The HoT Rally - Heart of Texas

[andyc740]

Several months ago, I saw a reference to the HoT Rally (Heart of Texas) posted on twtex.com and thought it sounded like fun. I had never done a timed rally and wanted to try. It was scheduled for April 30th, a Saturday, and I didn't have to twist Dale's arm very hard to talk him into riding along. The rally wasn't supposed to be a team effort, but Rocinante hadn't been running well since the start of the year and I needed a wingman.

The way the rally was set up, a rider could start anywhere in Texas at 6:00 AM (with a receipt slip of some kind with time, date and location to verify the start), but had to be at the Best Western Inn in Brady by 6:00 PM to finish.

The rally organizer sent out a list of rally points and instructions two days before the rally so I got busy planning a route. Things got a bit complicated for me as my speedometer/odometer went out (again) the week before the rally, so I was stuck using my wife's GPS for mileage and speed. I don't like GPS's but it probably turned out to be a good thing.

The route I chose was James' bridge route since it started near Corpus Christi and a Whatburger in town was a bonus start location. I checked out other bonus points and plugged in a few that were on the way. Hopefully, by the time we were in Brady, we would have enough points to make a respectable showing. My bike's gas mileage was off, so I wasn't sure where I would wind up making gas stops, something that came back to bite me later on.

When Saturday arrived, Dale swung past the house about 5:30 and we headed for the Whataburger for our rally start.

6AS. Whataburger Restaurant #2
GPS: N27 46 24.4 W97 25 11.4

2424 Baldwin Boulevard, Corpus Christi, TX

Obtain a receipt ensuring that the correct store number, address, time and date is printed on it.
This start location is only available from 0600 to 0615.
650 points.​

At the restaurant we found half a dozen riders queued up at the cash register waiting for 6:00 so they could get their starting receipt. We wolfed down a quick breakfast, collected our receipts, and rode off into the sunrise.

1B. Old Salt Creek Bridge:
GPS: N28 32 37.7 W98 04 00.3
Located east of Three Rivers, TX on TX Hwy 72. From the intersection of I-37 and TX Hwy 72 travel east on TX Hwy 72 6 miles to County Rd. 223. You’ll cross over Sulfur Creek then turn right at County Rd. 223 travel about 100 yards you’ll see the old Salt Creek bridge in a field beside the county road.
Photograph the bridge with your rally flag included in the photo.
125 points.​

Our first stop was the Old Salt Creek bridge, about 75 miles up I-37 towards San Antonio. We arrived at the same time as several of the other riders, snapped a picture of the bridge and were off.

The more observant of you readers might note the picture is of the NEW Salt Creek Bridge, not the old one. I wasn't awake enough to notice; just snapped a picture of the sign and rode off. It turned out the old bridge wasn't where it was supposed to be. It had been moved, so my picture was good enough to claim the points.

The second stop was the old Nueces Bridge:

2B. Old Nueces Bridge:
GPS: N28 28 44.0 W99 30 37.9
Located in Dimmitt County between Carrizo Springs and Cotulla in the Valley Wells Cemetery on FM 1019. From the intersection of I-35 and FM 498 in Cotulla, travel west on FM 498 18.9 miles to the junction of FM 1019 turn left on FM 1019. Follow FM 1019 5.5 miles look for a cemetery maker sign on the left hand side of the road turn left at the sign. The old iron bridge is set inside the cemetery property.
Photograph the bridge with your rally flag included the photo.
250 points.
​

This was located the other side of Cotulla, so we rode west from Three Rivers through Tilden to Cotulla, then headed on into the country to find the bridge. I had to stop for gas in Tilden because of my poor gas mileage, which didn't bode well for the rest of the trip. Part of the problem was keeping the GPS speed pegged on 80 as much of the time as possible to finish the 600-mile route with all the stops in the time allowed.

We did find the bridge as advertised, in a cemetary of all places, snapped a picture, noted the time and mileage on our logs and headed on. By the way, I can't take credit for the rally flag. My wife sewed it up for me. I thought it was really cool as it was a bandanna from one of our Mexico bike rally trips. We'd covered 180 miles and it was 8:55 in the morning.

 

[andyc740]

Cotulla to Junction

From the Old Nueces Bridge, we rode north, stopping for gas again in Uvalde, then heading up Hwy 83 towards Leakey. By this time, the group of riders that started in Corpus had scattered, everyone seeking their own routes. We ran into a bunch of bikers in Leakey (not surprising for a Saturday) and talked them into a group picture, as that was good for some more bonus points.

