Back in one piece

The return trip was fun. This was just a short little run to get Angela's legs under her for what a road trip would be like. It was just a little jaunt up to Stephenville, TX and back. I think the highlight of the trip had to be when we first rolled in. After 170 or so miles, not a long day one, we pull up in front of the hotel and she slumps across the tank of her bike. It was kind of cute. In one day she had almost doubled her total mileage on the bike. When we started off she had ridden about 100 miles total around town. At the end of the first day, she had put in 170 miles in about 5 hours. To top that off, she did it on a Suzuki GZ250. That is the little cruiser that competes with the Honda Rebel. That is a decent ride on a full size bike, but on the little Suzuki it was a beating.

Here is the shot of her on her tank:



When we stopped in Hamilton for Angela to get gas on Day 1, she found the cutest thing. I was standing in front of the store and I got a text from her. It confused me a bit, because I thought I knew where she was. It just said, come look what I found. When I got inside, she was pointing at this display and giggling. I almost peed myself when I saw it. I got a quick shot with my phone so I could share....use your imagination. We wanted to bring one back, but it probably wouldn't have survived the heat.

Here is the popcorn on a cob:



I think this was my first clue that she had slipped into vibration induced psychosis.


The trip back today was fairly uneventful, except for me missing my turn to get on US281. We ended up going over to this little town called Meridian. When I figured out that we were in the wrong spot, we cut back over to 281 so we could head home. We got to stop at this little place called Hard Eights in Stephenville. It is an awesome little BBQ shop that Kel and I found on our way back from Hot Springs a couple years ago. Yes, they are still as good as I remember.

Here is us in front of Hard Eights:



While we were there, we had one of the guys running the pit take a quick shot of us together next to our bikes. It had to be done, I guess.

The little "detour" that we took on Highway 6, allowed us to go through this area called Cranfill's Gap. It is westbound on FM22 from Meridian, TX. It is not incredibly high, but it is very pretty. All in all, it was worth the 45 mile detour.

The rest of the trip back was uneventful. We pretty much ran straight through because we were kind of running from the Texas summer "cold front" that was moving south. That means it was around 85 degrees. The problem is that when the 85 degree air hits the 102 degree air, you tend to get snap thunderstorms and high erratic winds. We did manage to make it home in one piece though. It was a very nice ride. I think I want to do it again.

Here is our return route:


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Dublin on the 4th of July.

This was a shining example of "The best laid plans, and all that jazz". This little trip was originally conceived as a good excuse to get a friend of mine out on her new bike and get dome road miles under her. The original plan was to take off this morning from Austin and go to Dublin, TX to get a Dublin Dr Pepper (look it up, ya'll). We roll about 160 miles in heat ranging from 98 when we left to about 102 when we rolled into Dublin. When we get there, the significance of the date becomes very obvious to me. It is the 4th of July, everything is closed. The only thing that I noticed open as we rolled through town was a restaurant that looked abandoned except for the flashing open sign. I just decided to roll us on to Stephenville to hit the hotel. Depending on how we are feeling tomorrow when we get to Lampasass, we might come back through Lago Vista and Marble Falls. That would mean 1431. We are going to call the ball on that one in Lampasass, because I want to make sure we are not too beat from the heat, and make sure she has her confidence up for that ride. The road isn't that difficult, but it is very high stakes and doesn't give you much time to rest.

Here are a couple shots from the day. Didn't end up taking many pics, mostly a couple shots when we got into the hotel. Hopefully I will be able to get some more tomorrow on the way home.

Here are the shots:





Here was our route:


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Have fun, I will close out tomorrow night when I get home.

Dave

Lazy Saturday......

I got to go shake my brain out a bit today. While pulling the old Russian out of mothballs, I discovered that the starter relay is still kind of dodgy. I think I will replace it and clean all connections between the battery and the starter. That should give me a better feel for it. That being said, rainy days are the best days for bike-workin-on. Saturday was nice in the morning, so there was riding.

Since the weather was kind of nasty all directions from Austin, I decided to just run around the back roads. My initial plan was to make a lap around the lake. That was when muscle memory took over and I just let the bike go where it felt like going. I took our old loop down around dripping springs and wimbery. I ended up in San Marcos. Since I was there, I decided to get pizza at my old college hangout. Valentino's Pizza is still the worst pizza around, but it is nostalgia. What the hell. After some Pizza, I went over to the Humidor to hang out and have a cigar. Rob got in a couple boxes of the Auturo Fuente Reverves so I picked up a few. After that I went out to Mikey's shop and hung out for a while. I needed to drop some stuff off with him, and I happened to be in the area. While I was there, I picked up a set of anti-dive springs for Kel's bike too. The trip back was where things got interesting. I made it almost 5 miles back before the flying midget with a firehose found me. Little bastard followed me all the way home. This was the first time I have had the R90 out in heavy rain, so I am at least glad I know how it is going to handle now. I also learned that those new brakes are really good. In the wet, I get a lot better feel out of them so I don't have to guess where lockup is. After this little ride I think those brakes are the best money I have thrown at the bike.

