Weekend in Dallas/Fort Worth

After spending a weekend in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I can honestly say this area is one hell of a place for anyone into the biker scene. The area is full of bikes, biker friendly people and great places to ride. The trip was very fulfilling on many fronts.

We finally had a chance to meet Crazy Al! Yea...he is crazy and loves that he is. We definitely had lots of fun. Al is an all around great guy. Dinner lead to drinks at the Underground, then off to fun in the Stock Yard area of Fort Worth. We laughed a lot, spent a ton of time talking about the magazine and left feeling like we not only had a great writer in Fort Worth, but a great friend too! We also met his lovely wife Paula, his daughter Treasure, good friend Charlie, his brother Mustang (who is a born again biker) and his vibrant woman, Kellie Red. All super people.

Al has been with the magazine longer than any of us. He has gone through 2 owners and about 14 editors! Simply amazing! To assure that he is a biker, his bike has over 160,000 miles, all of which he proudly defends are “all his miles”. Looking at the bike would not give you a clue of the miles it has. It is is perfect! It looks like new. We did not get a chance to ride with Al this trip, but we will in the future!

If you have not made it to the Underground Ice House in Fort Worth, you should put it on your list. That is if you like pretty waitresses in chaps waiting on tables and dancing on the bar. An interesting atmosphere for the biker including a "burn out pit"! Something you don't usually find at the local bar! This place is all biker and it is working great! When you do get there, tell Kevin you read about his place in the Thunder Roads Blog. By the way, he likes Jager Bombs! If this place was close to me, I would be there every night of the week.

Saturday was spent at the benefit put together by BA Autery. It was called “Texas Helping Texans” benefiting the Tarrant County Food Bank. It was held at the Cowtown Sports Bar and Grill in Fort Worth. This was the first year for the benefit and BA had a great turn out. Along with a raffle, an auction and a donation at the door, BA brought in a nice chuck of change to help feed many hungry people. Great job BA! I am sure next year will be even better.

We found BA, or he found us, through a fantastic website he created called "Rally Up Texas". The website is http://www.rallyuptexas.com/ and it is designed to help bikers connect across Texas. It includes a very well done Forum covering everything from soup to nuts. Check it out and take a minute to join.

I would also like to announce that BA has decided to join our Thunder Roads Texas team in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. BA will be helping in many ways, but his main focus will be taking the magazine to perspective advertisers in the area. We both agree the potential up there is just tremendous! All the best to you BA! You know where to find me if you need help!

We also got to meet Wayne Steel. He is the great photographer that supplies a lot of the fantastic pictures you see in each month’s magazine. Being a photographer myself, I understand the work and dedication that Wayne puts into the process of getting center spreads, or cover shots for us. It is a lot of work! If you want to see more of his work, or hire him for a photo shoot, take a look at his website http://www.photosbywayne.com/.

I am sure that once you look at his website you will agree, Wayne is really good! He is available for anything from bike shoots for parties or weddings. Give him a try if you’re looking for quality work.

We finished up the trip by stopping by to see Strokers in Dallas. I had heard a lot about it and I was not at all disappointed. The place has a bike sales area with some cool ass bikes, a very big bar and a tattoo parlor. There were at least 500 bikes spread around during the time we were there. Another one of those must see spots on the map.

All in all, the weekend was great. We connected with a lot of people, met some prospective new advisers and left feeling the trip was very worth while. Looking forward to my next trip to the area.

Bob

August08 Magazine now on our website

Our website has been updated to include the August 2008 magazine. Here is a link so you can check it out. Just click on the cover when you get there. It will open a .pdf file. This can be best viewed at 75%:

http://thunderroadstexas.com/

To review the various articles click on the link below. We have .pdf linked to the page that you can download and print:

http://thunderroadstexas.com/articles.htm

OK, now back to work on the "Links" page.

Bob

PS: Link to Thunder Roads Texas Magazine. Check out our Links page for banner and linking information: http://thunderroadstexas.com/links.htm

Sunday Ride to Popa's On The Lake

After working all Sunday morning on the website and blog, I decided to wrap it up and take a ride up to Popa's On The Lake, in Conroe. I loaded my saddle bags with new magazines and headed north. Popa's is a great place to hang and watch the boats come and go. Also a fun ride through the winding back country roads.

The ride there was uneventful. Hot, but enjoyable. I had no sooner arrived at Popa's and ordered a burger when I received a text from a friend saying "...watch out for the weather!" I had not noticed anything special on the ride up. I am thinking the trees hid the dark sky, but the truth is, I really was not looking for a storm. The weather on the ride up looked great. I no sooner ordered a burger when I received a text from a friend saying '...watch out for the weather. Bad storm". I took a look outside and to my surprise, the sky to the north and east was black as night! Then I saw a big flash of lightening...and me an hour plus from home!

Needless to say, I downed my burger and took off immediately in hopes of missing the rain. I did not even take time to drop off magazines. I just ate...and split!

Watching the sky all the way back, I really did not think I would make it. The storm seemed to just be following me as I raced home. The closer I got the more it looked like I was going to get REAL wet, but somehow the rain held off just long enough for me to make it home. In fact, as I turned into my driveway I felt a few drops of rain. I hit the garage door button as I soon as turned into my driveway wanting the door to open FAST. I pulled in just as the sky opened up! I mean a huge downpour and I missed it all...like magic!

Thanks to the riding gods for getting me home safe...and dry!

Check out the new Mileage Calculator that I recently put on our website http://thunderroadstexas.com/bikerfriendly.htm. Give it a try the next time you take a trip. Just put in your "from/to" using zip codes if you have them. Simply using houston tx works, but a zip code gives much more accurate information. Then hit "GO" and watch as new page opens with a map and miles to your destination. This will work for anywhere in the US. I just checked the distance to my old address in California it gave me an exact mileage of 1882 miles! That's a loooong way from here.

