Another Week of Paid Party Time
by Brett Miller on March 18th, 2008
It has been a while since my last posting. And quite a lot has happened as well. I traveled to several places with the wounded warrior project and have done several soldier rides and have been working on the race trailer to get things just right for this next race season. I broke a few ribs on a pretty gnarly road crash and ended up with pneumonia due to training too hard and not taking care of myself. But all is good and back in the swing of things and ready to get down hilling again. So right now I am on the plane flying back from Texas to Sacramento, as I am typing this everyone around me is leaning over and peering at the words as I type. I am coming back from the “Lone star state challenge” this ride was from San Antonio to Corpus Christi Texas. As soon as I got off the plane we hit the hotel and went out for dinner. After we got something in our guts we decided to get some drinks. We asked a few people in town and they all said the same place “cowboy’s dance hall”
As we pulled in the stadium sized parking lot we knew we had come to the right place, with valet parking and tons of good looking gals running through the doors. We got inside and had found out that Wednesday nights were ladies night and there just happened to be a bikini contest that very night.
We got some drinks and started milling around. It took no time at all to eventually get some names and become a local pretty quick, I had no problem fitting in with the cowboy hat and some mad dance skills from back in the day. The place really kicked into gear about 11:00 o’clock and most of the women were dancing on top of the bar all over the place. Keep in mind this building is about the size of a large super market. The other very interesting thing about cowboy’s dance hall I they allow minors. So everywhere you looked was enough women to make Hugh Heffner have a heart attack.
Once the bikini contest started the place was really off the hook. Most everyone by now was hammered and the girls were smoking hot and the music was loud, things couldn’t get much better, but wait, there’s more, we got announced and were front stage for the show and had all the drinks a guy could want, it was perfect.
The next morning was a little rough for most of us, we stumbled out of the hotel and loaded into the vans and headed to the start of the ride. We got to the Brooke army medical center in San Antonio and geared up, had a couple photo ops and a few speeches and headed out for the morning ride that would take us to the Alamo and beyond. The San Antonio police dept busted out a whole crew of bike officers and rode with us the whole way into town and beyond. It was pretty funny to point out every doughnut shop for them along the way, and to joke around and have some laughs.
we prepped for the morning ride with the usuall sticker placements and getting prosthetic arms duct taped to handle bars
this guy mat came out with us to ride. this was his first time on a bike since his injury and has not had the oppourtunity to get outside the environment. he is a double (below the knee) amputee and above the elbow amputee. yes thats right, a one armed man with no legs. matt went over 25 miles that first day with one arm. wrap that around your bean next time you are pedaling your non fat skim milk latte licking hiney up the trail with all your limbs.
Once we got the Alamo the media frenzy began. I believe in total there were 7 different media agencies there in all and they were all doing their thing at the same time. In a way I felt like Brittany spears walking out of the psyche ward and getting mobbed by the paparazzi. But it was actually more like a K-fed experience since I don’t look that good and have no talent.
most everyone heads for the shadows about this time since no one really likes to talk to the media but the guys in the chairs have no choice so we let the vultures come in for the kill as we chuckle on the sidelines
We got to mill around a little and check out the Alamo and get some pics and move on to the next stop on the way out of town. That night was another good bender in the hotel lounge as we killed several bottles and gave the bartender enough money in tips to go to school full time if she wanted.
The next morning we sluggishly tumbled out of the hotel and headed out for our new start for the day. We ended up in Beeville where we were met by the local law enforcement and the Corpus Christi corvette club whom was going to escort us to the next stop in Corpus Christi. As we headed out the roads were bumpy chip seal and the sun was scorching, once we got oriented the right angle the head wind was more than 15 mph, for a while I was doing a measly 13 MPH average trying to get through the miles but eventually was drafting the corvette that was my escort. We made it to corpus and had a great reception in town by a huge bunch of volunteers and locals that came out to support us.
The next was a charity ride set up by the local organizer for the triathlon races. There were several hundred riders on bikes from the community, racers and riders alike that came along to ride a 45 mile loop in downtown corpus on the beach and be able to chat with the other riders and get to know some people and share some story’s.
It was a good time in all untill this guy “ryan kelley” decided to come out of the closet mid ride and scare all of the texas law enforcement.
sometimes I worry about roadies, good thing its only training for me.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Where’s more pics of chicks!!!???!!!???? You need to glue that cowboy hat on top of your Full Face Helmet for Sea Otter!!!! Now that I wanna see!
March 19th, 2008 at 6:45 am
I’m with the Ninja, Chicks rule!