Texasmac 2008 The Road Home
The last installment - riding home
Memories, they are already getting cloudy - especially since this is my 4th attempt at writing this diddy. I first accidently highlighted and erased a couple of paragraphs then had to start over, when I accidentally closed the browser. My third time the browser locked up so I guess I just needed to take a break and do it later.
First thing we did Sunday was get lost, that is to say my gps routed us to Shoney's by way of an alley way - turning while BR, Ezilla and Dutch went strait. 5 minutes later I was waiting for them at breakfast. I waited after I turned off and saw they stopped, waved them on and waited some more, then I turned around to go get them and they were gone?? At breakfast we discussed science fiction and the furry people, Ezilla explained them to us (extreme nano nano according to BR) Heh and off we went to go riding again.
We basically rode out the same way we rode in excepts we avoided Whya Bend road and did Hwy 28 instead and ran into Ezilla on her way through Deals Gap, we instead rode over the Cherehola Skyway. Baileyrock, Dutchinterceptor, Steven (don't know his screen name) and myself. Had a good time however we had to pass a good deal of slower riders. Baileyrock passed a particularly slow rider on an Fz1 and so I waited for a clear spot to get around him myself on an uphill section. I went around him and then dived into the left hand turn at the top of the hill - giving him a wide berth. We rode on for a good deal and the others were not in my mirrors, went on further and still not there! So BR and I both turned around to find the FZ1 all cracked up and the guy riding it sitting on the guard rail shook up a bit. I asked the guy if he was ok and he said was OK, and I apologized for passing a bit close. He stood up almost a full foot taller than me and just huge, and shook my hand and said he was ok. He cracked up at the bottom of the hill where some gravel was in the turn. Steven said he just panicked and stood the bike up and went off the road. We stayed to make sure he was going to be OK and see if needed medical attention - his buddy was riding a tricked out Kawasaki had a trailer and went to go get it.
Chrerehola Skyway On the Way Home
Flowers On The Cherehola Skyway
Butterflies on the Cherehola Skyway
The River
Cherehola Skyway
I waited 10 minutes to get this shot and he slowed down as soon as he rounded the corner
We rode into Dayton and had lunch at some forgettable place, good enough food but they had a curious habit of covering the table with a sheet of paper, the server wrote her name in crayon on the paper with a smiley face and served us some decent food (not great but good enough to hit the spot). BR wrote on the sheet "Refill" and when she returned with drinks he wrote a line through it and gave a funny grin which just cracked us all up. What a character.
After lunch we got back on the bikes and I turned on the camera for the video below, Tennessee Hwy 30 mostly and some footage from this road named Bone Cave Road.
The video
:media: The Road To Nashville Video 10 minutes wmv format and music from BDylan.
The ride was nice and I enjoyed it, we stayed at Br's place and he took us out to go get a steak at some joint downtown, the food was great but the service was - well comical to say the least. Our waiter had a curious habit of doing just barely enough to server without actually getting the job done. Cant take an order with something in his hands, had to go get rid of his tray, then asking about menu items was taboo, with an overhand flick of his pen pointing to the items on the menu, read for yourself. Then came time for drinks he would hold the glass about 4 inches off the table and just far enough away you had to get up and reach for it, which sort of seemed like self service. He had a curious habit of saying "AW-Right" whenever he took an order. The dude was entertaining if nothing else cause we where just waiting to see what he was going to do next!! "whenever you gentlemen are ready I am your cashier" - gave us some spiel he had probably said more than a few times to elicit a tip and then I said "OK we are ready" - and then he walked away?? BR Dutch and I looked at each other and and Said "Aw-right - got it - NEXT TIME" what a jackass!!
Kevin was kind enough to let me use his garage to fix my broken brake switch, it was stuck on for half of the Tmac and the Hyper lites where flashing constantly on. I figured out it was a short on the front switch housing, dutch helped me diagnose and fix the thing, which worked for about half a day and then it started all over again, I replaced the switch from Kevin's stash which he so gracefully gave me ( Kevin's a flipping saint guys I mean that you cant find a better friend anywhere I really appreciate him putting together the Tmac, putting us up, taking care of everything and going above and beyond all that anybody could ask ) They don't make em like that anymore!