5GB.Group Picture:
GPS: N/A
Anywhere within the State of Texas.
Photograph a group of at least five fellow riders that you don’t know with at least a couple of their bikes, you, and your rally flag in the photo.
250 Points.
​

As you can see, we were short a few bikers, so we called in more:

Still not enough, though I thought we should get some extra points for having a Cagiva and an old Guzzi in the picture. I was under the mistaken idea that we needed 5 bikes in the picture. Dale pointed out it was supposed to be 5 riders. Oh well, no points for that stop.

Up the road several blocks was the Real County courthouse, good for a few more points. It was now 10:50 in the morning and we'd ridden 280 miles.

4C. Real County:
GPS: N29 43 34.8 W99 45 45.7
Located in Leakey, TX between Main St. and East 4th St. on US 83/Market St.
Photograph the pink granite maker of John Leakey at the corner of Market and Main St. on the courthouse grounds including your rally flag in the photo.
75 points.​

You may note James has latitude and longitude numbers noted for every stop. They were spot-on for the whole ride. Made plugging locations into the GPS a lot easier. I didn't build a route into the GPS. I just saved all the different stops, then as we got to one, I'd tell the GPS to take me to the next.

I had the GPS stuck in the map pocket on the top of my tank bag. With a cigarrette lighter adapter clamped onto the battery terminals. It worked pretty well, but the GPS didn't want to ride straight in the map pocket and I reset the mileage by mistake after the Nueces Bridge stop trying to straighten it out.

From Leakey, we headed on north up 83 to Junction, with the Llano River bridge as our third bridge stop. If we got to all 5 of the bridges on the bridge route, we got double points for those stops.

3B. South Llano River Bridge:
GPS: N30 29 16.2 W99 45 44.8
Located in Junction, TX on Business Loop 481. From I-10 west take Exit 460 to Business Loop 481 travel 3 miles to the bridge. At the north entrance of the bridge there is a park entrance to the east, turn in there.
Photograph the bridge and Llano River with your rally flag in the photo.
75 points.
​

We made it to Junction and pulled in for our picture. 11:45, 340 miles.

 

[andyc740]

Junction to San Angelo

Our route carried us on up 83 through Menard, where the Pioneer Rest cemetery was one of the stops on the cemetery route. We took a picture to get a few more points. 12:15, halfway through our 12 hours, 370 miles, still a bit ahead of schedule.

5C. Pioneer Rest Cemetery:
GPS: N30 54 37.4 W99 47 18.7
Located in Menard, TX on US 83/Ellis St. From the tee-intersection of US 190 and US 83 travel south a mile on US 83. The cemetery entrance is on the right.
Photograph the entrance sign of the cemetery with the flag pole in the background and your rally flag included in the photo.
75 points.
​

Heading on, my bike hit reserve, then sputtered to a stop. I've been having trouble with the reserve petcock (the knob is broken) and had left it in Reserve to avoid that very problem. Turned out I only thought it was in reserve position, but it was just fooling me. After about 15 minutes of tinkering, I had that sorted out and we rode on again. So in Eden we stopped for gas and scarfed down a gas station sandwich for lunch before heading west on Hwy 87 to San Angelo, what was to be our farthest point west on our ride.

4B. Celebration Bridge:
GPS: N31 27 28.5 W100 25 59.7
Located in San Angelo, TX crossing the Concho River below the Oakes Street Bridge. From Keonigheim Street heading north or Abe Street heading south( both Koenigheim and Abe are US 277 going through San Angelo) turn east at Washington Street, travel .4 miles to Chadbourne Street. Turn left on Chadbourne St. travel .2 miles to Avenue A. Turn right on Avenue A go past the San Angelo Fine Arts building then turn into the parking lot and go toward the Concho River. Park and walk a couple hundred feet to the Celebration Bridge.
Photograph the mermaid “Pearl of the Conchos” from the Celebration Bridge including your rally flag in the photo.
200 points.
​

Coming into San Angelo, I wasn't getting much help from the GPS. The sun was directly overhead so I couldn't see the screen very well and it had locked up due to another inadvertant button push, asking me if I wanted to save a random location. When we crossed the Concho river with no bridge in sight, I took a minute of quality time with the GPS, finally figured out what was going on, got that sorted out and it steered us several blocks east to the bridge.

As you can see from the time/date stamp, it's now 1:55, we're 439 miles into the ride and starting to lose some time due to fatigue. Another 150 or so to go and we'll be done.

At this point, things took an unexpected turn. I was planning to ride Hwy 87 back east but the GPS steered me onto FM 765, a route Google maps wouldn't let me take. I wasn't sure we'd find gas, but thought we'd be OK, so we headed out FM765 on our way to the Regency Bridge, last bridge stop on our route.

