Goodbye to our good friend, Mike Holland.

  Jared Friemel sent me a text message last night telling me that he saw a strange post on Chop Cult from Mike's screen name, Imthadrummer, by his wife saying that Mike had gone missing and wondered if anyone had seen him. Today, I logged on to find that Mike's body was found in Tennessee, where he lives, nearly a week ago and that the cause was a motorcycle accident.
  It's a bit shocking and bazaar, and it's a reminder that we never know what lies around the corner.

  This is the local news article about Mike:
http://wreg.com/2013/05/24/body-found-in-search-for-missing-man/

Prayers to his friends and family in Tennessee.


  Mike was definitely a big help in getting the word out about Romp in tha Swamp, and everyone here in Arkansas enjoyed having "Tennessee Mike" around. Peace to you, buddy. You'll be greatly missed for many Romps to come!

*brandon

2013 DETAILS

Romp in tha Swamp, April 14th, 2013

The Parlor Tattoo
4603 East Broadway
North Little Rock, Arkansas

  Departure a little after 10am on April 14th. to ride down through Scott, England, and Coy.
Pit stop in Coy at Ken Fisher's before coming back to North Little Rock. This ride will last a few hours, not counting stops. I will have a LIMITED amount of shirts ($15), patches ($2), and koozies ($3) for sale, so bring some cash!
  Many of us are camping out the night before, April 13th, and if you would like to do so as well, bring your own bed roll, tent, etc. If you want drinks, bring your own as well. Will have a few jam/garage bands playing that night.
  This is just a low-jack ride for anyone who wants to join. Not a show. Not a swap meet. It is not a benefit, because the cause I was going for has never been respondent, and it is too late to partner with someone else at this point.
  There is an open group on Facebook you can join, appropriately name Romp in tha Swamp. If you have Instagram, we have it as well, @rompinthaswamp. If you come and snap some good pics, hashtag us, #rompinthaswamp.


I look forward to seeing you all there!
*brandonkemp

Outlaw Biker!

Thanks Outlaw Biker magazine for publishing our ride info!
That means a lot! Any help is great.

ON A FEW SEPARATE NOTES:
To all attendees or viewers, this past few months has been very hectic for me, and I've had a few family emergencies, etc. that have hindered my attentiveness to Romp. This event has been very word of mouth, and it's cool that it's so low-key, but this will help me estimate for next year what a typical attendance will be for the future. Last year, I did not get a very good idea, considering it was a holiday weekend.

I am going to try to have shirts and patches for everyone this year. As soon as I know a price, I'll post. As I said, it is too late to find another charity to partner with before the date of the ride, but next year, I will be more interested in finding a charity closer to home. Suggestions are VERY welcome! I would love for it to go toward children with cancer/cancer research.

For those who would like to volunteer for next year, I really can't be depended on to organize this alone for such reasons that have held me back even this year. It would be great to have a few guys to donate some time to either advertising, design, photography, VIDEO WOULD BE GREAT!, whatever you can do to help for next year would be a weight off my shoulders.

If any of you attending next month, if you have a GoPro or other digital video, photo, etc. that could be posted here or on YouTube, etc. please let me know. If any of you have software to make a good, simple, tidy video of this year that you could compile from everyone's photos/videos, please email me:
brandon.kemp@hotmail.com

As far as bands, performers, vendors that have emailed me:
I am not looking for any of these. This is not a swap meet or anything like that. It's strictly a ride and hanging out, camp-out the night before, etc.
Thank you for your interest! Maybe in the future, if this continues to grow and is more than just a grassroots type of event (and especially if it ever gets a more organized leader! haha), we may have interest.

Thanks,
*brandonkemp

2012 Photos by Jeff Morgan

Here are some photos by Jeff Morgan from last year, as some of you have anticipated!
Thanks a lot, Jeff; these are great!

2013 Web/Social Media Banners

Learned a lot from last year, you could say.
This year, we're going to move a month sooner in the day, and rather than meeting up the day of the ride, we'll be meeting the evening before, and camping out, so you'll need to bring your roll-up tent or sleeping bag (whichever you'd like to strap to your bike), and we'll camp out that night, so that folks from out-of-town will be able to make it and have a place to crash, rather than trying to make early in the morning before the ride.
Last year we had a great turn-out, and I hope to see even more people this year. I hope the re-arrangement of plans will make allowance for more people who want to make it.
So, to get more specific, as of now:

Date and time of the run:
Sunday, April 14, departure at 10am.
Meeting place:
The Parlor Tattoo, 4603 East Broadway, North Little Rock, Arkansas

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, email me:
brandon.kemp@hotmail.com

Thank you!
*brandonkemp

Here is a banner for you to copy and paste to help spread the word. Thanks!

And one for your Instagram or whatever other social media you may use.

2012 (First Annual) Photos

Right before take-off...and had a few dudes pull up as we were pulling out.

 JP:

 Travis and Kessie:

 Roach and his gal:

 Jay:

 Ol' Papa Ron:

 There's Mike! Dude rode from nearly three hours away from Tennessee to kick it with us! Thanks, man!

 Jeff. I hope he got some sick pics. If so, I'll snag them from him to post.

 Steed and his new Shovel.

 Mike and Kessie:

 Jud:

 Forrest and er'body:

 Cookie's cool little chop:

Jamie lookin' at the line-up! We party.

 Is that Pop-eye?

 Checkin' out Ken's sick collection of album covers:

 There's probably nothing intelligent going on here, hahaha:

Ken and Andy! Thanks a ton to Ken for having us to his place and having some cold drinks for us!

 Adios, Cookie!

 Headed home! Thanks to everyone for coming! Next year will be bigger and better! And probably a little sooner in the year! I think that day was the hottest day of the year so far.

Me bidding Mike a good farewell, and Andy clowning' just like I expected!

Great 1st Annual! Bring it on, next year! Keep up with the blog, though. Jud may have some video to post, and I may have some really cool pictures from Jeff as well. We almost lost him while he was getting posted up for some other shots other than just riding and clicking like I was.