Hill Country here we come!



Main band and beer tent at Jefferson rally after crazy wind!

DATELINE GRAY COMPOUND, HONDO, TEXAS --- After the Grays left south out of Smithville to go home (great rally), we headed north to Jefferson, Texas to the 2nd Annual Route 49 Bike Rally. Met up with friends Rick and Susan, leather dealers from Oklahoma and had an interesting weekend.

We ate like champs due to Rick and their smoker, who housed Mr. Tasty Ham for many wonderful hours. The event site, its bands, free vendor dinner and hot showers were great but Mama Nature got ugly. We made the nut but it was crazy watching the main event tent destroyed and sideways rain. First rally I'd been to in months where several vendors stayed til Monday because wind was too fierce to break down Sunday. Only knock on door was folks looking for tools to pluck DVDs out of old players. Thoroughfare was hunkered in....hell - the four of us sat inside and ate ham and watched westerns for hours.

We camped in Ennis, TX at a nice lake the next night and have now landed home. There were four of us who rode back to the compound because of an amazingly generous and comforting offer from Rick and Susan that is helping me heal. Their beautiful 10-year-old border collie Lucy joined Ding, Thumper and I for the smooth return back to south Texas. She naps when we drive and wants belly rubbings and vittles often. She rides perfectly with Thumper but passes on playing ball in favor of exploring the gated compound and resting and relaxing on the grass on these current mild spring days. She will live, talk (she does a little) and vend with us for a spell but will likely have to summer in Oklahoma while I'm on East Coast and in Sturgis. Susan's email address calls her the "zookeeper" because she has rescued and cared for many, many animals over the years. 

Ding's gotta another bum knee - as in no miniscus left so we've started the doc process so he can get his knee "jello shot" likes he's had for the other. Bone on bone pain - taking all of us at compound to keep him down with movies and Chinese food until the VA appointment arrives.

Bob came home Tuesday - Billy Gray carried her to my spot at the compound in a beautiful oak box with her actual full name: Roberta Calliope Pixie Dude Wolcott the First - also known as Bob the Dog - with a perfect picture of her on the side. I cried and then took her inside the BFT and tucked her away for now. She's a Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona dog - but also a wonderluster chick who traveled the country. I'll wait for the times when it feels right to celebrate her more in certain ways - ya know? Each day is tough but Thumper and Ding and now Lucy have been so loving....

Headed to Hill Country next week or so. Bandera and Boerne (pronounced Bernie) are hoppin riding areas...Damn thankful to be alive, breathing and have great family and friends....

Cheers from Hol, Ding, Thumper, Bob and now Lucy Lu.....O' Lucy

Ding at '49 Biker Rally with two customers!

Rick in his chef's hat and Susan his pretty bride!
Chocolate chip pancakes and bacon!

Basket 'o eggs with candy at last rally - flamingos took care of everything!

  

Thunder ends, we're headed north

DATELINE VERNON L. RICHARDS RIVERBEND PARK, SMITHVILLE, TEXAS ---  With its saddle horn and fur, this Sportster is the closest thing Thumper has seen to livestock in a while. He wanted to left leg it but Deb and I kept him at bay. This was one of the rides entered in the bike show at Thunder on the Colorado, a great rally all around.

Mother Nature gave us near-perfect weather with 80-degree days, sunshine and little wind. It's a small rally in its seventh year but the turnout was solid and the coordinators and service were top-notch. So much so I wrote a detailed note of praise on letterhead and Don gave it to the Smithville Chamber President Raylynne, who drank two pots of mud coffee with Ding at camp this morning (she gilded the lily and brought Thumper a bag of treats, too)

We made the nut and then some (ergo, a monster Mexican food feast tonight and a couple days of camping here in a very pretty oak-filled park with hot showers and full hookups). We did a dozen tires in 36 hours - that's damn near a record for us. The work was steady and went so smooth with Bill and Deb Gray here.

It was the first rally where Ding's Panhead "Babe" was on full display - a huge draw for those who appreciate vintage and the pain of firing her up and rolling - kick start only and a suicide shift (think about autos from the '20s that came with stock electrical starts versus Harley that didn't become mainstream with electric starters until the '60s).  All said, I gotta lose at least one half of a bun cheek if I'm ever gonna get a ride on her. My seat looks the size of a sourdough bread slice - eek.

The locals were some of our best customers and we scheduled a couple of tire sets for Bandera next month. We're headed to the Route 49 rally in Jefferson tomorrow - it's a quaint east Texas village with bistros and cobblestone streets and the bizarre claim to fame as the "most haunted city in Texas." We were there in October for the Boo Benefit and loved it. This rally is a children's hospital benefit.

Thumper worked the thoroughfare hard and was very well-received. He has special dispensation from the city to be the sole rally dog. Hell, even when we stopped to fuel up tonight after dinner, a good old boy from the rally asked: "You got that great dog with you?" This, as Thumper sat inside the truck, peering into the store.

