Two Days with Kenny

So I have some vacation days left this year and I don’t want to leave any of them on the table. Besides Pastor Tan, our associate pastor, is a much better preacher than I am and I thought it would be good to give the congregation a break and take a Sunday off before the Christmas season starts. So I planned to spend some time riding and camping.

But then my good friend Kenny called me on Wednesday and asked me if I wanted to go on a ride on Saturday. My plans changed immediately (you gotta love vacation days) so I invited him to join me for a couple of days of riding. Our plan was to leave on Friday morning at 10:00 AM and be back Saturday before dark.

I took a couple of minutes to plan the ride and immediately got antsy for Friday morning to arrive. I got to Kenny’s at 9:56 AM and we left at 10:15 AM. That pretty much sums up how things go with Kenny and I. I’m always in a hurry and Kenny…isn’t. The forecast called for rain showers throughout the day but we were ready to go and we did.

Kenny led us out of town toward Bellville, TX. We are always in a hurry to leave Houston and taking the back roads helps that process along. Today was going to be all about meandering so we meandered through La Grange and then headed south.

I love the road south of I-10. Ranch country. Country roads. Not much traffic and, where there is, it is fun to gun it a little and pass cars the old fashioned way. We spent a few meandering hours until we picked up TX 173 outside of Jourdanton to ride into Hondo. We had a little surprise as the shortcut that the GPS sent us down was gravel for a few miles. I loved it.

We spent the night at the Hondo Best Western. I am a Best Western guy. It is the only chain I stay at when I have a choice and I wasn’t disappointed. The clerk sent us to a little place in town for Mexican food. I went to sleep early. I assume Kenny wasn’t long to follow.

On Saturday morning we got up early to see a cloudy, gloomy kind of day in front of us. The good thing is that it wasn’t supposed to rain. The bad thing is that it was a cloudy, gloomy, kind of day. I was excited about where we would be riding. You have to go a long way from Houston to get there but it is worth it.

We headed out of Hondo on US 90 to Sabinal where we picked up TX 127 to US 83 at Concan. These are beautiful roads, especially US 83 and it passes into and along the Frio River Canyon. We went north on US 83 to Leakey for a quick coffee stop. That was fun so we went back the way we came down to the turn to TX 1050 near the entrance to Garner State Park.

We took TX 1050 over to Utopia. Beautiful road, curves, hills, views, awesome. In Utopia we caught TX 187 north and then took a right on RR 337, one of the famous Texas Three Twisted Sisters. We’ve both ridden all of them before and we only had so much time so RR 337 would be it. We rode to Medina then south on TX 16 to Bandera. Slowwwwly behind a chain of cars headed up by an RV.

A coffee stop in Bandera and then we made our way down to Caliente Harley Davidson in San Antonio. This is one of my favorite Harley shops. It is also, given the constant road construction in San Antonio, one of the hardest to get to. I was hoping for some Black Friday deals but we didn’t see much. Off we went to find our way home.

We were worried a bit about holiday traffic on I-10 but boy were we surprised. It was busy, race track busy. From San Antonio to Columbus we were keeping up with traffic between 80-90 mph. That ended so we started looking for some back roads out of Columbus. After I took us in search of wild geese, never finding the road I was looking for, we headed back to I-10 and followed the traffic until it ended near Sealy. We got off the interstate and did some more meandering, including riding the curves from San Felipe to Pattison, as we made our way home.

Mission accomplished. Two days of riding and Kenny was safely at home before dark.

The Birthday Ozark Getaway

I got a little bit behind on writing about riding so I'm going to catch up today. Back in October I planned a couple of days to get away to Arkansas to celebrate my birthday. It was going to be the first long ride on my Beauty and I was rarin' to go. Here's the report.

Charles is a new friend who worships at the church I serve. He is also the only other biker in the congregation that I know. We have long talked about getting away for a ride but schedules being as they are, it is never as easy as it sounds. But my birthday was coming up in October and I wanted to take a day off for a long ride and Charles was ready to go.

Riding with a new partner gives me an uneasy feeling. There is a reason why I prefer to ride alone. People often think that it is safer to ride with a group, or at least another rider, but I don’t agree. In the age of cell phones and a GPS tracker, you are never really alone. And if the person you are riding with isn’t knowledgeable about the basics of riding with others (or willing to learn and take direction), they are just an accident waiting to happen. But that isn’t the only reason.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am a riding freak. I like to ride. I don’t like to stop. When I do stop it is at gas stations and I don’t even appreciate that hassle. So riding with others has historically meant that I have to put up with a lot of whining and complaining. When I ride alone the only complaints come from my backside and a simple adjustment on the fly takes care of that.

