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Texas National Picnic

Jeff488

Aspiring Profligate
In response to cries from across the land to have a Texas National Rally, the East Texas BMW plus Motorcycle Club has stepped up to at least partially fill the breach.

OK, it's not a rally, but we haven't the wherewithal to host a rally so we're doing the what we can.

Here is the info for the TNP:

Where:
Love's Lookout Visitor Center, located on the east side of hwy 69 approximately 4.5 miles north of the intersection of hwy 79 in Jacksonville, TX. It's marked with green signs.
N32d 01' 46.03
W95d 16' 46.93
http://www.cherokeecountytexas.us/Loves_Lookout/Loves_Lookout_Park.html
http://www.tomatocapital.com/gallery2.asp

When:
Saturday, May 18th, 2013 at noon. That's when we'll fire up the grills and wait for the hordes to descend.

Facilities:
Restrooms, vending machines, covered picnic tables, grills, plenty of parking, and a great view.

Food: Bring your own food and drink. We will provide charcoal for the grills.

Camping: Here are some sites.
http://jacksonville-texas.com/Resid...acksonvilleCampgrounds/tabid/278/Default.aspx

http://www.campingfriend.com/shadypinesrvpark/

https://www.texasstaterr.com/parks.php

http://www.ruskkoa.com/

Motels are available in nearby towns.

Things to do:
-The Texas State Railroad leaves from both Rusk and Palestine Saturdays and Sundays.
-Lots of fun roads in the area.

Come join us for some food and meet some folks from east Texas.
Exciting update: It looks as though we will have door prizes.

Further info:
Jeff Florentine@ 936-569-8343
 
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TX National

This sounds do-able. If you want to pick up the ball, then go ahead and have at it.
The original concept for a Texas National was started by the Houston club, but, like everything else, was morphed over the years. So what I'm saying is that if anyone wants to take over the responsibility, then, by all means, go for it! Different locations was part of the original concept. llano is a great location but there are lots of other places that are more than willing to let us go there.
It would be important to try to coordinate this with all the Texas clubs, in order to make it happen.
 
As the last club to do the TNR was the San Antonio club, I spoke with their Prez to be sure we weren't stepping on any toes. It was fine with him, so we went with it.
This is obviously not a rally, just a get-together. Our club is too small to organize a rally and it's too late to put one together.

This TNP was a last minute idea brought up at our last meeting, so we are going to give it a try.
Maybe some larger club will do a TNR next year.
This is our club's first stab at anything like this, so we're starting small.
Hope you and many others can make it.
Jeff
 
LOL! I thought it was a truck stop on the interstate when I first read the name, but after reading the links you have it sounds pretty interesting. Kind of sad how those little amusement parks faded away after the Six Flags and Disney World mega-parks took over. Different times for different folks I guess.

Anyway, the wife and I might ride down and check it out. Thanks to you and the East Texas BMW club for stepping up. Be sure to post something on Two Wheeled Texans also (http://www.twtex.com/). I'm sure several of those guys will come. They're always looking for an excuse to ride.
 
Update

In response to cries from across the land to have a Texas National Rally, the East Texas BMW plus Motorcycle Club has stepped up to at least partially fill the breach.

OK, it's not a rally, but we haven't the wherewithal to host a rally so we're doing the what we can.

Here is the info for the TNP:

Where:
Love's Lookout Visitor Center, located on the east side of hwy 69 approximately 4.5 miles north of the intersection of hwy 79 in Jacksonville, TX. It's marked with green signs.
N32d 01' 46.03
W95d 16' 46.93
http://www.cherokeecountytexas.us/Loves_Lookout/Loves_Lookout_Park.html
http://www.tomatocapital.com/gallery2.asp

When:
Saturday, May 18th, 2013 at noon. That's when we'll fire up the grills and wait for the hordes to descend.

Facilities:
Restrooms, vending machines, covered picnic tables, grills, plenty of parking, and a great view.

Food: Bring your own food and drink. We will provide charcoal for the grills.

Camping: Here are some sites.
http://jacksonville-texas.com/Resid...acksonvilleCampgrounds/tabid/278/Default.aspx

http://www.campingfriend.com/shadypinesrvpark/

https://www.texasstaterr.com/parks.php

http://www.ruskkoa.com/

Motels are available in nearby towns.

Things to do:
-The Texas State Railroad leaves from both Rusk and Palestine Saturdays and Sundays.
-Lots of fun roads in the area.

Come join us for some food and meet some folks from east Texas.
Exciting update: It looks as though we will have door prizes.

Further info:
Jeff Florentine@ 936-569-8343

The big update, besides being a shameless bump, is that we have door prizes thanks to the MOA!
 
We should also have cake at the picnic and some additional door prizes besides what the MOA generously sent to us.
 
Get those grills fired up. There will be at least 6 of us coming up from San Antonio. Looking forward to meeting everyone.
 
