eemsreno
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Texas Roads ----- What were you thinking?
This is my story of riding to Texas for the Tenere rally that Dallara put on last weekend.
And by the way Dallara is the best host we could have had, a great guide, and very nice person.
I was at Tiger Mike's house at 5:00 a.m. Wednesday morning and we got right on the road. Before we got out of Iowa we hit heavy snow flurries and in the dark snow in your headlights looks like a blizzard.
We rode to Kansas City on I35 and then got off the interstate system and hardly ever got on them again.
One of the first interesting things we stopped to see was Fort Smith, Kansas.
Then we rode on down to the Talimena Drive.
I nicked named Tiger Mike "Moses" because we wondered around for 40 years in the wilderness. Mike keeps saying that you are never lost on a motorcycle, it is just all part of the adventure. So most of the time we just take the best looking road that heads in the general direction that we want to go. No GPS here, and the maps put away where we can't even see it. That brought us some how onto old Route 66 which we followed for a while.
The first nights camp was on a nice lake in southern Oklahoma.
The next morning we came across this cool old bridge that links Oklahoma to Texas over the Red River.
This was just a stop to get rid of some cold weather clothing because once we got into Texas it was like we remembered summer from last year. The first time we had seen warm weather for 6 months.
Then we found this awesome suspension bridge out on a gravel road.
That night we camped in the Kerrville State Park so we could meet up in the morning with everyone for breakfast.
This is a picture of "The Bike", 117,000 miles, Chris'. He didn't actually show up until Saturday morning because he had to make a stop in Phoenix on his way to Kerrville from Maryland.
Friday's ride was the Twisted Sisters right off the bat, the best Texas has to offer and it was very good.
We stopped at the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum to see lots of classic bikes.
We stopped by a great place to have lunch. Check out their menu.
This is the Guadalupe River that ran by our camp in Kerrville.
Saturday, day 2, was northeast of Kerrville. Not the Twisted Sisters but very good roads.
We stopped by Luckenbach's post office.
This is Enchanted Rock. This is the point where Mike and I had to keep heading northeast in the general heading of Iowa.
We ended up in Arkansas for a little forest road riding and more good twisty roads.
When you see a sign like this you know its a road you do not pass up.
Unfortunately I was trying my videoing instead of picture taking and it didn't turn out very good, so in the twistiest of twisty roads I have nothing to show you.
Then more forest roads.
Sunday night we went up near the Missouri border but we were to late in the evening to catch the ferry so we camped on the Arkansas side of the White River.
Now Missouri is one of our favorite places to ride with lots of off roading and water crossings.
Then we came to a little deeper crossing and I was the guinea pig. Now remember we are heading towards Iowa where it is below freezing temperatures and we really didn't want our feet wet. It turned out that there was no other way but to wade in, pick the Tenere up, and move it to better ground. We stopped later to change socks and put our feet in plastic bags to keep them from freezing.
The rest of the ride was very scenic along the Big Piney River.
We did have heavy snow flurries for the last hour getting home, and when I stopped my bike in the driveway at home within a half hour everything was snow packed and would have been impossible to ride.
Thanks Dallara and all you other very nice people we met at the ride and I hope we get to do it again next year.
Steve
This is my story of riding to Texas for the Tenere rally that Dallara put on last weekend.
And by the way Dallara is the best host we could have had, a great guide, and very nice person.
I was at Tiger Mike's house at 5:00 a.m. Wednesday morning and we got right on the road. Before we got out of Iowa we hit heavy snow flurries and in the dark snow in your headlights looks like a blizzard.
We rode to Kansas City on I35 and then got off the interstate system and hardly ever got on them again.
One of the first interesting things we stopped to see was Fort Smith, Kansas.
Then we rode on down to the Talimena Drive.
I nicked named Tiger Mike "Moses" because we wondered around for 40 years in the wilderness. Mike keeps saying that you are never lost on a motorcycle, it is just all part of the adventure. So most of the time we just take the best looking road that heads in the general direction that we want to go. No GPS here, and the maps put away where we can't even see it. That brought us some how onto old Route 66 which we followed for a while.
The first nights camp was on a nice lake in southern Oklahoma.
The next morning we came across this cool old bridge that links Oklahoma to Texas over the Red River.
This was just a stop to get rid of some cold weather clothing because once we got into Texas it was like we remembered summer from last year. The first time we had seen warm weather for 6 months.
Then we found this awesome suspension bridge out on a gravel road.
That night we camped in the Kerrville State Park so we could meet up in the morning with everyone for breakfast.
This is a picture of "The Bike", 117,000 miles, Chris'. He didn't actually show up until Saturday morning because he had to make a stop in Phoenix on his way to Kerrville from Maryland.
Friday's ride was the Twisted Sisters right off the bat, the best Texas has to offer and it was very good.
We stopped at the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum to see lots of classic bikes.
We stopped by a great place to have lunch. Check out their menu.
This is the Guadalupe River that ran by our camp in Kerrville.
Saturday, day 2, was northeast of Kerrville. Not the Twisted Sisters but very good roads.
We stopped by Luckenbach's post office.
This is Enchanted Rock. This is the point where Mike and I had to keep heading northeast in the general heading of Iowa.
We ended up in Arkansas for a little forest road riding and more good twisty roads.
When you see a sign like this you know its a road you do not pass up.
Unfortunately I was trying my videoing instead of picture taking and it didn't turn out very good, so in the twistiest of twisty roads I have nothing to show you.
Then more forest roads.
Sunday night we went up near the Missouri border but we were to late in the evening to catch the ferry so we camped on the Arkansas side of the White River.
Now Missouri is one of our favorite places to ride with lots of off roading and water crossings.
Then we came to a little deeper crossing and I was the guinea pig. Now remember we are heading towards Iowa where it is below freezing temperatures and we really didn't want our feet wet. It turned out that there was no other way but to wade in, pick the Tenere up, and move it to better ground. We stopped later to change socks and put our feet in plastic bags to keep them from freezing.
The rest of the ride was very scenic along the Big Piney River.
We did have heavy snow flurries for the last hour getting home, and when I stopped my bike in the driveway at home within a half hour everything was snow packed and would have been impossible to ride.
Thanks Dallara and all you other very nice people we met at the ride and I hope we get to do it again next year.
Steve
