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[Ride Report] Another Post Xmas ride 12/27/03

Tourmeister

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Scott
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Friday
Howdy,

:tab Here are the pics:

http://twtex.com/linkfiles/DayRide122703/

:tab As if my legs and tush were not tender enough from my 450 mile East Texas Butt Burner ride the day after Christmas, I decide to go riding again on Saturday. The weather looks great, Paul and Debbie are itching to go riding, how can I say no? Paul and Deb plan on showing up horribly early in the morning to leave, 11:00am :shock: They do. I manage to drag myself out and get ready to ride with them. Ugghh... the burdens I have to deal with! :roll:

:tab As a result of the hard riding yesterday, the rear tire on my VFR is toast. There is little rubber left in the center of the tread all the way around the tire. In a few places the chord is starting to show. Looks like I will be riding Beth's bike today. She has stuff to do today and does not want to go riding with us. :shrug:

:tab We decide to just run down to King's Cafe for lunch. I am on call and cannot stray to far from home. It is overcast and windy with the temperature hovering in the high 60's. The run down through the Sam Houston National forest takes us a little over thirty minutes with Debbie leading. She has been making great progress and is getting much more comfortable on the bike. She is running delayed apexes through the corners and looks smooth, rolling on the throttle as she exits. After a quick lunch we decide to head over towards Lake Livingston and then loop back around to Huntsville from the Northeast.

:tab Soon after we start heading North on FM 149 back into the forest, I make a pass on a truck and leave Deb and Paul behind. It will be a few minutes before she gets to a place where she can pass. This gives me time to get ahead of them so I can try to setup to get pics of them as they come around a corner. Apparently, Deb passed fairly quickly and ran a faster than expected pace because, as I am trying to get setup for the shot, I see them coming and have to rush to get into position.

Deb and Paul on FM 149
Dang! missed him!

:tab When we reach FM 1375, we turn East and head towards Lake Conroe. The clouds are thinning out and the wind has died down a little. The sun is coming through and it looks to be a much nicer day than we were expecting. I stop on the bridge over the lake for a few shots.

Looking South
Looking East along the bridge

:tab I catch up with Paul and Deb and we continue East on FM 1375. A few miles later, the road becomes a gravel surface. It seems they are in the process of completely redoing the roadbed before repaving. This road really needed it. They have been patching it for years. The heavy logging trucks have really worked over the underlying soil and it can no longer handle the loads. I know Debbie is nervous but she seems to be doing fine. Paul's an old hack at riding so this is no biggie for him ;-)

:tab The gravel only lasts for a few miles and then we cross over I-45 and head into New Waverly. We run Old Hwy 75 North a block and then keep heading East on Hwy 150 toward Coldspring. I want to take a little detour on a fun side road but Debbie does not know where to turn off, so a few miles out of town I pass and take the lead. We turn North onto FM 2693 and I take off again. I want to try for some action shots again and need to get far enough ahead to have time to get setup. I reach a nice set of esses, park the bike just beyond a small bridge and start back toward the curve. I'm about half way to where I want to be when I take the pics and I see Debbie crest a hill about a 1/4 mile away!! Doh!! Now I have to actually run to make it in time to get a shot :|

Deb ripping through the corner on her GS500E
Paul hamming it up for the camera

:tab As they zip off around the next curve, I turn and head back to the bike, panting from my running :oops: I'm such a potato. :roll: Off the side of the road I notice the stark colors of the trees and pastures and it just strikes an odd chord in me. The ground cover is a golden hue and the trees such a bland dull grey.

Tree covered in Spanish Moss
A glaring contrast in colors

:tab I mount up and take off with a whoosh thinking I will have to hustle to catch up to the others, only to round a corner and find them waiting on the side of the road. Debbie doesn't like to lead when she has no clue where we are going, hehe. Not much further up the road, the curves give way to mostly straight rough pavement as the FM turns back to the South and intersects Hwy 150 a few miles up from where we first turned North. We turn East and head for Coldspring.

:tab We stop for a break in Coldspring. I'm actually hot!? It is two days after Christmas and I am really contemplating taking the liner out of my jacket. It has been up around 75 F and kind of muggy. The wind comes and goes. The cloud cover breaks up and it looks like it will clear and then it reforms and gets overcast again. What a goofy, but typical, Texas day. Refreshed, we head North on Hwy 156 and pick up the South end of FM 224.

:tab FM 224 was at one time listed as one of the top ten roads in Texas. I'm not real sure why? :shrug: It has a lot of quick elevation changes and some tight curves. However, it runs up the West bank of Lake Livingston and thus has a lot of weekend traffic. Also, the pavement quality leaves a LOT to be desired. Nonetheless, we are not out to set any speed records but rather to just enjoy the afternoon. In that light, the road is quite fun.

