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- Joined
- Dec 18, 2005
- Messages
- 560
- Reaction score
- 3
- Location
- San Angelo
- First Name
- Bill
- Last Name
- Richards
One of the fun things I do with motorcycling and Geocaching is riding the LTC to the cache sites. There were two out 45 miles north of here, that I had put off due to cost of gas. But with the new Vulcan 900LT (the LTC) I wanted to get road time and experience, so off I set this morning. 
Out north of San Angelo, the roads are fairly straight (some 55mph curves), with some curves, but with our open range (ie wide open) the wind makes for a challenge along with the road. Tx 208 goes out to Robert Lee (very nice 9 hole course there, and jump off point to get onto Lake Spence). There is a small ghost town north of Robert Lee, only known by the locals (as a safe place to party and not get caught). Also there is a homemade monument called the "Sanco Man". Made from left over parts from defunct oil wells (one of the reasons the town failed was the oil busts in the past). I had wanted to put a Geocache out there for a long time. And with the road like a State Park Road (no shoulder, no center stripe and loose gravel, and wildlife) it is a neat little ride. Or if you like caliche roads, you can start in downtown Robert Lee, go out by the golf course, and drive 20 miles out a farm to market caliche road. I took the highway, and left a geocache and took photos of the Sanco Man and the Sanco sign (for the alphbetical town rides). Then out to the highway (TX 208) to the big town of Silver. Someone had put a cache out there, and just beyond it is TX 2059 that curves, dips, winds, etc. around north of Lake Spence to the road from Robert Lee to the Sterling City Highway. Just what I needed as it had long stretches of back and forth curves (America's Cup curves, right curve, then left curve) and up and down and marked at 45mph. Just around the lake is another ghost town called Edith (West Texas has lots of "sprout up then vanish towns"). Just down a back road, is an unremarkable low water crossing at what the locals call the Dripping Spring. I have been out here over 50 years and had never heard of it. There was another geocache here. The area looks like a sink hole on the downstream side, and there is water dripping out of the sides of the cliffs (30-40 feet high). Neat to find dripping water in DRY West Texas. Edith is on TX138.
Now it's time to pay the piper and return home, south. And we are now facing midday in the West Texas flat lands and hills, and the wind is up like it usually is. Straight from the south (almost), and straight back into it I had to go, to get home. That was fun, trying to keep at 65-70 and into a 25 to 30mph headwind, that kept moving from SSE to south to SSW. But 140 miles later, I am back at the computer. The bike performed flawlessly. But the wind noise was too much for the helmet speakers I had gotten. And the Nolan gets too warm completely closed up.
As a god note, I have now topped 600 miles and the LTC is ready for first service call, oil change and bolt check.
As to using the route as a pie run, the Crackerbarrel in Robert Lee has homemade pies (and some really nice food). Not much else out in this part of the world. Saw two bikes going south (one 2-up) and they were fighting the wind as I went out at 1030 or so. But that is still more bikes than we used to see.
The Sink Hole/Dripping Spring was hard to see anything except the surrounding land and the trees in the bottoms. I will try to attach the Sanco Man's pic, with bike and Tx Highway History sign.
Enjoying the heck out of riding. I just wish my TWT sticker was more obvious in the 2. I had someone stop and read "wheeled Texan?". Hard to get them to talk when the sticker is not obvious.
But I had fun.
Out north of San Angelo, the roads are fairly straight (some 55mph curves), with some curves, but with our open range (ie wide open) the wind makes for a challenge along with the road. Tx 208 goes out to Robert Lee (very nice 9 hole course there, and jump off point to get onto Lake Spence). There is a small ghost town north of Robert Lee, only known by the locals (as a safe place to party and not get caught). Also there is a homemade monument called the "Sanco Man". Made from left over parts from defunct oil wells (one of the reasons the town failed was the oil busts in the past). I had wanted to put a Geocache out there for a long time. And with the road like a State Park Road (no shoulder, no center stripe and loose gravel, and wildlife) it is a neat little ride. Or if you like caliche roads, you can start in downtown Robert Lee, go out by the golf course, and drive 20 miles out a farm to market caliche road. I took the highway, and left a geocache and took photos of the Sanco Man and the Sanco sign (for the alphbetical town rides). Then out to the highway (TX 208) to the big town of Silver. Someone had put a cache out there, and just beyond it is TX 2059 that curves, dips, winds, etc. around north of Lake Spence to the road from Robert Lee to the Sterling City Highway. Just what I needed as it had long stretches of back and forth curves (America's Cup curves, right curve, then left curve) and up and down and marked at 45mph. Just around the lake is another ghost town called Edith (West Texas has lots of "sprout up then vanish towns"). Just down a back road, is an unremarkable low water crossing at what the locals call the Dripping Spring. I have been out here over 50 years and had never heard of it. There was another geocache here. The area looks like a sink hole on the downstream side, and there is water dripping out of the sides of the cliffs (30-40 feet high). Neat to find dripping water in DRY West Texas. Edith is on TX138.
Now it's time to pay the piper and return home, south. And we are now facing midday in the West Texas flat lands and hills, and the wind is up like it usually is. Straight from the south (almost), and straight back into it I had to go, to get home. That was fun, trying to keep at 65-70 and into a 25 to 30mph headwind, that kept moving from SSE to south to SSW. But 140 miles later, I am back at the computer. The bike performed flawlessly. But the wind noise was too much for the helmet speakers I had gotten. And the Nolan gets too warm completely closed up.
As a god note, I have now topped 600 miles and the LTC is ready for first service call, oil change and bolt check.
As to using the route as a pie run, the Crackerbarrel in Robert Lee has homemade pies (and some really nice food). Not much else out in this part of the world. Saw two bikes going south (one 2-up) and they were fighting the wind as I went out at 1030 or so. But that is still more bikes than we used to see.
The Sink Hole/Dripping Spring was hard to see anything except the surrounding land and the trees in the bottoms. I will try to attach the Sanco Man's pic, with bike and Tx Highway History sign.
Enjoying the heck out of riding. I just wish my TWT sticker was more obvious in the 2. I had someone stop and read "wheeled Texan?". Hard to get them to talk when the sticker is not obvious.
But I had fun.