Now the really trick part of the map it gives you is that if you put in the exact address where you're going, then click on the destination teardrop, it will open into a picture that shows the road to your destination, like into the drivway! It moves along showing you the way! I was truly shocked when the map opened into a picture of the back driveway into my old house in San Jose!! All with a click of the mouse. Simply amazing!

While I am on the subject, I have made a lot of changes to the website http://thunderroadstexas.com/ and still have a lot more planned. I have been working on Search Engine tools to make the site ranking improve. Most of this is invisible to everyone, but it takes hours and hours to get done. But progress has been made. A Google search on "motorcycle magazines texas" will show us in the #2 spot. Not bad.

The links page is next, then onto the picture page. Will keep you posted as things progress.

Have a great Monday!

Bob

Saturday wrap up

Along with spending the week delivering magazines I have been fighting a cold and have not had a chance to ride at all. Something I hope to correct later today!

However, I did make it to Mancuso Night at Sam's Boat along with my good friend, advertiser and magazine contributor Barry Claffy. They had a great turn out with the bike parking area quite full. The food is always good at Sam's, so was the band as well as the networking with biker friends. I try to make these get togethers as often as I can. If you would like to make the next one, mark the last Thursday of the month off in your calendar. They start around 6 and run until well after 9. They always have a raffle at 8:00 and some lucky soul won a one year subscription to Thunder Roads Magazine! Yahoo!

Trying to kick the cold today by staying in most of the day and resting. With any luck I will get my voice back today! I have been working on the blog and dealing with all of the links, feeds and external code that makes all of this work. Since this is my first real attempt at blogging, there is still a lot to learn, but it is coming nicely.

Stay well and God BLESS America!

Bob

Magazines delivered to all pick-up locations

With limited exceptions, the August magazines are on the shelf across Texas. I just delivered magazines today to Drifters and Yankee's, completing the monthly task.

If you have not had a chance to ride out and visit Drifters and Yankee's, I urge you to do so. The ride north on Rt 149 is fantastic! Beautiful winding roads through a breathtaking national forest. If you have made the ride, you know exactly what I am talking about. I look forward to my rides and magazine deliveries up to Richards and Carlos, TX.

At this point of the month our efforts turn to working with developing new advertisers. Since we are a free publication, our only income is through the ads we run. So far we have been very happy with our success in finding advertisers. You will find a number of new ads in this months magazine:

American Dream Cycles - page 13
West of the Brazos Bar and Grill - page 2
The Damn Ice House - page 12
Jackel Motorsports - page 22

New advertisers in the July issue were:

The Texas Rally - page 27
Old Houston Ice House - page 13
Twisted Cycles - page 29
Thunderbolt Polish - page 29

Our advertisers are the life blood of the magazine. Please patronize them whenever you can...and please tell them you saw their ad in Thunder Roads Texas Magazine! Yea, they like to hear it. But they are all great people to and embrace our biker friends.

Hope your day has been a good one. I can already hear the roar of pipes across the state getting ready for another great weekend. Enjoy yourself, but please be safe.

Bob

Picked up magazines yesterday

The monthly process of getting Thunder Roads Magazine out to our readers has begun! We picked up 1900 magazines yesterday. Last night I made deliveries to several local locations, Wolfies, Hot Rod's, Bimbos and Old City Pub. I will be leaving shortly to pick up the remainder of magazines still sitting on our shippers dock.

The remainder of magazines were dropped shipped directly from our printer to over 70 locations around the state. When the month is over, we will have delivered magazines to at least 150 different pick up location. Today I will drop off magazines to Woodlands Harley and American Dream Cycles, one of our new advertisers. Check out American Dream Cycles ad! They are now a Victory dealer, something they expect to give sales a real kick in the butt!

Please let us know if you go to one of our pick-up locations and they do not have magazines. We will check into what might have happened. Sometimes they just move quickly and could simply be all gone, other times they may not have shown up. What I suggest is that you try to get your magazine early in the month, or just send us a subscription and we will mail it to you each month. That way you will be assured to receive magazines each month.

Btw, met my friends from California yesterday, had a couple of beers and enjoyed our brief visit very much. It was great seeing Jim and Mike again...thanks for coming by!

Ok...am off and running now! More will be coming soon!

Bob

August magazines are in!

I just received a call from our shipper informing me that are August 08 magazines have arrived! I will be leaving shortly to pick up the portion of the magazines that we have shipped here for our own delivery. The remainder of the magazines are directly shipped from our printer to close to 100 different locations around Texas. When we finish later this week, magazines will be delivered to around 150 pick-up locations.

The next couple of days will be spent sending close to 2000 magazines out via USPS from our Houston office, as well as personally delivering magazines in approximately a 60 mile radius. A lot of work, but this is the monthly process we go through to get the magazines into our readers hands.

However, this trip to pick up magazines will be more fun than usual. I will be meeting a couple of my old friends from California at the Houston airport and taking them out for a beer or two! Should be fun. Have not seen them in quite a while. Yes, of course I will let you know if anything 'crazy' happens!

Have a great day!

Bob

Welcome to "Roaring Around Texas"

Thank you for joining me here at my new blog. I intend to make frequent additions describing my trips around texas working on the oldest motorcycle magazine in Texas, Thunder Roads Texas Magazine.

Please visit here often as I lean more about the art of blogging. I have read them for years, but this is the first one I have done for Thunder Roads.

Bob Cooney
CEO