:tab We drop out back onto Hwy 156 and then head South to find FM 946. This is a real jewel of a road. It cuts up to US 190 in a Northwest direction through a lot of timber company owned forests. However, very little of the forests are mature enough for harvesting so there is little if any logging truck traffic. A year or so ago it was repaved and has remained exceptionally smooth. There are very few houses or drives along the way. Debbie is happy tooling along about 60-65mph. I enter the corners at that speed and the ROLLLLL all the way through them WFO! The sound of the TBR pipe on Beth's VFR is intoxicating :twisted: As I exit the corner I roll off and drop back down to about 60mph and Debbie comes up behind me. Rinse and repeat!! :dude:

:tab When we reach US 190, we turn East again and head for Waterwood Parkway. This is another favorite road of mine. It is seven miles of really nice fast sweepers through the woods. There is excellent visibility through the corners because the shoulder is fairly wide. There are almost no side roads or driveways for the first 6 miles of it. As we turn onto the Parkway, I spot a cruiser rider coming South towards us. He's making a U-turn and will likely fall in behind us after we go by him. We take off into the woods at a quick pace. Debbie seems to be feeling really comfortable today because she is running about 5-10mph faster than normal while still looking smooth and relaxed. A quick mirror check shows we have picked up a fourth headlight and he's running in formation with us. Unfortunately, there is a truck in front of us and it is keeping the pace a little slower than this road demands of us :P We reach FM 980 and the cruiser pulls up beside me to go straight, we're headed left. A quick nod and a wave, a ride shared and enjoyed, and we are on our way.

:tab We run FM 980 all the way back to Riverside on Hwy 19. We're out in the sticks basically and there is little traffic. Most of the curves are long big sweepers. Just outside of Riverside the elevation changes come faster and are more pronounced. We stop at the Diamond Shamrock in "town" to gas up and take a break. From here it is about 12 miles back to Huntsville on FM 980. It is only 4:00ish and the thought of going straight home with this much prime riding weather remaining is more that than we can bear. We decide to head Nroth on Hwy 19 to Trinity and take FM 230 and 3478 in the back way.

:tab After a quick run up 19 to Trinity, we turn East on FM 230 and head back out into the woods. This is a really nice scenic road with lots of fun curves. It is where I spent a lot of time learning to ride my Nighthawk 750, my first bike. I remember coming through here at 50mph and thinking I was flying!! The speed limit is 70mph. :lol: Leaning that top heavy beastie really scared me. Now I live for the lean :twisted: It has clouded up again and the late afternoon sun makes the clouds look pretty cool.

A winter pasture
The same pasture with a different exposure setting

:tab I take the lead again and we pass the turn off for FM 3478. I'm sure Debbie has to be wondering what I am up to? Paul probably has no idea where we are and doesn't realize we should have turned. The last time we were out here on this section of road, Debbie was on my bike with me and we were chasing down Achim and John. They had just passed me right as I was about to put on my blinker. They did not realize we were turning. The next intersection where they might stop was about 15 miles up the road and neither had any idea where they were, so we had to catch them. Let me just say that they were travelling really really fast. :x John tends to do this when he get's on Beth's VFR :roll: I slowed way down for the corners but opened it up on the straights and still could not catch them. Finally they slowed up when their squiddly frenzy wore off. :roll: We got them turned around and headed back to rejoin the rest of the group. Debbie was a little flustered hehe. She was yelling at them as I pulled up behind them. :lol: So anyway, Debbie's last experience on this road was not one that she is really fond of :angel: I figure we'll hit those same curves so she can enjoy them this time, they really are fun. When we reach the Eastham Prison unit, we turn around and head back to FM 3478.

:tab This is a relatively new road and doesn't even show up on a lot of maps. It has a really nice surface. I used to ride the Nighthawk out here in the afternoons if we were not busy at work. I'd run out and back in about 25 minutes, check to see if any work had come in while I was gone, repeat if I could. I got in a lot of miles fast this way :wink: I decide that at the top of a long hill is a great spot to stop and take some pics of us and the bikes. Oncoming traffic can see us from either direction from a long way out.

Beth's VFR 800 / Same shot with flash
Debbie's 2001 Suzuki GS 500E / Close up
Paul's Lucifer Orange Triumph Sprint RS / Coming at you!
The GS and the fading sun
Debbie on her GS
Paul on his RS
Your's truly!
The fading afternoon sun

:tab After the picture session, it is a quick run over to FM 980 and then back into town. Total mileage is right around 180 I think. This is only Debbie's second long ride, long being anything over 30 miles in a shot. She seems to be really enjoying it. I know I am! When we get home, we find Beth doing yard work. It is really nice outside still. Paul has to run over to Hearne where he garages the bike. It is early enough that he decides to drive back here for dinner with us before heading home. About 1:30 am he figures he probably ought to be heading home :lol: We had a great time!

Adios,
 
I'm jealous. Friday and Saturday were beautiful, and I had to work. Sunday/Monday I'm off, and now it's cold and crappy. But at least now I can devote my time to painting the bathroom, or Stephanie tells me.
 
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