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.