Charles is a busy man. He has a family and runs a big company. I had no idea what to expect so I began the ride with a test. We would meet on Thursday morning in the church parking lot with a plan for kickstands up at 6:00 AM. When Charles rode up, a few minutes ahead of schedule, with a really nice Roadglide Ultra, the ride got off to a great start.

The plan was to beat the Houston traffic and head north on US 59 toward Arkansas with the obligatory stop at Lone Star Charlie’s Family Restaurant in Goodrich. The test was over. Charles and I made a great pair. He followed perfectly and appreciated a stop at a greasy spoon for breakfast. As the rest of the ride confirmed, no complaining, no whining, great riding.

Don't let the sign discourage you. Charlie's is a classic.

We got back on US 59 and headed north. I missed a turn for a loop around town so we got a much better look at Nacogdoches than I wanted. We passed through Texarkana and picked up US 71 North to Ashdown, AR. That was the point where we were finally on a road I hadn’t ridden before, always a goal on a long ride. From Ashdown we got on AR 32, a winding little two lane road that said “You have now officially reached Arkansas and the riding is great!”

We passed Millwood Lake and eventually made our way to our planned stop for the night, the Crater of Diamonds State Park just outside of Murfreesboro, AR. We registered, bought twice as much firewood as we thought we would need, set up our tents, and headed to town for dinner. Charles, like my wife, is a foodie so we headed to the place in town that Kelley recommended we eat at. The fact that I can’t remember the name even though we spent a lot of time there says all that needs to be said about that.

Then it was back to the campsite for one of those nights that happen that you’ll never forget. The firewood was wet but Charles bought a jug of charcoal lighting fluid which kept things burning and the conversation going late into the darkness of the night. The other bottle we shared drinks from didn’t hurt either so we slept well.

I woke up at 5:00 AM in the morning to water dripping on my face. Evidently the rain fly on my tent had lost its rain mojo and I was getting wet. I laid as long as possible before I heard Charles rustling around outside. It was raining pretty good so we decided to head into town for breakfast. We stayed in town until around 10:00 AM before the rain slowed enough to make our escape.

Charles didn’t have any problems taking his tent down and loading up but I found a couple of inches of water at the bottom of mine and everything was pretty much soaked. So much for a couple of nights camping. We were definitely hotel bound for Friday night.

My plan was to ride some of the great roads in western Arkansas. You just can’t find a bad one. But the weather wasn’t cooperating. It pretty much rained off and on all day. That slowed us through the curves, made the wet leaves on the highway look a little scary, and fogged in the best views.

I was hoping to get a little farther north before heading over to Oklahoma and riding south on US 259 to Broken Bow but the weather just wasn’t cooperating. We got to Mena, AR, and talked to a guy who had ridden over from Oklahoma on the Talimena Skyway. He said the conditions were awful, rain, fog, and overall yucky. So I scrapped that part of the plan too. Here is what we missed:

We rode over to Oklahoma and picked up US 259. THAT was a fun ride, the best part of the day. Riding the twisties on a mountain pass can’t be beat. Even better, the rain stopped and it was a gorgeous evening when we rode into Broken Bow. We had dinner. I got my casino fix in, leaving with more money that I brought, and we were in early for the night.

The next day was all about getting home. We took a few little back road type roads to get to Paris, TX, and then jumped on TX 19 south to Huntsville. I like that road. The speed limit is always faster than you think it ought to be. It isn’t that busy. And it passes through classic East Texas forests. We stopped for a brief break in Crockett in the parking lot next to the courthouse and a few motorcycles. I didn’t realize it but we were right next to the Moosehead Café, a classic east Texas biker ride to eat location. Lesson learned. We didn’t even go in. I’ll catch it next time.

TX 19 runs into I-45 just south of Huntsville. There is nothing pleasant about riding on I-45 on a Saturday and today would be no different. The goal is to get there in one piece. As we got closer to Houston we made our last gas stop and I made the worst mistake of the trip. I assumed. Assuming is not a good thing to do.

I assumed that we would be saying goodbye at that point. Charles said he planned to ride through town on I-45 and then pick up US 59 to get back to his house. I was going to exit on the 610 Loop and go over to mine. The traffic was fierce, bumper to bumper, so when I (I had been following Charles since Crockett) pulled over to the next lane to wave my goodbye, the traffic stopped and I never caught him. Later I found out that he was worried about me and spent about an hour u-turning and looking for me. Meanwhile, I had ridden home. A crappy ending for Charles on what had been three great days of riding.

I hope he gives me another chance. It was a great way to celebrate my birthday.

Beauty and the Beast

I did it. I just went and did it. I traded my Harley in for a new one.

As my 2010 Harley Ultra Classic Limited approached 70,000 miles I still loved riding it. I loved just about everything about it. I have ridden that bike around the entire United States, including Alaska. I rode the inaugural Hoka Hey rally in 2010. Coast to coast in less than 50 hours. Saddlesore 1000’s on every trip I take. You can read some of the stories here on the blog.