 

[andyc740]

San Angelo to Brady

We passed a tiny little gas station in Eola without stopping, hoping for another further down the road. No luck. When we finally intersected Hwy 377 going north out of Brady, I had maybe 20 miles left in my tank with the nearest gas stations shown on the GPS being 20 miles away in Brady, so we detoured the 20 miles, gassed up, turned around and headed on towards the Regency Bridge.

5B. Regency Bridge:
GPS: N31 24 37.5 W98 50 46.7
Located between FM 574 to the north and FM 500 to south on County Rd. 137 connecting San Saba and Goldthwaite counties by spanning the Colorado River. From the junction of FM 45 and FM 500 travel 7.1 miles east on FM 500 to County Rd. 137. Turn left on County Rd. 137 and travel .9 miles. Note: County Road 137 is a dirt and crushed rock road.
Photograph the Colorado River from the center of the bridge looking north and include your rally flag in the photo.
125 points.
​

Finding the bridge was a challenge again. I turned off on a dirt road, rode a ways before we decided it wasn't the right turn (still having trouble seeing the GPS screen), but we finally located the bridge. I thought it was the coolest stop on the whole trip.

Wingman Dale was still hanging right with me.

It was 4:45 in the afternoon, 590 miles into our ride and we needed to get back to Brady. I decided to skip a gas station stop on the way back because it wasn't right on the highway and I didn't want to wander around looking for it.

5GS. Conoco Gas Station/General Store
GPS Coordinates: N31 19 22 W99 11 08.44
Located 16 miles NE of Brady, TX from the junction of US 377 and US 190. Travel north on US 377 13.7 miles to the intersection of Farm to Market 1028 turn right and travel east 1.6 miles, turn north (left) at the FM 1028/2315 intersection and continue on FM 1028. After .6 miles FM 1028 bears to the east (right), first block east of the big tree at the curve turn left travel about 100 yards to the old station on the right.
Photograph the Conoco street sign with the lone fuel pump with your rally flag included in the picture.
75 points.
​

However, coming back into town, we saw a group of motorcyclist parked under the awning of a closed gas station in town, working on one of their bikes. Our chance for a group picture! We assured them we weren't there to make fun of their problems, but wanted to know if we could pose for them for a group shot. They were good-natured enough they agreed. And this time we had at least 5 bikers in the photo.

They were all on Goldwing trikes, pulling these neat bike trailers and said they were from Bandera. One of the couples had the business building these trailers.

It was now 5:40. Twenty minutes left to get across town to the hotel and check in. We skipped our last planned stop at Brady butane in the interests of time.

6GB. Brady Butane:
GPS: N31 07 04.51 W99 20 07.6
Located in Brady, TX at 1907 S. Bridge(US 190).
South of the intersection of US 190/Bridge St and FM 2028 17th St. on US 190/Bridge St. on the east side of the street. ½ mile north of the Brady Inn.
Photograph the joyful Brady Butane Tank, “Brady” with your rally flag included in the photo.
50 Points.
​

I got further flummoxed when the GPS started telling me the hotel was 13 miles west of where we were, instead of south on Hwy 87/377, like I knew it was. I ignored the GPS and we pulled into the hotel parking lot at 5:49, 10 minutes to spare, after riding 634 miles.

The hotel parking lot was a busy place with several dozen riders there to turn in their trip logs, gas tickets and camera memory cards, but that was all handled with a minimum amount of fuss.

Dale and I checked into our hotel, the Days Inn next door, then repaired to the BBQ joint up the street for some hard-earned dinner. Later on, we gathered back at the Best Western parking lot to hear how the rally turned out. If I remember right, 42 riders finished and Dale and I tied for 15th or something like that. Made me wish I had gassed up in San Angelo. Picking up the points for the gas station and Brady butane would've had us pretty close to the top 10. Oh well, chalk it up to tuition.

All in all, it was a great ride. The rally seemed to be extremely well laid-out, routes were well researched and well thought-out. GPS waypoints were accurate. It is definitely on my to-do list for next year. But I need to be getting better gas mileage.

In the morning, Dale and I got up and had a leisurely 300-mile ride back to Corpus Christi. What a great weekend.

 

[cheez]

Nicely written, and good job placing in the top half of the field! Sounds like a hoot of a day- I'll be watching for next year's HoT rally!

 

[lonestarrider]

Great report Andy. The Regency is a personal favorite of mine also. I thought that was funny that the Salt Creek bridge had been moved. The rumor I hear is that it has a for sale sign on it and was moved somewhere along I-37
We'll see you next year.