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Coolhand
0
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2007
- Messages
- 2,269
- Reaction score
- 65
- Location
- Ten Sleep, WY
- First Name
- Justin
- Last Name
- Smith
No it wasn't nuclear war, it was just a day of steady riding over some great county and dirt roads north of Austin. I'll let Snuggs do the honor of posting the route, but I'm about to fall asleep so I need to get some pictures up and hit the sack.
The day started pretty cold, with a touch of Tryptophan and alcohol still lurking in my veins. I was excited to get going but also reluctant to leave my wife with our little dude, who's been sick for too long. She told me to go... she gets her day tomorrow.
They spent the morning at St. Eds, picking rocks from the look of it.
So where was I... oh yeah, it was cold, but it was light out and it was time to go! I'd also gotten a new sticker installed last night that should make my DR much faster... Represent!
I met up with the rest of the guys for the 09:00 departure... This is jthompson and Snuggs conducting business. And who is that masked man in the Hunter Orange??
Woodbutcher came by to wish us well... before going home to repair an errant ADV Rider steed.
The menu for the day was roads north, skirting the western side of Fort Hood, over towards San Saba, and back down. Tools were two KLRs (a Classic and a new one), a Mexico-proven XRL, and my DR.
This was the meet at Maxdale for any additional attendees, after a fun run up through Florence. Apparently we were on our own. Snuggs, sz rider, and jthompson being Thankful for our good fortune (and reflecting like crazy, was my flash on all day??)
From there it was on to Oakalla and Kempner along the Lampassas River. You could see the (recent) high water mark 10 - 15 feet above the current level, pretty impressive. This was a great road, thanks Snuggs!
Gratuitous Libertarian DR Shot
The Lampassas River. There were signs along the way, "Save the Lampassas River". Anybody know what that's about?
I'm a little foggy on the location, but we're not on asphalt so who cares. This is probably CR32 north of Kempner. I couldn't believe that Snuggs had committed this entire route to memory. sz rider is rubbing his hands in evil anticipation... or just trying to get the circulation going again.
Sometimes it's kind of amazing what you will see in the rural parts of Texas. Often it includes old car parts and major kitchen appliances, but other times it could be... camels? After leaving Adamsville and turning west on CR45 (I think?), we got into some really great dirt roads and then came upon these critters, accompanied by a wide variety of exotic deer and antelope.
These were some really fun roads.
A little squirrel-food was consumed to get me through...
... until the real lunch in Lometa. An interesting town, I'll bet there is some history there. The buildings on the north east side are as impressive as they are dilapidated. The Branding Iron served up good burgers.
From there it was down to Nix, where our tour guide informed us that his family name is also Nix, and that he might just be the king of this one-horse town.
We oogled the Model A, got a full up tour of "Grandpas" store/curio shop by the locals, and got ready to roll. A weather change seemed to have rolled in about now as well, turning what had been warming-up weather back to chilly weather.
That morning I'd been talking about changing tires and how I never wanted to change a rear tire in the field because it was such a pain in the butt. I then razzed Snuggs about his bald rear tire. Of course, I jinxed us, but thankfully Snuggs was the recipient of the jinx and not I.
It seriously couldn't have happened to a more well-prepared guy. Holy mackeral, he was ready to go. Although from the looks of this picture, still not really happy about it.
The Snuggs Pit Team in action, to the tune of Judas Priest's little known followup, "Breakin the Bead".
I thought I was prepared, but believe me.... if you ever have a flat, you want this guy along. And these two willing guys to help
Now how the heck did that all go back together... ?
After the tire incident, I got the OK to go off the front and enjoy some high speed, good visibility gravel road riding. This also gave me the opportunity to get some rider shots. Here is sz rider approaching a flat gravel corner with trees on both sides at a respectably high rate of speed...
Here is sz rider giving it the juice for a nice, roosting exit on the corner...
And, compact-camera-shutter-lag-be-darned, here his is, shaken-and-stirred, after having survived a very wild gravel road tank-slapper! The picture doesn't do it justice... good thing he saved it because that one could have left a mark!
Our fearless leader takes the corner at a much more mature pace (on his bald Trail Wings )
And jthompson on the Mexico XRL. He over-cooked a corner earlier, was was wisely cooking this one just right.
Pretty much the end of the fun dirt for the day, and some great fun it was!
A little cropping would certainly help these, let me know if you guys want copies of any of them.
From there it on to Cherokee, another interesting little burg out in the boonies. No gas though... (you pay attention to these things when you ride a DR with a stock tank)
Main Street I believe... Remove the Ford Ranger and scuff up the road a bit, and it could be 1930.
The sun was getting low and making for some good colors...
About the 2nd time I saw Snuggs consult a map the entire day. And that was only to decide which of many routes to take home. jthompson you have no idea how much more well navigated this ride was than the one you almost took with me instead... Snuggs has 22k miles on his 2008 KLR and it shows in his knowledge of the back roads.
Good riding partners on a great post-Turkey Day Ride!
We started with TWT (well, almost) and we might was well end with it.
The rest of the ride home was a blur of county roads with some park roads thrown in for good measure. A deer-safe sane pace was (mostly) kept and we cruised through Leander just as the sun was painting a spectacular sunset on the horizon over the grassy fields to the West. Which is good, because the grassy fields to the East were covered by solid suburbia. Did my riding buddies stop to let me get a shot of the spectacular sunset!? NO! I think warm showers, food, and beer were calling.
