Fredericksburg and Llano Crawfish Festival

Our last trip in Texas was with Concho Valley HOG group to Fredericksburg and the Llano Crawfish Festival April 15-17. We had a nice stay in Fredericksburg and a great time on Saturday at the Crawfish Festival. The ride to LLano was great ride and the crawfish was very tasty.

Austin Texas

We headed to Austin, Texas on March 25th. Our route to the south took us through Blanco and Driftwood for a stop at the Salt Lick Bar-B-Que which was good, but not outstanding. After a few wrong turns and some Friday afternoon traffic we made it to the hotel on the north side of the city. We headed downtown early on Saturday morning for a visit to the Capitol, the Texas History Museum, and a walk through the city. Our lunch stop was at the Boiling Pot for crawfish and crab. Good food! Our trip back to San Angelo on Sunday took us through Marble Falls, Burnet, Lampasas, and San Saba. Even though it's been a dry spring the wildflowers are beginning to bloom.

TX Hill Country 2011

On Friday March 11th Jerri and I headed southeast for our annual trip to the Hill Country of Texas. We ate at a nice German restaurant in Fredericksburg and headed for Kerrville for our 2 night stay. We headed out Saturday morning for rides on Ranch Roads 335, 336, and 337 (The Three Sisters)and stopped at the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum outside of Leakey. Take note of Jerri dream motorcycle, The Whizzer. We stopped by Mac & Ernies in Tarpley for our cabrito (goat) burger and spicy catfish. We rode over 250 on Saturday and had a nice ride back to San Angelo on Sunday with our total mileage around 600 miles.

Marfa and the Big Bend

Jerri and I left on a chilly Friday morning for our annual trip to the Big Bend National Park. After a stop in Ft. Stockton for lunch we headed for Alpine and an overnight stop in Marfa. We stayed at the Hotel Paisana, an historic hotel built in the 1930s and was the home base for the movie Giant starring James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor. At dark we headed out to see the Marfa lights and were successful. The lights cannot be explained and we seen by the Apaches. We enjoyed the ride from Marfa to Presidio and along the River Road to the Big Bend National Park area. We rode the entire park as usual. Sunday afternoon we held up in the motel because of a dust storm and a county wide power outage. We made it back to San Angelo by early afternoon on Monday.

Del Rio and Judge Joy Bean

Our first weekend trip in Texas was to Del Rio, Sanderson, and back to San Angelo. We left on a chilly Saturday morning and made it to Del Rio for lunch. The ride along the Amistad National Recreation Area was nice, and we rode across the highest highway bridge in Texas over the Pecos River. We stopped at the Judge Roy Bean visitor center in Langtry and toured the restored Judge Roy Bean saloon and his home. Sanderson was our overnight stop. We knew a cold front was set to arrive in San Angelo early Sunday afternoon so we left before sunrise. Jo Jos Cafe in El Dorado was our breakfast stop and we made it back to San Angelo an hour before the clouds rolled in.

Final 2010 Post

The 2010 riding season has come to an end as we head to Michigan to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with Kelly, Nathan, and Grandson Milo. Jerri and I hit the road pretty hard this year and ended up with our highest mileage so far. We covered 22,100 miles and added 3 more states. Only 9 more needed to ride in the lower 48.

Tail of the Dragon and Helen, Georgia

We left on Thursday morning to meet up with our HOG Chapter in Helen GA. It was a great ride through KY and TN as we headed for our 1st ride on the Tail of the Dragon, US 129. The road was challenging ride, but very similar to the rides through the mountains of WV. After a stay in Robbinsville NC, we continued on US 129 to Rt. 28, a road as much fun to ride as the "Dragon". We met up with over 30 bikes from our Chapter in Helen and enjoyed the next 2 day riding the great roads in northern GA and venturing to Brasstown Bald, the highest point in GA. We returned home on Monday without riding on an Interstate and over 900 miles.

Bourbon and Covered Bridges

Jerri and I stopped by Makers Mark on our way to meet our HOG chapter in Maysville, KY. We ran into some light rain on Friday morning, but it stopped by the time our tour of Makers Mark began. The weather was great on Saturday and Sunday as we visited 11 covered bridges in Ohio and Kentucky. We rode great roads and had a great time. Rain threatened on Monday, but we made it to Bowling Green without running into any rain.

Southwest Trip 4/9/10 - 4/21/10 - Part 7

Monday morning we headed back to Hatch, NM for a Green Chile Cheeseburger at Sparkey's Bar B Que. We stayed at a Hampton Inn in Las Cruces, NM. On Tuesday we rode Rt. 28 and stopped by Stahmanns Pecans where Jerri's Father's cousin worked 37 years as the controller. We rode I-10 through El Paso and Sierra Blanca on our way to our last stay at the Hampton Inn in Ft. Stockton, TX on Tuesday. We new we were close to San Angelo when we saw goats laying in a field of windflowers. We arrived back in San Angelo around noon on Wednesday in plenty of time to pick up Buster and Redz. Our trip was 12 day and 3,281 miles.

Southwest Trip 4/9/10 - 4/21/10 - Part 6

Sunday morning we left Apache Junction and headed northeast on Rt. 60 and Rt. 70 south through the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation with a final destination of Silver City, NM. The wildflowers can be seen on the mountainsides. On Monday morning we rode Rt. 15, a great motorcycle road, to the Gila Cliff Dwelling Natl. Monument. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit. During a return trip on Rt. 15 we encountered our only rain of the trip and that was only a slight drizzle for about an hour.

Southwest Trip 4/9/10 - 4/21/10 - Part 5

Saturday we rode through historic Kingman, had breakfast at the Mr.D's Route 66 Dinner, and rode a section of Route 66 as far as Hackberry. The ride down the Joshua Tree Parkway was scenic. I didn't think we'd ever get past Phoenix on our way to Apache Junction for camping at a KOA.