Keith Larson's 10th anniversary ride

Keith Larson had his 10th anniversary motorcycle charity ride this weekend. From what I can gather, there was a pretty large shindig planned with bounce houses et al. in Waxhaw at the end of the ride. Pictures and video are available at Keith's page at WBT.com

They were set to arrive in Waxhaw around 3pm but the aforementioned block party prevented me from checking it out.

In other Larson news, it appears he will soon no longer have a show on WBT, per a Charlotte Business Journal article and a Charlotte Observer article. I haven't had a chance to listen to his show for years, but generally enjoyed his show on the occasion I got to listen. Back in the day, he did Keillor-esque snippets regarding Waxhaw which I found interesting even before moving here. Combine that with an a good taste in music and similar philosophies, and I was a regular listener when the opportunity allowed.

Alas, I haven't listened in years since my job isn't amenable to listening to 3 hours of radio during the day, nor do I have an extra three hours to download and listen to the daily podcasts. I've always wondered if continues to highlight Waxhaw.

My favorite (and honestly the only one I recall specifically for obvious reasons) was when he talked about the prevalence of secret or not-so-secret swingers in his Waxhaw neighborhood, the crux being that he and his wife were never invited to the gatherings if my memory serves. No idea if it was true or not, but I'm sure it made life interesting in his neighborhood for a little while.

Anyone have any ideas if Keith Larson has still been talking about Waxhaw on his show in recent years?

Waxhaw Pub Crawl

The Waxhaw Pub Crawl went down this weekend. My lack of blogging means there was nary a word about it from my end. But the Waxhaw Social Club, which hosts the event, was kind enough to provide a detailed rundown of the evening in an earlier post.

I've reproduced it here so it's easier to find:

Well, geez, it looks like you missed the 2nd Waxhaw Pub Crawl as well! We had posters on each of the pub windows and inside the establishments for nearly 2 months (as we did the first time). And the venues were handing out our flyers for months, too.

We posted frequently on the FaceBook pages of the participating bars (plus our own FB group: Waxhaw Social Club), additionally we have our own website at www.waxhawsocialclub.com. Finally, we had a great article come out in the Union County Weekly several days ago that many people saw and then came out to the crawl for some fun.

Last year we had around 50 people show up, and this year we had 85-90 and we raised money for Project2Heal, another terrific local Waxhaw charity. We raised $1,030 in proceeds that will go to Charlie Petrizzo's endeavor of donating highly trained Labrador retrievers to special needs kids.

Most importantly, we injected a great amount of money into the local Waxhaw economy and the pubs are telling us that they had one of their best night's ever or more than doubled their normal Saturday night take.

We began at 5PM at The Main Street Grill/Icehouse Saloon who roped off the entire parking lot and had a bluegrass band, BBQ pork plates and cold beers outside as well as in. Then we had the entire outdoor patio at Maxwell's, and then we headed to SouthSiders where they had an outdoor keg ready for us with their new UFO/Harpoon beer. Finally we ended with karaoke at the Stuffed Olive. The party went on until 2AM!

Given the size of the pubs we visit, 85-90 people is truly the max that they can hold comfortably (given that they have other patrons there at the same time having dinner, etc). So, we worked a bit to manage the size of the crowd to not be excessive.

Hey, there's always the 3rd Waxhaw Pub Crawl for you to get a shot at! Stay tuned! 

The missus and I failed to attend, mostly because we had a neighborhood block party scheduled at the same time. The Pub Crawl had a better turnout, but the block party was nothing to sneeze at either. I would bet there were no glow sticks at the Pub Crawl.

Waxhaw 5K results

The Seventh Annual Waxhaw Town & Country Run took place this weekend. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend and get any pictures because of a scheduled baseball game where I was needed to yell repeatedly to my kids to pay attention.

My wife ran again and finished with an excellent time, coming in 8th in her age group so kudos to her and everyone else who ran.

Times have been posted online for those interested but here's the top runners:

                          FEMALE OVERALL  1 - 98

Place Name                     Ag G Bib   City         St Guntime 
===== ======================== == = ===== ============ ========== 
    1 Jinnie Austin            24 F    26 Matthews     NC   21:28 
    2 Jennifer Womble          33 F  1099 Waxhaw       NC   24:15 
    3 Emily Roth               13 F  1041 Waxhaw       NC   26:10 

                           MALE OVERALL  1 - 98

Place Name                     Ag G Bib   City         St Guntime 
===== ======================== == = ===== ============ ========== 
    1 Aaron Linz               39 M    67 Charlotte    NC   17:05 
    2 Cory Tretsky             21 M    24 Rock Hill    NC   17:25 
    3 Dennis Long              45 M   981 Waxhaw       NC   18:48 

Nearly a year ago, I announced a goal of running a 5K before year's end. The year's now nearly up and while I have taken up running and run a number of unofficial 5K races around the neighborhood, odds of entering an official 5K before June 10th look slim.

Dipping my toe back in

I figure I'd try to jump back into blogging a little and see how it goes. Not sure if it'll take hold again, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Waxhaw rocket launches

Perhaps Broome Street has been bluer than normal since I've not been around posting much recently, but I figured I'd share some of the stuff that's taken my time.



After this debacle, we had to perform surgery on the rocket to free the stuck nose cone, thereby cutting off a couple inches. We then took the time to decorate it and dub it the 'Rainmaker'.

A week ago, we went back to the fields of Waxhaw Elementary for the re-launch with a larger crowd as evidenced by their background twittering.



Unfortunately, the limitations of my camera phone prevent you from seeing the descending rocket, but I assure you the parachute successfully deployed and that it was last seen dipping below the grove of pine trees in the background.

We spent about 90 minutes trying to find Rainmaker but nary a trace was found. The closest we came was finding the parachute and nose cone of another rocket stuck in the pine trees proving I suppose that our initial Waxhaw rocket launch was not as historic as I thought. But Rainmaker was apparently not in the trees, in the nearby yards, roofs, or street.

So if you happen to live in the neighborhood behind Waxhaw Elementary and find Rainmaker, drop me a note or at the very least give her a good home. A lot of time and effort went into that rocket -- a true labor of love.

Main Street Grill Groupon

I haven't been around lately, but I'm still working hard to save money. An email came in regarding an excellent local deal for a Main Street Grill Groupon that I thought was worth passing on. This deal lasts another 2 and a half days.

There's three options:

• $11 for American lunch or dinner for two with one appetizer (up to a $5.75 value) and two entrees (up to an $8.75 value each; up to a $23.25 total value)

• * $20 for American lunch or dinner for four with two appetizers (up to a $5.75 value each) and four entrees (up to an $8.75 value each; up to a $46.50 total value)

• $27 for American lunch or dinner for six with three appetizers (up to a $5.75 value each) and six entrees (up to an $8.75 value each; up to a $69.75 total value)

The last option seems an especially good deal if you can scrounge up some friends and get a sitter for the kids.

Check it out for all the details.

Thanks to Main Street Grill for joining the ranks of local restaurants offering Groupon deals, joining such esteemed forerunners as Mamma Lena's and El Vallarta if my memory serves.