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Pie Run V: Black Bear Restaurant, Davis Mtns State Park

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Simmons1

Simmons1

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First Name
Rich
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Simmons
I rolled in to the house at about 1:30 today, after 1217 miles; including 30 miles of dirt roads, 1 "40 minute chat" with a Texas DPS officer, 1 warning ticket, and of course one slice of excellant Key Lime Pie in my belly.



More Later....
 
STScott and I rolled into Arlington around 4:30 this afternoon - we just slabbed it home. Details later - pictures downloading from the camera.

Quick tally - 22 in attendance, farthest west rider was Ed Grant from Abilene.
 
I made it home just before 1600. A really long ride for me, about twice as long as any ride I've done before. I had a really good time, well except the soreness. :giveup:

I made some rookie mistakes, tried to break my foot on a traffic light, almost dropped the bike off the sidestand, hit the kill switch at 80mph on I-10, almost got blown off the road passing a semi shortly after that, but managed to salvage each situation without incurring damage to me or the bike. I didn't manage to hit any livestock, I left that one up to a more experienced rider. :trust:

I really enjoyed the morning loop we did in the Davis Mountains on Saturday. The sun rising behind the mountains, the clean air, the cool pockets in the low lying parts of the canyon, the feel of the bike purring under you, and the answering acceleration to the rolling of the throttle. It was a ride that would have made the weekend worth it, just by itself. Such a simple experience, but would be so hard to explain to someone who hasn't ever ridden. :rider:
 
it was fun, nice riding and meeting with y'all

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One of the secret announcements of this Pie Run:

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Surprise! Surprise! Kurt has a new bike! :eek2:

:thumb:
 
kurt said:
Get it right. That's Rhonda's bike. Im just the pilot.
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Funny conversation. I show up at Jim's to meet Kurt so we can head out. No sign of the BMW anywhere, so I end up parking between a Goldwing and a Harley. Walk in and there is Kurt.

"Where's your bike?"

"Right next to yours."

"The Harley?"

"No, the Goldwing."

"That's new right? Haven't seen that one before."

"Nah, it's not new, I've had it since March..."

The crazy thing is that actually made sense to me. After all a two month old bike owned by Kurt is almost extinct. :trust:
 
Focus people...

The ride was long and hot. Two immigration checkpoints by the Border patrol (Hwy 277 north of Del Rio and Hwy 90 to the west), two construction zones, one with an escort car, four gas stops and nine hours on the road. By the time we arrived, I had all the classic signs of heat exhaustion despite chugging 3 liters of water on the way. We also rode through lunch which in retrospect was a mistake.

My ride started at 0615 and took me 40 miles south to meet Josh at Jim's. By 0810 we were off and riding. 528 miles from my garage, we were in the parking lot at Indian Creek. We went through Kerrville, Mountain Home, Rocksprings, Del Rio, Sanderson, Langtry, Marathon and Alpine.

The lodge was kind of pricey, but I guess its secluded location drives the price up along with everything else. Regular gas was $4.19 in Ft. Davis. :eek2: No cell phone signal and no internet. Parking was also a challenge as there were very few spots flat enough to park a bike where it was level and wouldn't sink into the tar oozing parking lot. The rooms were nicely remodeled adobe buildings from the original CCC project in 1933. Great views too. Historically, this was a great place to stay.

The restaurant was a little lacking in the service area, but the food was passable, and the pie wasn't bad for such a remote location either. We did clean them out though. :trust:

My best ride, since I slept through the morning ride, was the dinner excursion 25 miles back to Alpine. It was starting to cool down and the sunset on the mountains was fabulous. Other than the close encounter with the deer, It couldn't have been better. I hate deer. The equally suicidal javelina on Park Road 3wasn't near as scary.

What can I say about the return trip? Hot and long. I-10 still sucks.

