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East-Tex Ride March 26-28 Ride Report

Rydah

Who's ready to ride some dirt?!
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Location
La Porte, TX
This ride was organized by PigTrail and I have to start with a big thanks to him for doing so:

http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46762

Unfortunately, Richard was not able to make it due to work; too bad, as I was looking forward to meeting him, and it turned out to be a perfect weekend for riding and camping.

Well, Trailace and I decided to make it an all ride event, so we rode from our respected homes and met up in Winnie on Thursday afternoon. We then rode up to the Lake Livingston state park, and camped out there.

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Arrived at the state park

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Casa de Trailace

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My pad

We were right near the lake itself, and it made for a nice sunset.

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Place was nice, but wet. It had rained real heavy the day before, and most of the wood around was wet. Didn't hold out much hope for a fire, but with Trailace being part pyromaniac, and me finding the only pine tree in the forest, we got one going anyway.

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Fire!

We went to bed pretty tired after the day, and were looking forward to an early start to meet up with the rest of the group in Moscow.
 
Afer a brisk morning ride, we met up with the rest of the group at the Cater's Country Store in Moscow. It's the same place we started from last year, and like last year, we could not get gas there, LOL.

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When we arrived, BlazerRallph, flcbrxx and Doctor Z were already there. We were not quite sure if anyone else would be joining us, so we decided to have some breakfast and wait untill the agreed 9:00 start time.

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No one else showed, so we left at the appointed time, gassed up down the road, then began our adventure for the first day.
 
Rydah following me on day one.
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Robs right about everything being wet but we still had a nice fire.
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Man what a good looking group of riders.
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First day of the ride started off good, but we weren't into it very long before we had our first casualty; a broken kickstand.

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This was the result of a very tricky bridge getting the better of BlazerRalph's KLR, but the good thing was that his was also equiped with a center-stand, so it did not slow him down any. After that brief stop, we were back on the trail again.

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BlazerRalph on the injured KLR

The roads that day were a nice mix of pavement and dirt, but mostly dirt. The rain from the past couple of days made for less dust, and even for the occasional water crossing.

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BlazerRalph

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Doctor Z

The dirt roads were a nice mix of sand and dirt, some flat and wide open, others grooved and bumpy.

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Trailace on the Beemer

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flcbrxx on his newly aquired XR650R

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Pavement shot

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One of the many famous E.TX bridges

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The bridges would claim no victims this year!!

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The other XRR on the trail... mine!
 
Great pics, wish I found my camera, but not sure where it was packed because I just got back from Indiana the day before and was in a hurry to get the bike ready for the ride.
 
With only a few breaks along the way,

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we ended up stopping for lunch in Maydelle, and ate at the Maydelle Cafe.

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"Home of the Big Bertha Breakfast"

Of course, we were a bit late for the breakfast, but the lunch was pretty darn good.

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Chicken salad for Trailace

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Catfish basket for me.

We came out of the restaurant just in time to see the steam engine train comming by. Sorry for the blurry pic.

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Trailace and I were the campers of the group, and our stop for this night would be at the Texas State Railroad Park in Rusk. The group all rode there to get us checked in, then we all rode over to the Rusk KOA where the other three would be bunking.

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Checking in at the Railroad Park

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Cabin at the Rusk KOA (sheets optional) :rofl: Doctor Z showing off his rendition of the funky chicken.

After tucking in the three cabiners, Trailace and I headed back to the campsite, only to find it overrun by a boyscout troop. Of course, they were stationed all along the row of tent sites we were on, and the main meeting spot was of course the site next to ours :giveup:
Quite time for the park is 9:00, but the singing and yelling lasted past that for sure. I was going to walk naked over to the main tent and remind them of that, but Trailace thought that wouldn't be a good idea, so I decided not to. They ended up shutting it down at around 9:30 anyway, so it was't so bad after all. Thus ended the first official day of the ride.
 
