We pretty much made a straight line to Booth, Texas, yesterday. South west of Houston, we have set up camp on Carl’s and Colette’s property. Beautiful area away from the City, it is quiet here, beautiful land, greats hosts, a couple horses and a couple dogs… Carl is a disturbed man, too many bikes in the garage, I told him that they did have counseling available for such cases… Spirit likes it here, off leash he has been running one hundred miles an hour all afternoon… he has been inside the house with us when having dinner and amazed me how well he has minded me. He is so rarely off the leash. The laws will not allow it, Nature will not either with its hidden predators everywhere, mainly leery about hidden snakes most of the time. I dislike leashes, but has become a must quite a while ago. There was no rest for us, well, for me anyhow, we are having a big gathering tomorrow and the food stores where immediately our destination. This one particular store we went in was yet the best I had seen, called "Fiesta"… Like a kid in a candy store, a store catering to mainly the local Hispanic population, I was lost within the unrecognizable produce, all fresh and abundant, displayed throughout. The parking lot even had many vendors, close to starving without breakfast or lunch, walking downwind, the smells of the smoke was as torture for the soul!

As we were introducing each other and ideas about the next day’s menu are flying right and left brainstorming the moment, a rider was making its way up the road, down the gate and finally parking by us. Will he accept the fact that he was here the wrong day? Will he think we were joking as he asks the questions… where is everyone?… have they left already?… the food? Part of a foursome missing his other road warriors, D’Artagan was for once bewildered to the fact that indeed… he was here a day early… So he was offered some water… a bologna sandwich we asked… Producing a cell phone that seemed to have better days he did manage to rearrange his schedule to come back today… No loss, but a great ride to this countryside!

 

A strange e mail arrived a couple days ago.. I will let you read it.

Ara,

Do you recognize the paint in these photos?  We are working on a construction project in the City of Sedona and need to determine where these markings came from.  I noticed that you took some photos near these locations, did you make these markings.

Thanks,

Andy

J. Andy Dickey, P.E.
Associate Engineer
City of Sedona
928.203.5039

Enclosed where these pictures…

Seems like Mr Dickey made an Internet search with my name, must have come up with the web site… At least he was courteous… initials maybe for? Armenian Riders Association… probably not! I asked him to stay in touch and let me know when they find out a bit more about this mystery… City dilemma? Another case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing?

 

Fast forward to Monday morning, the body is tired from yesterday’s, and the night before, cooking, the spirits are happy to have seen some familiar faces and some new one with names which now will have more meaning. About 25 riders arrived starting the noon announced time, proudly all on two wheels and no cages. This property is a great destination on the far outskirts of Houston… even D’Artagnan made it back for the second time… with no complains.

For the second day in a row, Spirit is off the leash and by now he is the local Security Guard dog with his warning barking every time someone showed up at the gate. Some pictures?… well, you will have to caption them yourselves and figure out what was going on as Carl, Colette and I started the cooking to feed these hungry souls…

With so many bikes for all to talk about, if you are not a motorcycle rider you do need to know that it is generally the main topic of conversation, mainly admiring custom work developed by great minds… sometimes taking years to accomplish, but well worth its admiration and finalization of such said projects…

 

The weather was a gift, right temperature and just right amount of wind for the BBQ to keep afloat with its load of pecan wood as Carl and I started the main event right on cue. No hot dogs and hamburgers here, sorry, that is a little too complicated for me. Grilled chicken, marinated overnight in lemon/lime, sweet onions, garlic and cilantro – rice pilaf with raisins and toasted almonds – grilled vegetables including fresh pineapples and jicama, brushed with olive oil and garlic – a wonderful salsa for the chicken, as it is one of my favorites, with mangos, tomatoes, cilantro, jalapenos, onions, just enough lemon, lime olive oil mixture and finally a giant bread pudding with an orange marmalade Grand Marnier glaze… lets not forget Colette’s wonderful tomatillo, avocado dip with chips and oatmeal cookies for the final… final!

This was a real heavy duty grill being used, not your thin tin can drum material, it took all my available strength to just open and close the lid… Carl came to the rescue, after all, I did need to also mingle and take pictures… busy busy day!

Waiting, chatting, waiting… and finally one could hear the birds soaring by, it was total silence around the tables, there was only two scenarios to contemplate… either everyone was starving or the food was good! Maybe both.

Well, for those who could not show up, you missed a good time as it was seeing the many faces that I had met mainly in Big Bend, we are in Texas after all and Big Bend has become a great destination for all. Being Sunday, most having to work today I imagine, it was then the goodbyes… will see you in a year? couple years?… as when we head back to Moab after our Eastern Coast visit with my mother, we will take a more northern route. We should be ourselves out of here by Thursday toward Louisiana to see more friends. In the meantime it is some new tires tomorrow, visit a Historical working ranch and a Park… that is if the weather maintains. Today it will be dealing with Internet problems… between the Dish, Alltel’s cell phone connection and the local WI FI, I think this laptop has gone bezerk! More and more I look back at the old days… with the tent, traveling with the minimal items to keep us afloat… not even a GPS, laptop, cell phone… it was simplicity… it was camp where we could, where there would be an inviting space for the night and go on the next day. I reorganized my power strips the other day… and needed ten outlets which are filled by now… Something is wrong with this picture… and then again… double edge sword… there would not be a web site or a Blog! I think comes spring, we will start seriously mixing up the way we travel… a little bit of both. Thank you again for everyone that showed up… thank you for contributing toward the food expenses to at least cover Carl’s and Colette’s purchases… I hope it was worth it to you all.

As the months go by on the road, the finances or lack of it will start taking its toll. Nothing like honesty about it! We are really trying to get the sale of these items off the ground… please consider them…

"Spirited Doggie Treats" and "Art Cards"…. Dogs cannot live of Love and food alone… they need treats, they like treats… we know! Put Spirit to work!

We are always under deep appreciation toward the readers that have send in a contribution helping this website’s expenditures. For those who have not, continue enjoying the site, pictures, recipes, and if you feel it’s worth $1 a month, the contribution button is above, snail mail is below…

Ara Gureghian   853 Vanderbilt Beach Rd #245   Naples, Fl 34108

You be well…. Ara & Spirit

This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2008 at 8:15 am and is filed under travel, spirituality, pit bull, sidecar, motorcycle, cooking, photography, riding, homeless. 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.