We Are Moving To Texas!
Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 9:59 pm
Romeo Riders,
I wasn't going to say anything here about us moving but I am amazed at how many people have asked me about it, wished me well, and asked about my schedule and plans. I think that I, and the 4 different ride coordinators, underestimate how many people know us and depend on our simple routine weekly ride duties. For us this is no big deal, just some fun and not too much work. But it is a big deal for several hundred people who depend on us to know where to ride our motorcycles each week for riding, fellowship and good food.
So here is the deal with me. After the brutal last winter my wife said that was her last and I could meet her down south somewhere for the next winter. So we researched and studied and decided that Texas had a healthy economy, no income tax, low cost of living, and great real estate prices. More specifically, the Houston area was GREEN with lush vegetation and tall pine trees instead of the more typical arid, hot Texas western countryside. So we decided to put our house on the market and look for some place in north Houston.
After 5 months and almost giving up suddenly we sold our house in October. Then, just a couple of weeks ago, we went down to Houston and bought a place in Cypress (30 miles NW of Houston). So the plan to spend this next winter in a warmer southern climate is coming together. We will close on our place here on Dec 16th and drive south the next day.
We will have to get busy pretty quickly to get all our stuff organized and packed and ready for the movers. I doubt that I will ride again with the Romeos, at least this year
(though I will probably still go to Desoto on Sunday mornings for a couple more weeks).
I will continue to maintain the Romeo web site and discussion groups since the nature of the Internet is such that you can do that kind of work anywhere. I hope to try to start some kind of Romeo group down in Texas but this kind of riding group takes years to pull together (just ask Bucky, Richard, and Don!).
So it's not like goodbye, I will still be "here", you just won't see me on the rides any more.
It has been such a great experience getting to know all of you that I have shared lunch with over the last couple of years. I hope you all take a moment to appreciate what we have here in the size of the groups we enjoy and the frequency of our rides (EVERY WEEK!). There are many people from many parts of the country (and other countries!) who read our ride notices and are VERY jealous of what we are doing (I am helping some of them out behind the scenes). You know what they say, "You don't know what you have till it's gone." Well, that's kind of what I feel like now.
And give a thanks to your local ride coordinators once in a while too, it gets routine for them after a few years so you gotta pump them up once in a while.
You either have my email address already or you can get it here on the web site. Or you can always reach me by emailing the "admin" here or just fill out the email contact form on the last page of the web site - that goes to me too. Don't hesitate to write to me if you ever need your password reset, have any questions about how stuff works here, or want to just talk about technology in general. Go ahead, email is cheap!
Best of luck to every one of you!
Jerry Matson
PS. I know my user name here on the web site is "JerryinKC" and I am not going to be in Kansas City any more, but I am not going to change it since all my posts link to that user name which you can email me from. If I changed my user name it would break all the link in all those posts.
I wasn't going to say anything here about us moving but I am amazed at how many people have asked me about it, wished me well, and asked about my schedule and plans. I think that I, and the 4 different ride coordinators, underestimate how many people know us and depend on our simple routine weekly ride duties. For us this is no big deal, just some fun and not too much work. But it is a big deal for several hundred people who depend on us to know where to ride our motorcycles each week for riding, fellowship and good food.
So here is the deal with me. After the brutal last winter my wife said that was her last and I could meet her down south somewhere for the next winter. So we researched and studied and decided that Texas had a healthy economy, no income tax, low cost of living, and great real estate prices. More specifically, the Houston area was GREEN with lush vegetation and tall pine trees instead of the more typical arid, hot Texas western countryside. So we decided to put our house on the market and look for some place in north Houston.
After 5 months and almost giving up suddenly we sold our house in October. Then, just a couple of weeks ago, we went down to Houston and bought a place in Cypress (30 miles NW of Houston). So the plan to spend this next winter in a warmer southern climate is coming together. We will close on our place here on Dec 16th and drive south the next day.
We will have to get busy pretty quickly to get all our stuff organized and packed and ready for the movers. I doubt that I will ride again with the Romeos, at least this year
(though I will probably still go to Desoto on Sunday mornings for a couple more weeks). I will continue to maintain the Romeo web site and discussion groups since the nature of the Internet is such that you can do that kind of work anywhere. I hope to try to start some kind of Romeo group down in Texas but this kind of riding group takes years to pull together (just ask Bucky, Richard, and Don!).
So it's not like goodbye, I will still be "here", you just won't see me on the rides any more.
It has been such a great experience getting to know all of you that I have shared lunch with over the last couple of years. I hope you all take a moment to appreciate what we have here in the size of the groups we enjoy and the frequency of our rides (EVERY WEEK!). There are many people from many parts of the country (and other countries!) who read our ride notices and are VERY jealous of what we are doing (I am helping some of them out behind the scenes). You know what they say, "You don't know what you have till it's gone." Well, that's kind of what I feel like now.
And give a thanks to your local ride coordinators once in a while too, it gets routine for them after a few years so you gotta pump them up once in a while.
You either have my email address already or you can get it here on the web site. Or you can always reach me by emailing the "admin" here or just fill out the email contact form on the last page of the web site - that goes to me too. Don't hesitate to write to me if you ever need your password reset, have any questions about how stuff works here, or want to just talk about technology in general. Go ahead, email is cheap!
Best of luck to every one of you!
Jerry Matson
PS. I know my user name here on the web site is "JerryinKC" and I am not going to be in Kansas City any more, but I am not going to change it since all my posts link to that user name which you can email me from. If I changed my user name it would break all the link in all those posts.
