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Every year Texas Heatwave comes around and every year I’m excited to get there and take in the show during the day and party with all my friends during the night. And every year comes Saturday and Sunday morning when I wonder why in the hell I made the trip out. If you’ve never been to Texas Heatwave you are missing out on one of the biggest shows in our scene along with a great night of partying with down to earth people. What you are not missing is the hot and humid weather that drains you the day after a long night of fun. Why do we do it year in year out? Maybe its just because its one weekend a year or maybe its just because we aren’t to smart. Whichever the case I’m sure most of us will be back again next year.With the arrival into Austin early Friday afternoon Mark and Techy (Paco-lite) from Houston would pick me up from the airport. While driving out to the show to get our passes and check things out Mark started feeling something weird in the steering of his Dodge Crew cab Dually on 2 footers (24’s). After finally convincing him to pull over to check things out we ended up in the ground and passed by a 2 footer. Yep that’s correct, his front wheel adapter broke and his wheel managed to pass us up, hop a curb and land softly in the grass. An hour or 2 later after fixed up we rolled to the show then to the hotel to get ready for the night. After a quick shower and food in our belly we’d manage to pack 13 people into Radar and Jennie’s Astro Van with Mike from MT sprawled across 3 dudes (and no I wasn’t in the middle… lol) After chasing Mark down from club to club we’d work our way back to the van and head to the hotel for some more drinks and then bed to get ready for the show Saturday morning.As Saturday arrived I got myself ready and headed with Ballpark and his fiancé to the grounds. Once there I’d meet up with Chas to get situated on how we were going to handle covering the show. Lucky for me Koolaid, Oliver and Paco would let me mob with them on the golf cart to help get things covered quickly and keep the long walks to a minimal. So a special thanks has to go out to the THW Taxi service known as Koolaid for his running me around even though he managed to leave in order to look for THW shirts with my back pack as my batteries managed to die, oh well I ain’t mad atcha’.
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 With the coverage taking most all day to handle we decided to head to the room to shower up and go get some grub. Ballpark was nice enough to invite me to the all ST member dinner leaving me the only RA guy in the room, but it was good times other then the 3-½ hours to get our food, drinks and checks. After dinner we’d head back to the Red Lion where we’d continue drinking and not stop all night. Buddy Jim Dosier I think had a personal goal to get me piss drunk as he continued to feed me beer after beer. With the normal conversation getting old at times we were lucky enough to be invited into some drama going on at another hotel where we’d manage to get about 12 people in each of 6 rides and haul ass over there and maintain order. With the fun over it was time to head back to the hotel for more drinks then bed for rest to shoot features Sunday.As the sun arose and Sunday was upon us it took some time to work over the alcohol and get up to get back to the show grounds. Most people had already bailed back home come to find out as we arrived at the grounds with more and more leaving every hour. As I walked around taking things in and just enjoying the rides I’d just concentrate on water so that I could get up Monday morning to shoot Jim Doziers ride. Thanks to everyone that carted my ass around town, I’d list the thanks but that would be 3 more pages of names. haha By Garrick ArendsPhotos by Garrick Arends and Chas Nichols
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