Since Richard had to miss one of the best rides ever due to work we needed a new ride leader. There were 5 riders and each had a GPS but I think only Kenny and myself had the routes. So Kenny and I would take turns leading. :doh:

On the way to top off our tanks before hitting the dirt.
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Not sure what idiot built this bridge but it bit Ralph and we had our first and only get-off for the ride. :loco:
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Rydah having a little fun.
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Cool old building in Maydelle where we stopped for lunch.
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No matter how I tried this photo will not look any better. :lol2:
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Few more shots of the train.
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After a great lunch the gang gets ready to hit the trail.
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After we set up our tents in Rusk State Park we would head north on some really nice twisty roads they were a mix of pavement and dirt but still a lot of fun.

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Cabin at the Rusk KOA (sheets optional):rofl:
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The Chushing Hotel was used in a James Garner movie along with the train tracks across the road. In down town Chushing Texas is the water tower used in the movie. I cant remember the name of the movie but it was about Chushing OK. A guy I worked with had a old Chevy used in the movie and another guy I worked with has a son that climbed the water tower as a stand in for James.
 
Looks like you guys had a great time. I would of been there but I had already made plans for a ride with some buddies in Johnson City/Boerne/Luckenbach/etc.
That's an interesting tidbit of info Ronnie.

Isn't that steam engine just a marvel to watch work?
 
Day two started with Trailace and I packing up our camping gear, then heading over to the KOA to meet the rest of the gang. We had a change in the lineup though, as BlazerRalph decided he would cut the trip short, and head back home. He was replaced by two guys from Dallas; Dirtryder and Endoman.

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Dirtryder

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Endoman

After a breif intro to the new guys, and our farewells to BlazerRalph, we hit the road on the hunt for some breakfast and gas. We found both just down the road at Rudy's.

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It had a Whataburger attached, and after a quick eat, it was time to head out, but wait:

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My front tire was pretty much down to nubs, and I had half a mind to go find a replacement, but the nearest shop was around 10 miles the wrong way. After some consideration, I decided to take a chance and finish out the ride on what I had left. So, off we went.

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Man that's some nice dirt!

Trailace has always told me about how good a cattle man he was, but when he herded a stray calf with his bike, I was really impressed.

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You can just see the brown calf on the right ducking back under the fence

Second day was again a nice mix of pavement and dirt, and we rode a pretty good pace for most all of that day.
Some random shots:

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Doctor Z taking a break from the action

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Endoman over my shoulder on his KLR

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Our ride leader, Trailace on the Beemer

We ended up stopping for lunch in Center, TX. This is a real neat town with a true town square in the middle. We had lunch at a local Mexican food restaurant, and I had the best Carne Guisada that I've ever had. My camera was malfunctioning, so I was not able to get any pics of the place.

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Center town square (sorry for the blurry pic)

Didn't get much riding pics this day, as I was just having too much fun :clap: :rider:
Trailace kept us at a nice fast pace, and this was a good group of riders. We ended up losing our Dallas affiliates along the way, as they only planned to ride one day, and had to head home. Sorry we didn't get to say a proper goodbye, fellers, but glad to have seen you guys again.

We ended up at our stop for the night, the Holly Park Marina on Lake Toledo Bend.

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Super nice place; highly recommended :thumb:

Flcbrxx and Doctor Z got a room at the hotel, while Trailace and I set up tents next to the water.

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When I said by the water, I wasn't kidding. I figure anything coming out of the water would meet Trailace first, so I would be fine :trust:

I didn't get a picture of the room the others got, but man it was nice! Huge bedroom, huge bathroom, sofa, seat, full kitchen with all utensils, and even a patio with furniture! Nice.

Doctor Z had a craving for the great gumbo he had last time we did this ride, so we cleaned up and headed out to find food.

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The Fisherman's Galley is located just across the bridge in LA, and the food and service is first class. Yes, Doctor Z got his gumbo.

We went to bed that night in great spirits, as it had been a great ride so far, with incredible weather, roads, food and fun.
And so ended the second day of the trip.
 
looks like a ton of fun. do any of you ride double up with your lady,wifes? how far between fueling up? i get about 65 miles before i have to flip the switch. im hitting east tx this weekend at caney creek about 10 miles out of zavalla on hwy 63. would like to hook up with a few who know the area.
 
