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Motorcycle Grand Tour of Texas (2022 version)

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blupupher said:
some will say bikes can go to the front of the line, but you cannot
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That's part of the information I was hoping to get. When I did the Port Aransas stop two years ago, the ferry line was so long, I went back out the way I came, through Corpus Christi. After I had already committed to coming back out that way, I wondered if I could have skipped the line; just didn't know how to get that information.
Thanks!

I haven't been on a ferry in quite a while, and not yet on the bike. The pictures Simmons1 posted don't look like the ferry we used to take to cross the Mississippi between New Roads and St. Francisville (Louisiana).
 
Got 2 more done today (Navasota and Hearn).
The coffee shop was still a pain to get to this year again. Construction on the road right in front of it, and a ton of traffic, even at 1 pm on a Saturday.
2022-04-02 12.44.36.jpg

I was planning on parking across the street and taking a pic from there like I saw someone else last year, but traffic on the other side was way backed up as well, so just pulled into the little hashed area and grabbed the tag.
 
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Just FYI, I attached my .gpx file from basecamp in the first post with all the stops if anyone wants to use it (at your own risk of course).
 
blupupher said:
Got 2 more done today (Navasota and Hearn).
The coffee shop was still a pain to get to this year again. Construction on the road right in front of it, and a ton of traffic, even at 1 pm on a Saturday.
View attachment 317141
I was planning on parking across the street and taking a pic from there like I saw someone else last year, but traffic on the other side was way backed up as well, so just pulled into the little hashed area and grabbed the tag.
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Hate to be the one to say I don’t see your flag.
😱 which stop is this one?
 
Simmons1 said:
Early on some one was complaining about the stop up in Borger. Having been to Borger 3 times now, I'll take that stop any day over Alamo BMW. YMMV
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The stop in Borger, like the Alamo BMW stop, are simply sponsor stops to put money in the pocket of the organizer. The BMW shop is closer to my house, and the parking lot isn't a gravel strewn broken up ***, so I prefer that. But two was my limit for both of those places...
 
jmdaniel said:
The stop in Borger, like the Alamo BMW stop, are simply sponsor stops to put money in the pocket of the organizer. The BMW shop is closer to my house, and the parking lot isn't a gravel strewn broken up ***, so I prefer that. But two was my limit for both of those places...
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Yeah, I really am not looking forward to the trip to Borger. I have been up in that area several times when my sister lived up in the panhandle, and there really is not a lot to see but windmills and oil jacks.

I am actually going to alter my route a little when I go to Borger (coming from Abilene/Old Glory) to go through McLean Tx, that is where my sister lived and take a pic of her old house just for giggles. It adds less than 10 miles/10 minutes to my planned route, so figured why not.

My goal is to get all 50 this year, and if I do so, not sure if I will do it officially next year (just see what sites are on next years route that look interesting and ride to those).
 
If it was too easy everyone would get all 50 and it would be no challenge.

Of the three years this has been going, this year seems to be the most spread out mileage wise.

It took us 14 riding days to get all 50 this year and our longest riding day was 360ish miles.
 
We did it on a weekday midday and waited about 10 minutes.
 
Ouch,ferry gets busy on weekends for sure, and will probably only get worse.
Like I said, I only had to wait maybe 5 minutes before boarding when I did it.
 
My riding buddy and I did the ferry this weekend, from Galveston to Port Bolivar was pretty quick (5 min wait). got to the light house and back to the line. Had to wait and board the third ferry. Glad it was not August!
ETA: This was sunday @ 10:30-ish
 
So I am now 18 down, 32 left.

Made a run up to Paris (Katy to Dallas area, Paris) yesterday and came back home through Gladewater/Kilgore/Lufkin today (LINK to MAP).
Also grabbed the Red Roof tag while by the Flying Museum since I was right by one (I was going to get the one by my house, but figured may as well grab it since I had to drive by it twice).

Today (and this whole weekend I guess) there is some Spring/Easter Festival going on in Gladewater, and you can't get to the street corner with the old firetruck (stop 16), so I had to get if a little further away, but my bike, number and the firetruck are all in the pic (and you can even see on my GPS where I am).
16 Old Fire Truck.jpg

The other 2 in Gladewater I got to, but it will probably be a real pain if you try to go this weekend. Both the Museum and Oil Derrick are partially blocked, but you can get pics of them.

