Gilk51
2
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2005
- Messages
- 17,300
- Reaction score
- 26
- Location
- Arlington, Texas
- First Name
- Charles ("Chuck")
- Last Name
- Gibke
<gasp> Neither WC or Kurt started the ride report, so here goes...
Saturday, 11/17/2007 - weather supposed to hit 80, a bit humid in the morning, but a great day to wander around in East Texas...
My wife, Susan (also known as "tortuga" but she doesn't post much), headed up to our local rendezvous for starting rides - the Minyard at Green Oaks and I20. She was going to get gas there but they had a sign "closed until further notice" on the window... It bit several other folks motoring in to get gas, too.
Chris (Ace Wingnut) met us a bit after 8 and we decided to get underway.
The route was mainly US287 and we stopped in Ennis for gas. Saw a couple of suspicious bikes ride past - turns out it was Rick's (rbickle) group.
We stopped in Kaufman for a courthouse picture. Chris thought it was not one of the better looking ones (well, he said it was ugly). Here he is with his F650GS:
The rest of the bikes in our group
We were going to make a similar stop in Canton but there was too much activity around the square to stop.
This is where the GPS decided to be ornery and route us away from the only decent road on my route - FM1255. It tried to send us to I20 but we turned around and found the start just off 64 and FM17. It tried to do it again but I did remember it was supposed to take us all the way to US80. 1255 was nice except half of it was chip-seal - I hate that stuff...
I had never been to the Burger Company but this time the GPS wasn't far off plus there were some familiar faces out front.
However, there was not much left of the parking spaces, so we headed around back:
Elly (cwdancer) was outside & I got Susan to park next to her. Here are the two MaxiScoots:
And Elly...
Other folks were rolling in.
A couple of my favorite people - Jessica (ninjette) and Bill (pub610)
Dave (terrebandit) stood behind two Voyagers, neither of which were his...
The scene out front
Hanging out in front: Lee (wildebube) and daughter, Kathleen, and brother-in-law, Dave (KLR Dave)
Dave has one of them new fangled KLRs (bought it on Halloween)
The restaurant had room for us but you got the idea that Saturdays are pretty busy for them. We were scattered around in groups of 4-6.
Kathleen got some kind of chocolate moose - it was LOTS of chocolate
She demonstrates proper form
Groups kept filtering in - Rick's (rbickle) group got there well after we did & claimed that they didn't get lost. That's Rick on the right, Mark on the left, and I forgot the gal's name...
You'd think I'd remember to bring my fancy notepad inside instead of leaving it in the topcase...
Now folks are handing out in front again
Fred (Red Brown), Lee (wildebube), Dave (KLR Dave), Kathleen, Rich (Simmons1), and Bill (Rich's imaginary friend)
The bikes had thinned out in the back, and I got Scott and his son, Lucas, to pose with their Voyager:
I estimated 30-35 folks there and I missed meeting a lot of folks. Also missed seeing Todd's new Versys but saw him leaving the gas station across the street. I haven't seen Keith (Dragwn) in a while but got to meet the Mrs. to be (they get married in 2 weeks).
-------
Afterwards, tortuga and I puttered around east Texas - first to Pine Mills (FM49 was very nice), and then found this nice memorial in Hawkins:
My wife in front of the courthouse in Longview:
Unfortunately, we ran into some rain south of Kilgore and it was hard to tell which way it was going. We had hoped to spend more time in New London and the surrounding area due to the 70th anniversary of this event earlier this year:
So we hightailed out 323 and picked up 850 in Overton - that would be one nice road if it wasn't chip-sealed.
And the surface they put on US69 from Tyler to I20 is not chip seal - it's rock seal! That was the largest (and roughest) surface I have seen so far...
All in all a great day, 363 miles for us.
Saturday, 11/17/2007 - weather supposed to hit 80, a bit humid in the morning, but a great day to wander around in East Texas...
My wife, Susan (also known as "tortuga" but she doesn't post much), headed up to our local rendezvous for starting rides - the Minyard at Green Oaks and I20. She was going to get gas there but they had a sign "closed until further notice" on the window... It bit several other folks motoring in to get gas, too.
Chris (Ace Wingnut) met us a bit after 8 and we decided to get underway.
The route was mainly US287 and we stopped in Ennis for gas. Saw a couple of suspicious bikes ride past - turns out it was Rick's (rbickle) group.
We stopped in Kaufman for a courthouse picture. Chris thought it was not one of the better looking ones (well, he said it was ugly). Here he is with his F650GS:
The rest of the bikes in our group
We were going to make a similar stop in Canton but there was too much activity around the square to stop.
This is where the GPS decided to be ornery and route us away from the only decent road on my route - FM1255. It tried to send us to I20 but we turned around and found the start just off 64 and FM17. It tried to do it again but I did remember it was supposed to take us all the way to US80. 1255 was nice except half of it was chip-seal - I hate that stuff...
I had never been to the Burger Company but this time the GPS wasn't far off plus there were some familiar faces out front.
However, there was not much left of the parking spaces, so we headed around back:
Elly (cwdancer) was outside & I got Susan to park next to her. Here are the two MaxiScoots:
And Elly...
Other folks were rolling in.
A couple of my favorite people - Jessica (ninjette) and Bill (pub610)
Dave (terrebandit) stood behind two Voyagers, neither of which were his...
The scene out front
Hanging out in front: Lee (wildebube) and daughter, Kathleen, and brother-in-law, Dave (KLR Dave)
Dave has one of them new fangled KLRs (bought it on Halloween)
The restaurant had room for us but you got the idea that Saturdays are pretty busy for them. We were scattered around in groups of 4-6.
Kathleen got some kind of chocolate moose - it was LOTS of chocolate
She demonstrates proper form
Groups kept filtering in - Rick's (rbickle) group got there well after we did & claimed that they didn't get lost. That's Rick on the right, Mark on the left, and I forgot the gal's name...
You'd think I'd remember to bring my fancy notepad inside instead of leaving it in the topcase...
Now folks are handing out in front again
Fred (Red Brown), Lee (wildebube), Dave (KLR Dave), Kathleen, Rich (Simmons1), and Bill (Rich's imaginary friend)
The bikes had thinned out in the back, and I got Scott and his son, Lucas, to pose with their Voyager:
I estimated 30-35 folks there and I missed meeting a lot of folks. Also missed seeing Todd's new Versys but saw him leaving the gas station across the street. I haven't seen Keith (Dragwn) in a while but got to meet the Mrs. to be (they get married in 2 weeks).
-------
Afterwards, tortuga and I puttered around east Texas - first to Pine Mills (FM49 was very nice), and then found this nice memorial in Hawkins:
My wife in front of the courthouse in Longview:
Unfortunately, we ran into some rain south of Kilgore and it was hard to tell which way it was going. We had hoped to spend more time in New London and the surrounding area due to the 70th anniversary of this event earlier this year:
So we hightailed out 323 and picked up 850 in Overton - that would be one nice road if it wasn't chip-sealed.
And the surface they put on US69 from Tyler to I20 is not chip seal - it's rock seal! That was the largest (and roughest) surface I have seen so far...
All in all a great day, 363 miles for us.
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