repair work and was thinking he could limp the bike home. Marcus and his girlfriend waited quite a while after they were told they could leave so that they could follow Raul and make sure he was able to get home okay.
Right before we were about to leave, Matt "STrider" pulls up and stops. He had come by earlier right after Marcus had gone down and made sure he was okay and help was coming. He actually made it to Drifters and had a coke with Vaughn "Bagwell"... Man I NEEDED a coke...
There were a LOT of bikes that passed by the scene over the course of the two hours we were there. Quite a few of them nearly wrecked because they were rubbernecking so bad!
One even ran right to the edge of the pavement and was fighting to keep the bike from going down into the ditch before he finally saved it and got it back up on the pavement
I saw quite a few TWT folks that had been at the Pie Run and even some that had not (like Matt
). It was starting to get cold as the sun dropped down behind the trees. I had to get the liners back out and even then, it was pretty chilly heading home. I got back home around 5:45pm.
Crazy day... Raul has PM'd me and he made it home okay. I've not heard from Marcus yet, but he said he'd sign up here. His girlfriend rides as well and used to race CMRA and TMGP. I think her name is Aaron? Maybe Erin? Not real sure. She dropped everything to haul up from down by the Galleria in West Houston to come get Marcus
She was remarkably calm. Most wives/girlfriends are usually a little more "excited" when something like this happens.
I finally got that coke... a diet coke... yeah... I was THAT desperate!!
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I think that she was a little surprised. 
It was a good ride home. 
I'll post them up tomorrow.