I also had a little issue at South Main Iron in Paris. I parked my bike across the street to take my pic since I did not want to interfere with their business just to take a it:
35 S Main Iron.jpg

well, that parking area is a little more slanted toward the curb than I realized.
I stopped, put the bike in neutral (left bike running), put the side stand down, and dismounted
Well, as I dismount, I always hold my front brake.
As soon as I got off the bike, I let go of the front brake, and the bike rolled forward off the side stand and onto the ground.
Grrr... :angryfire

As others mentioned in my other thread about how to plan for long trips, figure an average speed of 50 mph with stops and such was about spot on.
My trip up there was ~450 miles, and total time was 10 hours, but an hour of that was helping another motorcyclist on the side of the road just outside of Paris with a hole in his tire (his tire pump was blowing the fuse on his and his companions bike, so tried using mine off my bike, but ended up having too big a hole to plug).
Today was ~ 330 miles, and took me just over 6 hours (a lot of speed above 75 mph for long stretches, and fewer stops than yesterday).
Gives me good guidance for the upcoming trip.
Also gives me more respect to @Simmons1 and others that do some heavy duty LD riding.

Next week I am off on a 6 day or so trip get get the rest of the "perimeter" stops (20 stops), I plan on getting the rest in October.
 
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The Goldwing is pretty protected even stock from slow speed/stopped drops. There is a crash bar both over the engine and the rear luggage that protects the plastics, and mine has highway floorboards that keep it from getter very far over, easy to lift up when I drop it.

I think that was the 4th time I had dropped it since I had it, all less than 5 mph, 2 while completely stopped.
I dropped it at a gas station last week, thought side stand was all the way down, and was not. Was on day 5 of my 6 day trip, at the end of the day. Was tired and not paying attention like I should have.

As for the tour, I am down to 11 stops left.
Have a day trip planned (hopefully before it gets too hot) for Alamo BMW, Motorcycle museum in Johnson City and Giant Shovel.
The rest (Burnet, LLano, San Saba, Brady, Mason, Center Point, Bandera as well as Lone Star Rider) will be done in October when they have the meet and greet in Kerrville.
 
My ‘06 and ‘08 wings were good from factory for tip overs. My ‘19 was a different story. Never dropped it but never had faith in the factory protection.

When you come down to Bandera let me know. I’ll join you for lunch and some riding if I’m free.
 
Just an FYI, if you have any stops you have not uploaded, today is the last day to do it (and I guess maybe make a run for any stops you can get within the next 15 hours or so).

I will say I did enjoy being able to get all 50 stops this year. About a 1/3 of them were day trips, with the rest being at least an overnight or multi night/multi stop trip.
Last year I got 28 with just day trips and one two night (same location) trip to the hill country, so getting them all was an accomplishment for me.
I am not sure if I will do it again next year, I will have to see what the stops are.
I have no desire to drive for hours to the panhandle for one stop. If there was another stop up in that area it would be more worth while.
I will say having paid to do it is more of a motivation to get it done that if I was just "doing some" on my own (the first year I came across it very late so did not sign up, just did 8-10 that were local to me).
 
blupupher said:
Just an FYI, if you have any stops you have not uploaded, today is the last day to do it (and I guess maybe make a run for any stops you can get within the next 15 hours or so).

I will say I did enjoy being able to get all 50 stops this year. About a 1/3 of them were day trips, with the rest being at least an overnight or multi night/multi stop trip.
Last year I got 28 with just day trips and one two night (same location) trip to the hill country, so getting them all was an accomplishment for me.
I am not sure if I will do it again next year, I will have to see what the stops are.
I have no desire to drive for hours to the panhandle for one stop. If there was another stop up in that area it would be more worth while.
I will say having paid to do it is more of a motivation to get it done that if I was just "doing some" on my own (the first year I came across it very late so did not sign up, just did 8-10 that were local to me).
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Congrats! And you know that one stop in the panhandle is going to be there next year! Organizer needs his money! :roll:
 
Forgot about this thread, since I finished back in March. Will be interesting to see next year's stops. May take the year off or not. Depends on how my ailing back is feeling come March.
 
jmdaniel said:
Congrats! And you know that one stop in the panhandle is going to be there next year! Organizer needs his money! :roll:
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Yeah, I know.
If he would add something in the Amarillo area it would make that one stop a little less annoying.
It is just such a boring ride, and seems every time I am up it that area weather is always windy, and usually overcast.

Simmons1 said:
Forgot about this thread, since I finished back in March. Will be interesting to see next year's stops. May take the year off or not. Depends on how my ailing back is feeling come March.
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Well, you did have it done in less than a month...

I had gotten my last one (Flying L Ranch in Bandera) the first of October.
 
It's unlikely I'll be undertaking the tour again next year. My finally run down to Brownsville/South Padre/McAllen with a side jaunt to SpaceX, turned into a true bun burner at 1250 miles in 22 hours. Next year will be a smaller year overall for me.
 
Congratulations on getting all 50. I’m doing it again next year but I’m thinking about trying to do it all in one trip over a four day weekend. 😁
 
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