I don't 'cause my bike isn't designed for it, but there are other things to consider. Some of these roads are paved, and some are smooth, loamy dirt, so those would be no problem. Some sections are more sandy though, and steering can get a bit squirrely, and other sections are just too rutted and rough to be comfortable. As far as gas range, you can usually find something along the way within your 65 mile allotment, but sounds like you need a bigger tank ;-)
 
Thanks for sharing your pics & ride report. :clap: One of these days, I'll get to ride my dirtbike and get some practice so one of these years I can do something like this.
 
Thanks for sharing your pics & ride report. :clap: One of these days, I'll get to ride my dirtbike and get some practice so one of these years I can do something like this.

Sooner the better. You sure don't want to waste this weather, and this would have been a good ride to "cut your teeth" on. Nothing too technical on this ride, except for a couple killer bridges :eek2:
 
Thanks for sharing your pics & ride report. :clap: One of these days, I'll get to ride my dirtbike and get some practice so one of these years I can do something like this.

Hey one of these Thursday I need to come up and join you guys for dinner. Where are you eating these days and do you still go every week?
 
Sunday was the last day of the ride, and we wanted to get off to an early start so we could make it back to the trucks in Moscow at a decent hour. The nice thing about this site is it has gas and a grill as well, so we able to top up both our tanks and our stomaches :thumb:

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Topped up and ready to ride

We had a bit of pavement to cover before we got to dirt, and we hadn't gone more than a few miles before our second mechanical issue arose. I was following Doctor Z, when he suddenly pulled over to the side of the road. As I got close, I saw something hanging down from his bike and thought it must be a loose strap, but.. not so lucky.

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The chain was not just broke, but jammed too. Thanks for case savers, eh?

While trying to unjam the chain, we found this:

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Less teeth than a Tennessee inlaw!

Turns out we all had extra links, so after much unjamming, the chain was put back together, and we got it back on the sprocket. But, not the end of the story. Still ended up having a problem getting one of the wheel alignment bolts to back out enough for us to get good tension. Flcbrxx came up with an ingenious solution by using a 10mm socket as a spacer.

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Worked like a charm!

So, we were on the road again, and since we had left earlier than planned, we were now back on schedule, LOL.
 
Yep, worked like a charm.

I thought of the idea when I had to drill out the adjusters on the XR when I got it. The would just not back out and was afraid of it breakin off. So the the spacer came to mind.

Hope you get it to back out all the way Joe.

Was one of the best rides that I had been on in a long time. Good riders, good pace and a good time. Can't wait to do it again.
 
Hey one of these Thursday I need to come up and join you guys for dinner. Where are you eating these days and do you still go every week?

Hey Stranger,

Depends on my mood and if I'm riding. Montgomery changes its location every week so you have to check the thread. If the weather's bad, then I cage it to McKenzie's in Huntsville (new location opening soon).
 
The first day was over but we still needed to eat so we decided to go meet the East Texas riders for dinner.

Not sure how many may show up, but the East Texas RTE group has now scheduled a (last minute) Ride to Eat for Friday night to Ye Olde Restaurant in Gallatin, TX for 6:30. Link: http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46970

Looks like we miss them by a week but the food was great. These nice young ladies made me buy a cake for them. I’m a sucker for these cake sales.
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After dinner we had a real nice ride back to camp and another good fire.
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The bikes were packed and ready to take on day two.
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Dirtryder and Endoman would be joining us for day two but BlazerRalph would be cutting the trip short.
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I think Kenny and Joe did a few lap around the KOA in their new machines.
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Nice long sandy road.
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These guys were pushing me all day.
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What’s a ride with out a little mud.
I missed Rob but here are the others.

John
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KTM Joe
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Kenny hit it a little faster and kicked up some water.
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BMW Joe.
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There were a few locked gates but this one had 2-guard turkeys.
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Nine-mile road was fun and had some real mud holes. If you ever get a chance to ride on it do not try to run through the water because they can be very deep.

Few Nine –Mile road pics.
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Rob and I set up camp at Holly Park Marina while Joe and Kenny stayed in the hotel with all the amenities. Thanks for letting me use your shower.
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No fire but a great night of sleep.

Dinner at The Fisherman Galley
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