(pretend you see an amazing sunset over a field of grass and live oak trees here
)
Thanks for a great time guys!
Justin
The day started pretty cold, with a touch of Tryptophan and alcohol still lurking in my veins. I was excited to get going but also reluctant to leave my wife with our little dude, who's been sick for too long. She told me to go... she gets her day tomorrow.
They spent the morning at St. Eds, picking rocks from the look of it.
So where was I... oh yeah, it was cold, but it was light out and it was time to go! I'd also gotten a new sticker installed last night that should make my DR much faster... Represent!
I met up with the rest of the guys for the 09:00 departure... This is jthompson and Snuggs conducting business. And who is that masked man in the Hunter Orange??
Woodbutcher came by to wish us well... before going home to repair an errant ADV Rider steed.
The menu for the day was roads north, skirting the western side of Fort Hood, over towards San Saba, and back down. Tools were two KLRs (a Classic and a new one), a Mexico-proven XRL, and my DR.
This was the meet at Maxdale for any additional attendees, after a fun run up through Florence. Apparently we were on our own. Snuggs, sz rider, and jthompson being Thankful for our good fortune (and reflecting like crazy, was my flash on all day??)
From there it was on to Oakalla and Kempner along the Lampassas River. You could see the (recent) high water mark 10 - 15 feet above the current level, pretty impressive. This was a great road, thanks Snuggs!
Gratuitous Libertarian DR Shot
The Lampassas River. There were signs along the way, "Save the Lampassas River". Anybody know what that's about?
I'm a little foggy on the location, but we're not on asphalt so who cares. This is probably CR32 north of Kempner. I couldn't believe that Snuggs had committed this entire route to memory. sz rider is rubbing his hands in evil anticipation... or just trying to get the circulation going again.
Sometimes it's kind of amazing what you will see in the rural parts of Texas. Often it includes old car parts and major kitchen appliances, but other times it could be... camels? After leaving Adamsville and turning west on CR45 (I think?), we got into some really great dirt roads and then came upon these critters, accompanied by a wide variety of exotic deer and antelope.
These were some really fun roads.
A little squirrel-food was consumed to get me through...
... until the real lunch in Lometa. An interesting town, I'll bet there is some history there. The buildings on the north east side are as impressive as they are dilapidated. The Branding Iron served up good burgers.
From there it was down to Nix, where our tour guide informed us that his family name is also Nix, and that he might just be the king of this one-horse town.
We oogled the Model A, got a full up tour of "Grandpas" store/curio shop by the locals, and got ready to roll. A weather change seemed to have rolled in about now as well, turning what had been warming-up weather back to chilly weather.
That morning I'd been talking about changing tires and how I never wanted to change a rear tire in the field because it was such a pain in the butt. I then razzed Snuggs about his bald rear tire. Of course, I jinxed us, but thankfully Snuggs was the recipient of the jinx and not I.
It seriously couldn't have happened to a more well-prepared guy. Holy mackeral, he was ready to go. Although from the looks of this picture, still not really happy about it.
The Snuggs Pit Team in action, to the tune of Judas Priest's little known followup, "Breakin the Bead".
I thought I was prepared, but believe me.... if you ever have a flat, you want this guy along. And these two willing guys to help
Now how the heck did that all go back together... ?
After the tire incident, I got the OK to go off the front and enjoy some high speed, good visibility gravel road riding. This also gave me the opportunity to get some rider shots. Here is sz rider approaching a flat gravel corner with trees on both sides at a respectably high rate of speed...
Here is sz rider giving it the juice for a nice, roosting exit on the corner...
And, compact-camera-shutter-lag-be-darned, here his is, shaken-and-stirred, after having survived a very wild gravel road tank-slapper!
The picture doesn't do it justice... good thing he saved it because that one could have left a mark!Our fearless leader takes the corner at a much more mature pace (on his bald Trail Wings
)And jthompson on the Mexico XRL. He over-cooked a corner earlier, was was wisely cooking this one just right.
Pretty much the end of the fun dirt for the day, and some great fun it was!
A little cropping would certainly help these, let me know if you guys want copies of any of them.
From there it on to Cherokee, another interesting little burg out in the boonies. No gas though... (you pay attention to these things when you ride a DR with a stock tank)
Main Street I believe... Remove the Ford Ranger and scuff up the road a bit, and it could be 1930.
The sun was getting low and making for some good colors...
About the 2nd time I saw Snuggs consult a map the entire day. And that was only to decide which of many routes to take home. jthompson you have no idea how much more well navigated this ride was than the one you almost took with me instead... Snuggs has 22k miles on his 2008 KLR and it shows in his knowledge of the back roads.
Good riding partners on a great post-Turkey Day Ride!
We started with TWT (well, almost) and we might was well end with it.
The rest of the ride home was a blur of county roads with some park roads thrown in for good measure. A deer-safe sane pace was (mostly) kept and we cruised through Leander just as the sun was painting a spectacular sunset on the horizon over the grassy fields to the West. Which is good, because the grassy fields to the East were covered by solid suburbia. Did my riding buddies stop to let me get a shot of the spectacular sunset!? NO!
I think warm showers, food, and beer were calling. (pretend you see an amazing sunset over a field of grass and live oak trees here
)Thanks for a great time guys!
Justin
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