One thing I do want to find out is who left the cage open.....all of the idiots got out and they were on the road. I had my rainsuit on, the one that is all reflective, and all of the reflective stickers on my bike. Reflective materials only work if the other vehicles have their lights turned on. I saw more cars running in driving rain with their wipers on high and their headlights turned off. No scares, no close calls....just a front row seat for the parade of stupidity. I know there are sobriety checkpoints, there are discussions of insurance checkpoints, I have even heard rumors that there might be insurance checkpoints in the future. When are there going to be roadside IQ tests. I am sorry sir, you are too stupid to be allowed to live....pop...pop...

Oh well, off to work on the russian. Have fun.

Dave

'Bout damn time, and all that......

My life since my last post, has been what we call in the computer industry, an MPCCF. For those people not used to acronyms, Massively Parallel Cascading Cluster F(ail). That is where a bunch of things go wrong simultaneously, and cause other things to fail in a chain reaction.

It all started with the trip that I had planned to blow the cobwebs out of my brain got sidetracked due to a mess at work that had to be handled. While getting everything sorted on that front, I noticed that the gearbox on the R90 was starting to feel a bit notchy. On the way to work one evening, 3rd gear let go on me. This called for a new gearbox. Just about the time I got ready to get the new box put in, I ended up getting sent out of town for work for a week. This culminated in 6 weeks of work without a day off. When all is finally said and done, I wind up getting everything done on the thursday before labor day weekend. I get the R90 dropped off with Mikey, and Kel and I get ready for the Labor Day Weekend escape. This time we are dragging along two of our friends.

The trip starts falling apart with one of the participants running into family problems the wednesday before we leave. One bike down, three to go. We end up with a trio of airheads heading for Fredricksburg. Two R90's and a Ural. We make it almost 30 miles before we discover that the other friend's R90 is not charging the battery. This can't be good. We end up writing off Saturday getting the battery replaced. Now there is a good battery, but it is still not charging to the highest capacity. It will only charge to maintenance levels if the headlight is off. Sunday is spend tearing through the charging system with a voltmeter checking all of the outputs, cleaning all contacts, and making sure all ground connections are good. At the end of sunday, we are getting 13.8v out of the charging system and all is good.

This brings us to the ride. Finally, I get to put more than 5 consecutive miles on the bike. We end up taking Hamilton Pool Road to 281, and then to Marble Falls. Have Lunch at the Bluebonnet Cafe, and then come home down 1431. We only pushed about 125 miles, but it was better than a beating (just barely). In the end it was a nice ride. I had lots of fun.

Here is the route. Sorry, no pictures.



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Time to start planning a trip for sometime around my b-day.

TTFN,

Dave

Film from Brenham and Roswell came back finally

I am re-discovering the joys of film photography. With digital, you take the picture, look at it, post it, and forget it. With film, you take it, get home, get it processed, get around to scanning it, sort through the shots and then post it. With that delay, you get to enjoy the rest of your trip. When you get back you end up waiting up to a week to get the film processed. It gives the trip a bit of time to sink in, and then when you get the pictures back they are viewed in the context of the trip, not just a single day. The shots from Brenham were taken with a Ciroflex TLR. It is an old box camera from the mid 40's. It shoots 6cm x 6cm square negatives. The shots in Roswell were taken with a Speedgraphic 2x3 view camera with a 6cm x 7cm roll film back attached.

Here are the shots from the Brenham shakedown trip with Vern and Glen:




Here are some shots from downtown Roswell (the roll of the wind farms did not come out):




Here are the shots from our first day trip to Stonehenge II near Fredricksburg:



