Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Texarkana
After Hot Springs I headed South to get away from the rain because it was coming again when I awoke. It was raining when I arrived as well btw. Well, I was caught in the rain again so I pulled off the road in the next stop which happened to be a school. It wasn't too long before a kid on a atv/golf cart mixture deal pulled up and wanted to know what size my bike was. He noticed the F800ST on the side before I was able to answer and started telling me about the bikes he used to have. I chatted with him while I was getting my gear on, and politely said "see you later" as soon as I had everything on because it was about 85 degrees and with the rain gear on I'll start to sweat profusely unless I'm moving. I will be looking into some different rain gear that is cooler for the summer months. I'm NOT wearing "frog togs!!"
The sky spit rain on me for the next hour, but never enough to get me soaked. After I was through things cleared up pretty nicely.
I at first decided to head to San Antonio, but then decided to head toward Dallas. I was a bit interested in seeing The Alamo, but when I thought about that it would basically take me two days in and two days out totaling about 4 days to see one thing I decided against it. In this heat I wasn't fairing too well physically. The sun was draining my energy and the seat just wasn't cutting it for this length of riding every day.
Here are some shots heading into Dallas. I always try to get the skyline of cities if I can and one of the pics turned out pretty good and showed exactly what I was experiencing. Insane sun shooting right through my visor on my face, heavier traffic, and you can imagine the heat radiating off the road. None of that bothered me at the time, but now looking back at it I know I definitely was tired.
I rode through Dallas after getting off the bypass and started out in the Industrial section and just headed toward the tall buildings. Dallas was just like every other city down town. I saw homeless people meandering about and taking up space on bus benches. I saw many business people carrying their brief cases and hurriedly crossing the street. I saw people drag racing from one light only to be stopped by the next and then try and do it again to make up that extra 30 seconds to their destination. I wasn't in any hurry really except that I did want to get off the bike for a little while. I headed through the city and I must have gotten to the "nice" side of town. The cars started becoming Mercedes/BMW's/Lexus/etc., the restaurants had fancy names, and there was quite a bit more landscaping in this area. Funny how people pay more to live around patches of green in a cit. And the people.... I'm pretty sure that half the girls I saw jogging were models or could have been. An Asian model type pulled up next to me in a brand new convertible viper with the typical huge bug eye sunglasses, but sorry guys I couldn't get out my camera in time.
I found a hotel just North of Dallas in Denton where I wouldn't be spending over $100 just to sleep somewhere. They almost gave me the handicap room again. Is it the haircut or my yankee accent?
There were a couple bikes parked next to mine. A couple full tourers and one had a trailer. The guy with the bike that had the trailer was filling the cooler on the trailer with ice and I struck up a conversation with him inquiring where he was headed and coming from. He said that rgiht now they were headed to a Hawg rally happening in Wichita, KS and had just back from Illinois. Hmm, if you know about the arrangements of the states here in the U.S. then you are thinking the same thing as me. Why in the world is he driving right past Kansas and then turning back around to go up North. He explained that they were doing another ride for the Ironbutt association. Very cool, I'd actually met someone that was in the Ironbutt association. If you remember, this is what we were going to try and do when we left home. He said that they went to Illinois to get a burger. I guess that is some ride on there where you go to a town a thousand miles away or so just to get a burger. I'll have to look it up later. The guy was cool and told me a couple other stories, one involving getting caught in about 4" of snow in N. Illinois last winter and one of his crew going down and his bike getting ran over by a semi. He said his friend was fine, but the bike was a total loss of course. You really need to have a bike like his to pull off some of those crazy long distance rides. I might be able to pull off that 1,000 miles in 24 hours with my sheepskin seat cover though! Maybe......, but right now my tailbone is hurting and I didn't notice how much until I went to sit down on the bed in the hotel room. Anway, I needed some R&R so I asked some people around the hotel office what there was to do and one mentioned a "Movie Tavern." At these places if you aren't familiar with them, you can order beer and food while you are watching a movie. I'd never been to one so I found it on my GPS, showered and changed, and headed out. I had a couple Fat Tire beers on tap and ordered some BBQ/Hot mix boneless wings while I enjoyed "Ironman." The movie was pretty good and it was after 12 when it ended. For some reason I ended up talking with the manager there about running one of those franchises. He was sent to that town to try and turn the place around. Yeah, there was me and about 6 others in the movie I was in.
