The first day of the Motor Maids convention starts with a welcome meeting of the members. The guys usually hang out or go for a short ride. I’m not allowed in the meeting, obviously, but here is what the meeting room at Inn of the Hills looks like.

The Road Glide group is going to meet at this hotel next year, so I was paying attention to how the hotel was handling the convention. At dinner the evening before the convention began, the restaurant could not keep up with the orders. There were nine of us at a table and eight of us finished before Beth was served. I had to get the manager to go to the kitchen and prepare her order. Breakfast the first morning didn’t go well either, The restaurant crew was short-staffed and weren’t able to handle more than 200 people wanting to have breakfast before the start of the meeting. The problem was compounded by the procedures they had in place; they wanted to serve diners coffee rather than put out a big urn and let people serve themselves. Eventually everyone got something to eat, but many people vowed to never eat in the hotel restaurant again.

After the morning meeting we put on our riding gear and headed for the Three Sisters – three state roads in the Texas Hill Country that are great motorcycle roads. It was pretty hot, so we stopped to put on our wet vests to help us stay cool.

We got back in time for the group picture. Often the group picture is taken so the photographer can stand on the hotel roof to get a good panoramic shot. This time the group was posed at the hotel entryway and the photographer had to stand on a tall ladder and use a wide angle lens.

After the photo people split into small groups and went to dinner at local restaurants, avoiding the hotel dining room.