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kurt said:
The ride was long and hot. Two immigration checkpoints by the Border patrol (Hwy 277 north of Del Rio and Hwy 90 to the west), two construction zones, one with an escort car, four gas stops and nine hours on the road. By the time we arrived, I had all the classic signs of heat exhaustion despite chugging 3 liters of water on the way. We also rode through lunch which in retrospect was a mistake.
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I wonder if your jacket actually made it worse by allowing too much air through? I was noticing during the really hot stretches after Del Rio that I was actually "cooler" with my Stealth zipped up and face shield closed. I experimented with opening them up, and the hot air that was allowed in was not fun. As it was, closed up, the limited flow allowed for evaporative cooling. Don't get me wrong, I was sweating my butt off, but wasn't getting overheated.

I-10 wasn't nearly as miserably hot. Of course the whole knocked around by the semis and wind balanced it out.

I agree that skipping lunch was not our best idea, but our options were almost nonexistent after leaving Del Rio.
 
Glad you made it back in one piece. I ran 13 calls in the heat today in your absence. The "BumbleWee" is ready for its next trip. I have a top case and ordering side bags. "Slabbing" on I-10 doesn't sound like much fun, if it was long and hot on your decked out Goldwing, it wouldn't be much fun on my Vstrom. I will be sure to join you on the next few closer ones...Bill
 
You definitely need to come on the next one Bill. That way I have company getting blown around the lane on the Wee while Kurt cuts a straight line with that land yacht that he calls a motorcycle.

"Wee are Strom of Suzuki, you will be... yikes!"
 
Texfire said:
I wonder if your jacket actually made it worse by allowing too much air through? I was noticing during the really hot stretches after Del Rio that I was actually "cooler" with my Stealth zipped up and face shield closed. I experimented with opening them up, and the hot air that was allowed in was not fun. As it was, closed up, the limited flow allowed for evaporative cooling. Don't get me wrong, I was sweating my butt off, but wasn't getting overheated.

I-10 wasn't nearly as miserably hot. Of course the whole knocked around by the semis and wind balanced it out.

I agree that skipping lunch was not our best idea, but our options were almost nonexistent after leaving Del Rio.
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I wore a Riderwearhouse one-piece with just underwear underneath on the ride from Abilene Friday. With the all the vents open there was just enough airflow to allow my sweat to keep me cool. I was surprised that the leg from Del Rio to Alpine was fairly comfortable considering the 100° temp. Going back was even better as I got on the road at sunrise and arrived in Abilene four and a quarter hours later. No tickets, no incidents but lots of jack rabbits on the stretch of US67 south of I-10.

I wore a summer mesh jacket up to the pie run Saturday and the heat seemed much worse. The Aerostich does a better job of keeping me cool.
 
Pulled in at 9:15 PM, 564 miles today, 1620.7 total miles for the weekend. Quite a series of (mis-) adventures, but it sure was fun! :rider:
 
Day 1

Fort Worth to Pecos 410 miles

Left the house at 1pm blasted out I20 and arrived in Pecos one quick fuel/water stop later at 7pm. The Temp in Pecos was 108 at 7pm.



After a great dinner at a Mexican joint called Alfredo's it was time to call it a day.


Day 2 Pecos to Junction 480 miles.

Hit the road at 8:30 for the quick 85 mile ride to Fort Davis. I arrived a little early so I topped off the bike and checked out the old Fort before heading up the hill for Pie.







While checking in to the park some of the usual suspects pulled in behind me. One of the bikes was sporting some "new cosmetic mods" from hitting a calf on their morning ride.



The new Pie Man in action:



The usual suspects. I knew almost everyone in attendance. Must be the West Texas TWT'ers were not allowed to come out and play.





After this:



I hit the road at 12:30 to take a more scenic ride home. I headed to Alpine and then east on 90 towards Del Rio. After a fuel/water stop it was off to see the judge.





