June 1-4 in Austin, TX
The Republic of Texas (ROT) Biker Rally starts tomorrow morning and runs 24 hours a day through Sunday evening.
This is the 12th annual ROT and is expected to be the largest ever. Last year an estimated 45K bikes rolled into town, with over 200K people showing up for the Biker Parade down Congress Ave.
If you’re in the Central Texas area and have never been to ROT, you need to head downtown on Friday night to witness the biker parade (50K+ bikes parading in from the Expo Center in East Austin to Congress Ave.)
A note to the anti-war, liberal hippies around Austin — if you show up to the biker rally, keep your politics at home. Bikers, for the most part, are some of the most patriotic (and not in that “but dissent is patriotic” way that Liberals like to try to convince themselves of), flag waving people you will ever meet. And you’d be surprised at how many are Veterans.
From the Austin American Statesman:
In addition to pouring more than $30 million into the Austin economy — according to rally spokeswoman Denise Garcia — the four-day motorcycle rally that kicks off Thursday is giving away a custom-built motorcycle to a soldier and holding a benefit for the United Service Organizations, a nonprofit group that provides entertainment for U.S. troops.
“We just feel an obligation to give back and say thank you to the soldiers who put themselves in harm’s way all over the world,” said Jerry Bragg, the president of the rally.
Jerry Covington, a nationally known motorcycle builder, will build a chopper in three days on a stage at the Expo center.
On Saturday, rally orga- nizers will award the motorcycle to a soldier who was chosen from among a group nominated by the public.
I wish I’d known about the give-away sooner — I would have tried to get my brother (a 16 year veteran with three combat tours under his belt) nominated. Here’s a link to more info on the Soldier Bike Give Away.
UPDATES:
- The Covington Custom chopper was awarded to retired US Army Captain Kraig Kvalevog of Killeen, TX
- ROT ‘06 is over. But I have pictures posted.
