Edward Terry

Since I moved to Austin I had witnessed the overrunning of the city each summer by hordes of bikers all over the city. During the week of the ROT rally the whole city just shook 24/7 for that week. I decided back then that I wanted to attend this thing on a bike and not only ride around on my bike, but camp out and get a little crazy. Well this was the year it all came together.

Thanks to Abraham’s quick clicking skills, planning, and the forgoing of a New Years Eve countdown, we were able to secure a RV spot on the rally grounds a full 6 months before the rally actually happened.

The next thing on my list was to secure an RV! Renting one was always a pricey option, but what I really wanted was to have the newly restored Airstream gleaming out there in all its polished glory. Well what happened was a mad dash to install a 5th wheel hitch and rig up the truck to tow my folks newly acquired 42’ 5th wheel travel trailer. We spent more time getting all of our camping out items together than we ever did messing with the motorcycles themselves.

The big day finally came and we lined up the truck with the RV in tow in a line that stretched the full length of Decker Lane, about 4 miles or so. There were RVs and bikes cruising around and even though we weren’t even in the gates yet, the party was already stating to ramp up.

Inching up for a while we got to our spot well in advance of anybody else around us. A few rally goers came by to compliment us/warn us of our spot which was right on the internal parade route of the convention center.

I was still getting used to the RV so didn’t have the water utilities hooked up , but we did have a generator out there for air conditioning and other electrical needs.

That first day was slightly tame as folks rolled in form near and far and set up their own camps. We got props for our spot and for developing an interactive locator map for RVers that used the ROT Rally online message boards. There were many four wheelers and golf carts buzzing around and into the night. I stayed the night that night , but it was to be my first and only time.

That Friday Linda and I did out ROT rally routine and watched the Biker parade form the Hickory Street Bar and then hit up Casino El Camino for Boodles Gin and the best burgers in Austin.

We did go for a short blast around town and breakfast at Guero’s taco bar downtown but the rally in general consisted of us just hanging out and watching the endless parade of bikes and contraptions that passed us by. We saw some really sweet bikes by the featured shops at the rally including Sucker Punch Sally’s which specializes in old school bobber-style motorcycles.
The cool thing about having your own spot out there is folks will come by and hang out for a while (including sheriff department officers seeking shade and water).

The rally grounds got crazier and crazier until Saturday night when it was just straight up debauchery. Fortunately everything held together and everything was cool.

The rally was awesome. I met a bunch of cool people, saw some awesome bikes and even saw the Charlie Daniels Band perform. I can’t wait till next year and that rumble is all around yet again.

Enjoy the pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/spaceghost65/ROTRally200802

(watch out, some not safe for work)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 5:21 am and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.