The sky spit rain on me for the next hour, but never enough to get me soaked. After I was through things cleared up pretty nicely.
I at first decided to head to San Antonio, but then decided to head toward Dallas. I was a bit interested in seeing The Alamo, but when I thought about that it would basically take me two days in and two days out totaling about 4 days to see one thing I decided against it. In this heat I wasn't fairing too well physically. The sun was draining my energy and the seat just wasn't cutting it for this length of riding every day.
Here are some shots heading into Dallas. I always try to get the skyline of cities if I can and one of the pics turned out pretty good and showed exactly what I was experiencing. Insane sun shooting right through my visor on my face, heavier traffic, and you can imagine the heat radiating off the road. None of that bothered me at the time, but now looking back at it I know I definitely was tired.
I rode through Dallas after getting off the bypass and started out in the Industrial section and just headed toward the tall buildings. Dallas was just like every other city down town. I saw homeless people meandering about and taking up space on bus benches. I saw many business people carrying their brief cases and hurriedly crossing the street. I saw people drag racing from one light only to be stopped by the next and then try and do it again to make up that extra 30 seconds to their destination. I wasn't in any hurry really except that I did want to get off the bike for a little while. I headed through the city and I must have gotten to the "nice" side of town. The cars started becoming Mercedes/BMW's/Lexus/etc., the restaurants had fancy names, and there was quite a bit more landscaping in this area. Funny how people pay more to live around patches of green in a cit. And the people.... I'm pretty sure that half the girls I saw jogging were models or could have been. An Asian model type pulled up next to me in a brand new convertible viper with the typical huge bug eye sunglasses, but sorry guys I couldn't get out my camera in time.
I found a hotel just North of Dallas in Denton where I wouldn't be spending over $100 just to sleep somewhere. They almost gave me the handicap room again. Is it the haircut or my yankee accent?
There were a couple bikes parked next to mine. A couple full tourers and one had a trailer. The guy with the bike that had the trailer was filling the cooler on the trailer with ice and I struck up a conversation with him inquiring where he was headed and coming from. He said that rgiht now they were headed to a Hawg rally happening in Wichita, KS and had just back from Illinois. Hmm, if you know about the arrangements of the states here in the U.S. then you are thinking the same thing as me. Why in the world is he driving right past Kansas and then turning back around to go up North. He explained that they were doing another ride for the Ironbutt association. Very cool, I'd actually met someone that was in the Ironbutt association. If you remember, this is what we were going to try and do when we left home. He said that they went to Illinois to get a burger. I guess that is some ride on there where you go to a town a thousand miles away or so just to get a burger. I'll have to look it up later. The guy was cool and told me a couple other stories, one involving getting caught in about 4" of snow in N. Illinois last winter and one of his crew going down and his bike getting ran over by a semi. He said his friend was fine, but the bike was a total loss of course. You really need to have a bike like his to pull off some of those crazy long distance rides. I might be able to pull off that 1,000 miles in 24 hours with my sheepskin seat cover though! Maybe......, but right now my tailbone is hurting and I didn't notice how much until I went to sit down on the bed in the hotel room. Anway, I needed some R&R so I asked some people around the hotel office what there was to do and one mentioned a "Movie Tavern." At these places if you aren't familiar with them, you can order beer and food while you are watching a movie. I'd never been to one so I found it on my GPS, showered and changed, and headed out. I had a couple Fat Tire beers on tap and ordered some BBQ/Hot mix boneless wings while I enjoyed "Ironman." The movie was pretty good and it was after 12 when it ended. For some reason I ended up talking with the manager there about running one of those franchises. He was sent to that town to try and turn the place around. Yeah, there was me and about 6 others in the movie I was in.
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