TTFN

Dave

The merry band of idiots and the devil's backbone

So, we decide that there must be riding. I am definitely in need of Brain Drain-o (tm). How do I choose to clear my brain.....? By pulling a 6 bike chain to and from the Devil's Backbone. First off, I have to say that the name sounds menacing. People hear about it and talk about the number of deaths each year on it. This quickly conjures up visions of the blacktop of doom. Since I went to college in San Marcos, right at the bottom of the backbone, I had a bit more realistic view of it. I tried to warn everyone appropriately that it was not that bad.....unless it was windy. The whole stretch of road is only about one mile long, but it is along the top of a ridge with canyons on both sides. This can lead to some horrid cross winds. There are also deer in abundance. The big thing about the backbone is that it is not scary the first time through. The second time through you think you have it nailed and want to go fast. That is where you realize that all of the turns are decreasing radius turns, that are blind, with deer, and up to a 500ft drop off....on BOTH sides of the road. The nice thing about the backbone is the trip to it, not the backbone itself. From Austin, there is a lot of very nice twisty road that goes through some small towns. There are a few spots where you could collect some trees if you are not careful, but overall it is pretty much sweeperville. Here is the route:



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The running joke through the whole trip was that we were a WWII re-enactment group. There were 6 of us. Me on the Russian beast, Kel on the BMW R90/Sidecar, Glenn on the Kawasaki, Vern on the Goldwing, Gary on the Harley, and Laura on the Suzuki. For the next ride I want to pull our friends with the BSA and the Ducati, and we can have the full cast of WWII. Quite possibly the defining point of the trip was when we stopped in a parking lot to make some adjustments and the Harley was parked on a slope. The kickstand was pacing downhill so when we went to leave, Gary could not reach the ground on the uphill side of the bike. This put him in a position where he could not get leverage on the Electra -Glide. Kel's monkey had to go over and push the bike off of the stand so he could get it moving. No, we will not ever let him live that down. The Glide was what he got for wrapping his old 1400 Intruder around a cow. I guess there is a learning curve on those big Road Sofas.

We made it back in one piece, got a couple pictures, had some awesome mexican food at this little restaurant at the junction of RR12 and RR32. The pictures are included below....I know they suck, but I took them with my phone. Deal with it.






Time to get ready for my next run to the Ural campout in Waco in two weeks. This will be the first time this many Ural riders have gathered in one place in texas in a long time....ever I bet.

Have fun,

Dave

Unseasonably warm........

Basic high school math here..... unseasonable warm weather + a merry band of idiots = housework getting put off till the next rainy spell. Actually, we had a good excuse...Vern got a new bike. An 85 Goldwing. Of course we had to take it out and see how it was going to handle on all of the different kinds of roads that we tend to ride. All of them......in one weekend. Granted, we only killed off about 300 miles this weekend, but in the grand scheme of things, that was actually pretty good. Vern is learning a new bike, and Kel is training a new monkey. This has to be a fairly light weekend. We are jokingly referring to it as a "paper mache'" butt weekend.

Saturday we added another bike to the line, a friend from work. We went to San Marcos through Wimberly. Had to go and get some of the best cheap Mexican food I know of. A little place in San Marcos called Mana's. We got to let Vern see the twisty stuff on RR 12 on the way down, and try out the straight line cruising coming back up TX 21/US183. Now that he knows it works, we shall never take that road again......long and straight........painfully straight. Here is the map......



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Sunday was a little bit more exciting. Vern got his confidence up on the oldwing, and Kel's new Monkey got down to business. We decided to do Hamilton Pool Rd out to 281 and then 1431 back to Austin. I thought Kel's monkey was going to giggle himself to death. He was all over that chair moving weight to balance out turns. Having a good monkey actually brought her cornering speeds up to where those of us on 2 were going. He now has a new title....he is now the PFM (Poo Flingin' Monkey). We made it to Marble Falls just as the Bluebonnet Cafe closed, so we hit the River City Cafe instead. Not bad food, but the Bluebonnet it ain't. Here is the map for Sunday.




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Hopefully, next weekend I will be able to schedule a solo go away. I need some one on one time with Eyegor......

TTFN.

For the polar bear in all of us.........

Its 30 degrees outside and it looks like a nice day for a ride. The initial plan was to run to Fredericksburg to get BBQ. When we made it to the turn on Hamilton Pool Rd, we decided that pie would be a better choice. Also about 60 miles shorter. We ended up making the run to Marble Falls and have some pie at the Bluebonnet Cafe. Damn good pie. Just to provide a bit of perspective on the temp...... 30 degrees at 65 MPH equals about 10 degrees. All told, we knocked off about 150 miles and we were under freezing with the wind-chill most of the way.

So, I made some interesting discoveries about my new trick shoulder. The cold is nasty. The colder my shoulder gets, the more stiff it gets. As long as I am going in a straight line, it isn't a problem. When I go into a turn it is a bit blocky on the turns. I also learned that long sweeping left turns are ok, but the long sweeping right turns hurt after a while. I am pretty much assuming that this will go away over time, but it still temporarily sucks.....

Here is the route we took....



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