Beach N Bikerfest Rally

Beach N Bikerfest April 15,16-17 2011 South Padre Island Texas






 

South Padre Island, Texas, Apr. 16-18—“South Padre Island, a town with style—a folksy, warm, inviting style that welcomes visitors from all walks of life, is located on the tropical tip of Texas just 25 miles north of the Mexican border and is the premiere resort in Texas.” Sounds like Chamber of Commerce hype. However, in this case, it is absolutely true. Throw in an early spring motorcycle rally called Beach-N-Biker Fest and it is absolutely paradise. The Magic Valley Riders have definitely found the ideal place and the right time to host a motorcycle rally. ’Course this is only my opinion, but 4,999 other riders that paid the minimal $15 registration for the entire weekend apparently concurred.

Festivities kicked off on Friday morning with a poker run. Beach-N-Biker Fest rally coordinators had planned to do a Mexico Run to Nuevo Progreso, Tam, Mexico. Unfortunately their event insurance carrier squashed that plan by their unwillingness to insure them, hence a Friday morning poker run was scheduled in place of the Mexico Run. Just to spare you the suspense, I’ll share with you that Glene Pryor drew the high hand of an ace-high flush and won a hundred bucks. James West and Yvonne Berrera tied with queen-high flushes, but James won the high card draw tiebreaker to grab the $50 second prize. Yvonne went home $25 richer.

After drawing a red four and a black nine on Friday morning, I knew it was not going to be my day for poker—as usual. My wife Carol and I had already traveled more than a thousand miles to “Texas—it’s like a whole other country.” We even got to see the bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes in bloom, and the prickly pear cactus were displaying their yellow and red flowers, but it was still more than a thousand miles of traveling. My daughter Elizabeth and her companion Bill had joined us from Houston, so we decided to do our own Mexico Run, since “Mexico—is a whole other country,” and we had our passports ready.