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Travesty and Loss

Joined
Jan 30, 2011
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Hangin' out at the "bars"
There is a wave of pavement spreading across this fine land and in its wake it leaves pristine roads with bridges you don't even notice. Its just so perfect you hardly realize you are riding on a surface at all.

Compared to a simple gravel road.

A dirt road has personality. It speaks to a rider, imparting the road's feelings about the weather or perhaps sharing political views as you get a little loose rounding a corner, and, those special times when you're negotiating rutted or muddy or rocky or sandy ... joy.

Not so much with new pavement. Where is that joy, that meaningful discourse that only comes from being tertiarily involved in that on and off relationship shared between dirt and rubber.

This scourge infecting our favorite back roads is incurable and seemingly unstoppable. All you can do is ride 'em if you got 'em. They are going fast.

I don't think the roller they've been running up and down the road at my place bodes well for its own dirty future. Soon to be R.I.P. (Recently Improved Pavement)

For any of you familiar with the bridge/low water option on Owl Creek Road out of Warda, I regret having to share that today I found the road closed and a half-completed replacement bridge being installed.

It was a sad sight, almost enough to draw a tear. I'll miss that rather sketchy bridge that was there.

"Passenger Vehicles Only" I think the sign read.

This was once a happy dirt road where billows of dust followed each passerby celebrating both the traveler and the traveled upon. First it was paved, and now, lobotomized of the remaining personality it once shared with those of us who notice these things.

For any who have the opportunity, it is possible to go around the barriers and use the paved low water crossing. Just watch for the slick-as-snot gumbo around the barricade on the East side. I suspect the low water crossing may also go the way of the Dodo with the new bridge handling reasonable loads.

As my mom once said, "Progress just ain't no durn good."

For those who find themselves in the area, ride it while you can.

I'd like to dedicate this tread (Freudian slip) to recalling those memorable sections of road you miss, which have fallen to the encroaching menace of progress.
 
Bummer. I saw the sign at the Bear Creek road / Owl Creek road intersection just last week and intended to go down and see why. So that's it. There was an article in the Record a couple of weeks ago covering all of the bridge maintenance in the county. Guess I should have read it.

Anyway, I blame fracking and street bikes and hobby farmers. But mostly hobby farmers and street bikes. :duck:
 
Bummer. I saw the sign at the Bear Creek road / Owl Creek road intersection just last week and intended to go down and see why. So that's it. There was an article in the Record a couple of weeks ago covering all of the bridge maintenance in the county. Guess I should have read it.

Anyway, I blame fracking and street bikes and hobby farmers. But mostly hobby farmers and street bikes. :duck:

And fracking, that dang tax revenue, can't build the oil tops with out money and oil! Fracking definitely the issue! and hobby farmers.
 
Bummer. I saw the sign at the Bear Creek road / Owl Creek road intersection just last week and intended to go down and see why. So that's it. There was an article in the Record a couple of weeks ago covering all of the bridge maintenance in the county. Guess I should have read it.

Anyway, I blame fracking and street bikes and hobby farmers. But mostly hobby farmers and street bikes. :duck:

I blaming ethanol... oh my , you almost really pulled my chain today :doh: :giveup: :lol2: :rider:
 
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I'd like to dedicate this tread (Freudian slip) to recalling those memorable sections of road you miss, which have fallen to the encroaching menace of progress.

That's easy, Gandy Bend. Fayette county was lost to the LCRA decades ago when they build the smoker to power the streetlights and suburbs of Capital City. But Gandy Bend, that beautiful unmaintained stretch of sandy double track between Morales and Ezzell in Lavaca County, was lost just in the last couple of years. Used to be that a man could crash down there in the brush and might not be found until the opening weeks of dear season. These days it's just a wide caliche superhighway along the west side of Navidad river.

And Piney Creek Road. Did you see what they did to that? Chip n tar all the way to the bridge.
 
... This was once a happy dirt road where billows of dust followed each passerby celebrating both the traveler and the traveled upon. ...

And that, sports fans, is pure poetry.
*Hang on a minnit ... I think I got a speck of dust in my eye.*
 
And fracking, that dang tax revenue, can't build the oil tops with out money and oil! Fracking definitely the issue! and hobby farmers.

Well, with oil in the 40's, fracking out to be much less of an issue going forward...
 
Watching the changes in when and where we can ride over the past 50 years has been disheartening. That's all I'll say to avoid ticking off the guilty.
 
I rode around the barricades again a week or two ago.

The new bridge is in, the old low-water bypass is history, as is that really neat, old one-lane bridge.

As a form of protest I went ahead and crossed the barricaded new bridge, then, turned around and did it again.

I think I taught it a lesson!
 
Know how you feel, MTex. Ride out tomorrow and pee on the new bridge. Won't change anything, but you'll feel better.
 
I rode around the barricades again a week or two ago.

The new bridge is in, the old low-water bypass is history, as is that really neat, old one-lane bridge.

As a form of protest I went ahead and crossed the barricaded new bridge, then, turned around and did it again.

I think I taught it a lesson!
Before. :sun:

CIMG0438%20Copy_zpsse7zudkk.jpg



After. :thumbd: :tears: Earlier today. We didn't even ride over it, we just turned around.

CIMG3016_zpsx15nv3pb.jpg
 
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Well, I guess it makes the texting 16-year olds safer.
 
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