Friday, April 06, 2007
Morning arrived on our doorstop, rather quietly I might add.
Steve and I were both rumbling around sorting through stuff when Skinny ambled through the door dressed in street clothes.
Skinny
I could see breakfast in the offing. As soon as Chris (no longer a morning person as he is retired) was ready, we were off to the Fina for breakfast.
Now everyone likes eggs and most everyone has a particular style of cooking them. Chris is partial to the same kind of eggs that my father liked ... blindfolded ... does everyone understand that term? The eggs are just firm enough to be recognizable. Now me? After 19 years of watching my dad eat eggs like that, I lean towards scrambled.
We ordered ...
Chris’ blindfolded eggs were fried ... somewhere between medium and hard, judging by the grill marks.
My scrambled eggs also were actually fried eggs ... go figure ... and mine were a bit softer
In any case, with breakfast behind us, it was time to get the brand spanking new-to-me DR650 dusty and dirty!
Ain’t she pretty?
The weather was cloudy and somewhat dreary ... and cool. Mmmmm, cool is not good, where is the sweatshirt I got at Wal-Mart in Abilene? Well apparently I left it for the maids in the hotel. Oh well, I owned it for almost 8 hours!
We headed north on 118 intending to check out the area west of 118 across from the road to Terlingua Ranch. As I mentioned earlier, we are the crew setting up the loops for the Terlingua Dual Sport Ride this fall.
Sorry I didn’t get more photos of the area, but suffice it to say that we found a lot of dead ends and washouts that will not serve us in route planning.
After a while we ambled northwest on a road into the backcountry following the fat line on my GPS. We all know GPS software never lies, so I had us charted back into Terlingua for lunch. One large primitive airport and some fencing running north-south hindered progress, so we headed back eastward towards Terlingua Ranch. Crossing 118, we soon found ourselves at the Bad Rabbit Café for burgers and coffee for lunch. I know sweet tea should have been the drink of choice, but it was getting colder as the day progressed.
Stopping by the office at Terlingua Ranch, we all purchased long sleeve tee shirts. Now mind you, not because we are fond of Terlingua Ranch, although we are. We were cold!!!
After lunch we headed northward to Cedar Springs Ranch. Rod and Randy were in for the weekend and we wanted to say hi! They had a fire going, so being the neighborly type, the invited us to sit a spell.
Rod told us of an impending move to Denver, while Randy brought us up to speed on the happenings about the ranch.
From the left
Rod, Chris, Skinny, Steve, Zeke, Randy
Steve is sporting his new yellow Terlingua Ranch shirt in the photo. He is such the fashion plate ... yea, I know ... Chinet
A quick trip to a hill with a weather station produced a great view to the north. Well, it would have been better without the clouds and the wind. That is Chalk Draw below the crest of the near hill.
Long on miles, not knowing the range of my tank on my DR, we headed back to Terlingua/Study Butte. Along the way, both Skinny and I hit reserve. Skinny is jonesing for IMS to stop dragging their heals and get a tank on the market for his Husky, while I am in sticker shock about the Aqualine for my bike.
Back at the room, Skinny felt Steve’s bike was missing something.
I don’t understand the glum looks, considering how pretty the flowers are. Kinda makes Steve’s bike look like a VW bug, doesn’t it?
The tale of the tape? We managed 135 miles for the day, with a fair amount of putzing about.
[ ... more soon ... ]