I wrote up a post on our club blog here:

http://etbeemers.blogspot.com/2013/05/first-annual-texas-national-picnic.html

I posted all of the pictures there. We should have a group photo posted later and I saw one member making a video, so hopefully I will have that soon. All of the picture are at our site above, but I will post the ride report here and a few pictures.

This was our first picnic/semi-rally and it was a success! We had 24 people attend on 18 bikes and one corvette. There was one Flying Brick (my K75S), one other K-bike (K1200LT), 2 Airhead R100RTs, a few Oilheads (R1100RT & R1150RTs), a few Hexheads (R1200RT, R1200R, & R1200GS), an F-bike (F800GS), & quite a few other makes (Aprilia, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Honda, and a couple others).

We had many riders from around East Texas, at least one from Houston and several from the San Antonio MOA Club. It was a nice cookout with a lot of moto-talk and and a lot of fun visiting with friends and making some new ones. Love's Lookout was a great place to have a picnic - clean picnic areas, VERY clean restrooms, plenty of parking, and a GREAT view.

The first rider made it to the park a little after 9 a.m. and laid claim to the pavilion. Since it is a Texas State Park, you can't reserve the sites. Other riders starting filtering in by ones and twos around 10:30. Close to noon a group arrived that had ridden in from San Antonio that morning, including the National BMW MOA Chartered Club Liaison, Paul Mulhern on his R1200GS, and his wife on her F800GS. By 1 p.m. all 24 people had arrived. It was good to be able to meet folks from other areas.

We ended up with eighteen door prizes, which were generously donated by the BMW MOA & the BMW RA (we are a charter club of both organizations). With 24 people and 18 door prizes, almost everybody won something. We also had a couple cakes, more brat and sauerkraut than we could eat, and a really good time.

We are thinking that we will mark the third Saturday in May as the annual date for the Texas National Picnic. So for now, the Second Annual Texas National Picnic will be at Love's Lookout on May 17th, 2014!

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We had a great time and want to thank you for putting it on. Hope you can do it again next year. And special thanks for the tip on the great back roads. We had a blast.
 
Texas National Picnic - 2014

Join us on Saturday, May 17th, 2014 at noon for the First Ever, Second Annual Texas National Picnic, being held at Love's Lookout Visitor Center, just north of Jacksonville, TX.

The Visitor's Center is located on the east side of hwy 69 approximately 4.5 miles north of the intersection of hwy 79 in Jacksonville, TX. It's marked with green signs.
N32d 01' 46.03
W95d 16' 46.93

Loves Lookout info

We will fire up the grills at noon and wait for the hordes to descend. There are restrooms, vending machines, covered picnic tables, grills, plenty of parking, and a great view.

Bring your own food and drink. We will provide charcoal for the grills and condiments for your burgers, etc..

Here are local camping sites:
Lake Jacksonville Campground
Shady Pines RV Park and Campground
Texas State Railroad Camping
Rusk KOA

Motels are available in nearby towns.

Come join us for some food and meet some folks from East Texas.
There is no fee and there will be door prizes.

Further info email etbeemers@gmail.com
 
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Another bump in the thread and also to add that the weather is forecast to be great.

In addition to condiments, there will be cheese for your burger.:eat
But the Rusk KOA is closed.
Looking forward to seeing you there.

Jeff
 
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It's getting to be that time of year again! The East Texas club has decided that we will stick with the third Saturday in May for the Texas National Picnic each year. So this year it will be held on May 16, 2015. Last year we had about 70 attendees from across Texas and Louisiana.

This year we plan to give out a commemorative sticker to the first 100 attendees. There is no rally fee, and there will be door prizes. So bring your lunch and meet us at Love's Lookout, just north of Jacksonville, TX around noon on May 16, 2015!
 
It's getting to be that time of year again! The East Texas club has decided that we will stick with the third Saturday in May for the Texas National Picnic each year. So this year it will be held on May 16, 2015. Last year we had about 70 attendees from across Texas and Louisiana.

This year we plan to give out a commemorative sticker to the first 100 attendees. There is no rally fee, and there will be door prizes. So bring your lunch and meet us at Love's Lookout, just north of Jacksonville, TX around noon on May 16, 2015!

We received 10 door prizes today from the BMW MOA. We are up to almost 50 door prizes for the Texas National Picnic on Saturday the 16th at Love's Lookout.

I'm working on getting the stickers made for the picnic.
 
We are getting ready for the Fourth Annual Texas National Picnic, to be held May 21st, 2016 at Love's Lookout, just north of Jacksonville on US 69. We have received about 50 door prizes from 18 vendors. There is no fee, bring something to throw on the grill around noon, or grab a burger or sub on the way in. It should be a hoot again this year.

So far we have support from Adaptiv Technologies, Best Rest Products, BMW MOA, BMW Motorcycles of North Dallas, Bullrack, Butler Maps, Cyclegear, Euro Motoelectrics, Giant Loop, Motolight, Motorcycle Gear.com, Piggybackstraps, Rocky Mountain ATV, Texas Adventure Rider, Spiegler USA, Stop-N-Go, Wolfman Motorcycle Luggage, and Wunderlich America.

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