Dangerous waters rising
Factory at Rock Island State Park
The Falls at Great Falls Road
Balieyrock and I
Kevin had to go to work so Dutch and I finished fixing up my bike as best as we could and then locked up the place and took a northern route into Kentucky finding a few good roads on the way to ride "the Trace" in the land between the lakes. hwy 232 on the way there was much better and was full of sweepers, I knew it was going to be good cause there was a house at the bottom - right as we turned on that had an abused CBR sitting on the side of the house that seemed have been put there to ride that road specifically. Good stuff man!!
We took up residence at Swannee KY and I had some ribs a the only restaurant around, it was GOOD!
The Great Furnace The Land Between the Lakes
Land Between The Lakes
The Bridge over the Lake
You should have seen how graceful they took off when I started my bike back up
The next morning we slabbed it via some interstate to get to the Confluence of the two biggest rivers in the USA at Whickliff KY we would cross both rivers and three states in 5 minutes sort of like standing at the 4 corners but with bridges involved
Crossing the Rivers Ohio first then the Mississippi you can see the other bridge in the distance
Whickliff Kentucky
Crossing the Ohio
Barges on the Ohio
One bridge down one to go
Barges on the Mississippi
Crossing the state line you cross three state lines in 5 minutes Kentucky Illinois and Missouri
Popular Bluff MO
Redneck attempt at an amusement park
It was mid day by the time we made it across the slab in Missouri to the edge of the Ozarks and the skies had clouded over enough to spit on us, we took some lunch at a Chinese buffet and I overate as usual, I don't know what it is with Chinese food I always eat too much. Then Dutch took the lead for the next two days since we were in familiar territory. Up hwy 160 for some good sweepers when it wasn't raining and down to mountain home for the night. Mountain home sounds like a great place to go but its like a suburb to nowhere, nothing interesting about the place at all really just a place to bed down. It does however have Push Mountain just 10 minutes away - my gloves where dry from the rain the day before and fitting a bit tight - so tight my right throttle hand had gone numb, I kept shaking it out but the entire time I was following Dutch into those fast straits and getting on the brakes hard into the turns I couldn't feel anything. He opened up a can of whoop ass on me and started pulling away a bit, I had to really put my head down to stay in contact and not get dropped - he was on fire! I am not so good on the brakes. I can use some practice on my next track day with brakes and turn transitions.
We had a full day planned for the Ozarks heading into Mount Judea a the Eagles Nest Café for a Bacon Cheese burger, this was my second stop to this place, the 2006 TM ac trip I did I stopped here and had the best Bacon Cheese burger I have ever had my whole life. I was expected to get disappointed cause how can you top the first one? I was very surprised to be served another that was equal to the last and on par for best bacon cheese burger in the USA!!! I mean that! Little joint in the middle of nowhere with nice homey God fearing folks who would expect to get food so tasty so crisp and so darned good?? No credit cards though so bring cash.
We ran hwy 123 again - same as the video from the first TM ac post and this time Dutch still had some whoop ass left in his can, I had to really get on it up those tight switchbacks to the top but once at the top on the sweepers I am in my element and I had opened up a can of my own! Then the rains came again and we had both come to the same conclusion, that the Ozarks in the rain where just too much. So we turned south on hwy 7 to Russleville where Dutch would head home and I too would begin 2 more days of slab to Colorado.
Man the rain really started pouring when I crossed into Oklahoma, I-40 is full of trucks so I couldnt see a darned thing, I turned on my weather radio and listened for severe weather reports, a tornado and touched down 30 miles west of me in OKC, so I found a motel and spent the night out of the worst of it. Woke up groggy and grumpy cause I knew I had 645 miles of slab to do, popped in a sd card into my Zumo with an audio book and started in on the drone. It wasn't bad really not even the pan handle, it did not suck until I crossed back into Colorado cause all of a sudden the wind picked up to 40 mph gusts and I was having to duck down to keep from being blown off the road - and not mild wind either a cold 40 degree wind with drops of rain mixed in. I made for the bluffs along hwy 160 to get out of the wind
Back In Colorado cold and windy
South East Colorado
How is that for a homecoming
OH and one more memorable thing about the Tmac - this picture dutch took right after we came down blood mountain at a gas stop
wow she sprinkled on glitter like this for a good 5 minutes which of course set us all back by that much
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