Wreck on a Chapter Ride

Thursday evening I went to the Alamo downtown for the Brad Neely showcase. It was just a bunch of his stuff that's available on the Internet, but I hadn't seen most of it. He did a Q&A afterward, which was amusing as well. I stopped in at the Coyote Ugly afterward and learned that Nicole isn't bartending any more and is just working as a manager. Friday I left work early and went to donate blood at the blood center. Holidays, especially the 4th of July, tend to have high demand for blood, so I gave them some of mine. I had dinner at the Flying Saucer nearby and against recommendations had a beer. After that, I went up to Frye's, but didn't find what I was really looking for and just got an extra memory card and a bargain bin DVD.
Saturday morning I met Kerry at the dealership to pre-ride the ride Sunday to Luling for lunch. We had a nice ride down there, but since the Watermelon Thump was going on, there was a ton of traffic in town and almost nowhere to park. We found out the place we had planned on eating at was closed Sunday, but another barbecue joint a few doors down was going to be open. We sampled their sausage, which was pretty good. We headed straight back to Austin, and I stopped back in at the dealership to check on my Fat Boy. The tech thought the only problem was the cam chain tensioners, which is a lot better than it could have been, but still pretty expensive. Including a new tire, my bill should be about $1500 once it's done, which will probably be some time this week. Since it was already pretty hot at that point, I went home to vegetate in the AC and do a few small things around the house. About 3 I went out hoping to see WALL-E, not considering how popular it would be. When I saw the line out the door and that it was sold out, I hopped right back in my car and went to REI to check out their sale, then went to Hooters for an early dinner. It so happened that the Keep Austin Weird festival was going on across the street, which made getting around difficult. I watched from the comfort of indoors as people, many dressed in silly outfits and costumes, started showing up for the 5K race. I hung around until the race started, then went outside to the start/finish line to watch people finishing. The race seemed to me to be the most interesting part of the festival, so I headed home to resume vegetating.
Sunday morning I read for a bit, then headed out and got to the dealership about 9. There was a pretty good turnout for the ride- I think there were 14 bikes, one couple riding two-up. The ride started out well enough, but only about 5 miles in a guy lost control in a curve and wound up face down on the asphalt. I didn't see what happened, being at the very back and the accident having been somewhere in the middle of the pack. The guy right behind the guy who went down laid his bike down to avoid running over the first guy. Fortunately it didn't create a chain reaction- nobody else went down. I turned on my hazard lights and parked in the road while someone else went back to slow down any cars coming into the turn. The Head Road Captain pretty much took charge of the situation. I was designated to call 911, but soon realized I wasn't sure exactly where we were. The one passenger in the group was the only one who did know, and she was very helpful in the whole situation. Two sheriff's cars came right away, while I was still on with the emergency dispatcher and took over the road and everything else. The ambulance came soon after and went to work on the first guy, then once he was mostly squared away and in the ambulance they treated the second guy for his road rash. It took a while before we could get ahold of anybody to cart the damaged bikes off, luckily a guy with a body shop right down the road came by and offered to tow them in his trailer to the Harley shop. Three of us waited around until the guy came with his trailer. It was a really humid day so we were all sweating just standing there, but once the bikes were secured and we started riding back to the shop it felt pretty nice. We waited around the Harley shop for a while until someone could open it up to secure the bikes inside. I had lunch at TX Roadhouse and went home to watch qualifying from the drag race. I went over to Jimmy's house for grilled steak and vegetables and to bullshit for a while, then went home to watch a little more drag racing before bed.
I rode in to work this morning to participate in HOG's "Million Mile Monday" and took a long lunch to ride out to Spicewood. I was heading for Angel's, but they were closed, I missed Poodie's and went on to eat at Opie's, which I haven't been to since they opened their new place, which is pretty nice. It was a pleasant ride and I wish I could just ride all day.