It was the first motorcycle in my life that I customized to fit my 6’6” body. It was absolutely comfortable. Increasingly hard to get on and off it because I couldn’t just swing my leg over it but that wasn’t that big of a deal.

I never once broke down on the road. I never once even got a flat tire. Now there was that time on the way to San Diego when the crash bar broke in the middle of the desert but all that took to “fix” were some zip ties. I never crashed. Sinking into the mud on a North Dakota gravel road doesn’t count.

But...I was losing confidence in it.

I had long imagined it would be the last Harley I would ever buy. I wanted to ride it 500,000 miles just to say I did. In order to get there, the things that wore out along the way would have to be replaced. At some point, the motor would have to be rebuilt. That is all par for the course and would still cost a lot less than a new bike. Well, it would cost less than a new bike.

Harley Davidsons don’t nickel and dime you to death. There is a reason why people talk about HD really standing for High Dollar. Everything about them is high quality and high cost. A Harley is a substantial motorcycle. It is a motorcycle with a soul. There is a connection that I feel to my Harley that I have never approached with any other bike in my life and I’ve had a few along the way. I think the Bible is right - where your treasure goes, your heart will follow. I do love me some Harley.

Motorcycles do the same thing to money that casinos do. And few motorcycles do that better than a Harley. Money becomes meaningless. It is just a tool to get what you want. It becomes magic money. It isn’t about what it costs anymore. It is just about what you need…. OK ….just about what you want.

While I never broke down on a trip, it was starting to feel like every trip ended up with something needing to be repaired or replaced. It killed me last spring to pay a $2600 repair bill. A new battery not too long after that. And then a voltage regulator in August. I’ve replaced the stator, the clutch, the brake master cylinder, a few sets of wheel bearings, the shocks, the starter, the compensator springs. Mostly normal stuff given the way that I ride but still. You get the point.

So when I got on the bike to ride to a breakfast meeting on a beautiful day in September, it broke my heart when I started it up and the throttle was racing. It doesn’t have a throttle cable so the problem was maybe in the electrical connections in the hand throttle or a computer problem. Whatever it was, it meant a trip to the repair shop and I HATE doing that. I don’t mind going every 5000 miles for service but it was those extra trips that were killing me.

All I could think about was a three day ride coming up in October. I really had no reason to think that I might somehow experience my first roadside heartbreak with it but that is what I was thinking about. I was losing confidence in my trusty steed.

So, after breakfast, I rode to a dealership, traded it in, and came back with a beauty.

I should tell you right now that I am absolutely the ideal Harley Davidson customer. As I rode to my dealer I was thinking about a few things. I was thinking about the brand new Milwaukee Eight engine coming out in 2017. I was thinking about what it would be like to have a detachable Tour Pack (the big luggage bag on the back.) Built in GPS. And those awesome headlights I had on my 2005 Road Glide.

So I walked in. Checked out the Road Glides and picked two. They wrote up both deals and I chose one. Then I went to the parts counter and gave them a list of everything that I wanted them to add to the bike. I knew there would be a couple of other tidbits that I would also add but I’d get them on my own.

So here you go. My brand spanking new 2017 Harley Davidson Road Glide Special.

Here are the modifications I have made thus far to render it a truly Tall Guy friendly ride.

• The tallest ape hanger handlebars that Harley sells. Internal wiring and heated grips. I chose fancy grips this time instead of the plain rubber. Something different. Nice.
• The tallest windshield that Harley sells. I thought about getting an aftermarket windshield but I trust that the Harley one will work just fine. I still see over it while riding but it helps with the head buffeting.
• Highway pegs (turned out for that extra inch.)
• A detachable King Tour Pack with a premium pad for Kelley and a nice chrome luggage rack for me. That will spend most of its life in my garage and it takes less than a minute to put it back on for short trips with Kelley and long trips with me.
• I replaced the standard equipment 11” shock with the longer one that comes on the Ultra Classic. I could care less about the “lowered look” - I want as much suspension travel as my 4XLT body can get. Pricey. I hope it proves worth it.
• And while I was waiting for all of that stuff to come in I added some floorboard relocators from Tall Guys Cycles and a Road Glide storage compartment for the dash. The relocators are a must for my legs and the storage is just nice to have.

So we have a new horse in the barn and she’s a beauty! Maybe I just like making payments to Harley Davidson Finance. Gotta do my part to keep the Motor Company afloat.

BTW, I’m not consistent in using my pet names for motorcycles. Since I call the KTM 1290 “The Beast” it is inevitable that the Harley is now officially “The Beauty.” Oh my goodness, boys and their toys.