More from the front later this week....

Hol, Ding, Thumper and the spirit of Bob....
p.s. The flamingos have laid eggs...

Don't send small baby flamingos, please - I beg of all of you.

Bill and Deb Gray at Thunder on the Colorado.

Can you find the helmet?

BFT at great park in Smithville - very quiet here. Love it.

Thunder on the Colorado

Ding in the Gray garage, sparking the '50 panhead...Meow

DATELINE CHUCKWAGON SQUARE, VERNON L. RICHARDS RIVERBEND PARK, SMITHVILLE, TEXAS --- Wow, the gods and goddesses work in mysterious ways. This is the best first-day rally we've had in months. We changed four tires today, with the first customer being a double.
The weather is sunny and warm, shining on perfect old school trees, Thumper working the thoroughfare hard and the Grays are here. Smithville and its folks are kind and fun.
I miss Bob...she would love this park....
Panhead parked out front - plenty of admirers. Ding took out a couple times today. Made a fact sheet so people can read the specs....
More later....
Hol (Ding, Thumper and Bob "I'm playing more fetch than legally allowed in Heaven" The Dog




West Coast Choppers custom build - a Jesse James. We serviced this ride and I detailed it. More on this later...



Dyna pipe wrap job on Benny Bonez bike.

Bob Wolcott 2007-March 13, 2013

DATELINE CHUCKWAGON SQUARE, VERNON L. RICHARDS RIVERBEND PARK, SMITHVILLE, TEXAS --- My beloved Bob Dog passed in the morning of March 13, sleeping and pain free in one of her kitchen spots in the BFT beneath the family bed. Despite all efforts, septic got her as we all slept. We had been very hopeful on Tuesday with a small can of food, good water consumption and ball time taken in - but it wasn't enough. I wrapped her in my favorite Yellowstone blanket and we said goodbye. I was her mama but Ding was her rock and Thumper, her best friend.
Thunder on the Colorado and our work here is dedicated to Bob. She would love this vendor space. There are big trees, the eastern version of the Colorado River, very nice people and a hometown feel that is genuinely welcoming. Brauts and beer welcomed the vendors - that's a nice touch. It will be a small rally but strong - it's in its seventh year. The Grays are headed over tomorrow on Charro and Thumper has already set up his act in the thoroughfare. The president of the Chamber of Commerce has been appointed his unofficial toy thrower - tennis ball, rubber dumbell, fat tire and bones.

With a heavy but very hopeful heart, Holly, Ding, Thumper and, may she play more tennis ball then was every imagined, Bob Dog

Update from Dings



Bob the Dog's first afternoon home Thursday, following major surgery. You can see the shaved area on her right leg where an IV went.

DATELINE GRAY COMPOUND, HONDO, TEXAS --- Life has been consumed by Bob Dog's illness (and equally so my epically not-so-well-managed stress).

For quick background, she has been sick on and off recently, mainly not eating enough and loosing a lot of weight. An x-ray finally found the problem and she underwent surgery Tuesday to have two small, squeaky-toy squeakies removed that were blocking her intenstine. Eviscerating stuffed animals on ocassion is no longer allowed.

Thumper visited Bob Wednesday and also drove with us to pick up his gal today. Bob is starting to eat again, walk the yard but it will be a slow recovery. She smiles and still makes her famous doe eyes at Ding, who is my rock for handling her medications.

As for the Cut-n-Shoot rally last weekend, the Sam Houston wilderness area is picturesque with mature fir trees and soft grass. The event had a lot of good vendors from throughout the Midwest and West. Unless a full-time vendor wants to hit Daytona and possibly hit it big, an alternative is a very steady stream of Texas rallies during February, March, April and May. It was the first year for this event and that combined with cold weather limited the number of riders. We changed a tire and moved some T-shirts but the joy was seeing Rick and Susan, great leather buddies from Oklahoma. 

The compound is still super strong after withstanding 60+mile per hour winds last weekend. Snapped branches have been cleared, along with a trellis that greeted visitors to the pretty garden between the house and garage. And what felt like a two-week job on a Jesse James West Coast chopper - oh, wait, it was that long - is finally complete thanks to many hours in Bill's garage. Pictures of that job forthcoming.

It seems so appropriate to close with this: "Lord, help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that You and I together can't handle." Bill Gray first scrawled that months ago on an eraser board inside our BFT home, and Deb Gray justed printed those words beneath a beautiful south Texas sunset photograph jammed with shades of violet, pink and subtle oranges. She framed it for us and it now hangs in our cozy galley.

Ding turns 50 tomorrow. I will buy Ding Dongs to build the birthday cake - his request.

Peace....Hol, Ding, Bob Dog and Thumper