It was then off to the big bridge over the Pecos:





By now I was getting bored and decided to take some back roads and bypass Del Rio using my GPS to eventually get back to Junction for the night. I hung a left on FM 1024 which is where the adventure begins. I was fiddling with my GPS to reroute to Junction and didn't see any speed limit signs on the road. I wrongly assumed that as is typical of most Texas back roads that the speed limit was 70. A few minutes later I met a DPS officer that promptly flashed his lights at me. I pulled over and stopped and waited for him to pull up behind me. I was told I was stopped for doing 72 in a 55. Ok I guess, I never saw a sign. After looking over my paper work the strange questions started. Was I carrying anything illegal, where was I going, what was I doing and on and on and on. Then the same questions starting getting asked again and again to see if I answered them the same. At this point I could tell the officer was not believing my story that I was taking the scenic route back to Fort Worth after having Pie in Fort Davis. I one point I offered to show him hotel and gas receipts and I did show him the Park pass that was still stuck on my windshield. For the 4th time he asked me if I was carrying anything illegal. At which point, with my consent, he searched the ST completely. Unpaking all my bags and looking the bike over very carefully. My only guess was that he was searching for drugs. After what seemed like forever he gave me a warning and let me go. I continued on FM 1024 which was a nice road until it ended and turned in to dirt at Pandale. Since is was almost 5PM I took the dirt road and headed North toward I10. Other than the DPS car, I didn't see another vehicle between 90 and I10.



I stopped in Ozona for fuel/water and rode the last 92 miles to Junction on I10 arriving at 8pm. The Legends Inn was full so I stayed at The Hills for a whopping $36.16. A quick burger at Isaaks next door and it was time for bed.

Day 3 Junction to Fort Worth 327 miles

Hit the road at 8:30 on 377 North. In Mason I took 29 to LLano. Coopers smelled good when I rode by but is was way to early to stop for lunch. In Llano I turned North on 16. Making good time I decide to take a 35 mile side jaunt to see the Regency suspension bridge.







After getting back to 16 I headed North and turned right on to 377. After a quick gas stop in Stephenville I arrived back in Fort Worth at 1:30.
 
Kathy and I along with Buck&Betty rolled from the state park this morning around 9 AM. We made it home around 8 PM. We stopped in Monahans for lunch and again in Weatherford for dinner. We made several gas stops & to cool off by dousing ourselves with a water hose. We had a great time and probably logged somewhere close to 1100 miles.
Marty
 
Gold Wings and drugs....reminds me of something that came across the news when I was working one summer at Fort Polk in 1985. There was a rider pulled over on I-10 outside of Lake Charles, he was on a Gold Wing with a trailer. A search ensued and the trailer and bags were stuffed with drugs. He was only pulled over for not wearing a helmet but the officer became suspicious. How dumb do you have to be to not know that Louisiana had a helmet law if you are running drugs on a Wing.
 
Simmons1, I'll bet your stop had a lot to do with the two check points near Del Rio. You probably appeared to be avoiding them by taking that back route. Something was up, the BP sure had a lot firepower at the check points.
 
kurt said:
Simmons1, I'll bet your stop had a lot to do with the two check points near Del Rio. You probably appeared to be avoiding them by taking that back route. Something was up, the BP sure had a lot firepower at the check points.
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I have been going to the Big Bend region since the early 7's and over the last 5 years the law enforcement population has exploded in the area. The drug smuggling problem was out of control in the area shootouts between two rival smugglers in Presidio, local law enforcement caught in the smuggling .
At the first cheapSTOC one of the guys was a federal Marshall and he stated that the ratio of law enforcement to civilians was the highest in the state.
Thursday there were 2 DPS patrolling highway 90 between Van Horn and Marfa. In Marfa there were 4 DPS at a restaurant and at the courthouse there were 2 county patrol vehicles and 2 unmarked cars. On the way home Friday afternoon there were 6 DPS and 1 county sheriff running radar on I-10. You add in the Border Patrol and the guys running the surveillance balloon and the ground tracking system that is along the river that amounts to a lot of folks on the payroll. They are looking for drugs, money, and firearms. It should make me feel safe but it makes me wonder how bad it is to justify the amount of money and resources deployed in the area.
 
Janet said:
So.....who hit the poor defenseless calf?

;-)
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I think you mean who was victimized by a retard piece of veal trying to commit suicide. I have been severly traumatized and will need years of counseling to get over that incident....I think eating many pieces of steak will help me along in the healing process.:eat: :lol2:
 
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