Last Ride of 2007

12/31/2007
Met up with Roland, Dave and
Carey for a last ride to eat
of 2007 at the Rancho Viejo
Restaurant in Buffalo, TX.
Good food and great friends,
just the right way to cap off
2007.

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TX Hill Country - Dec 6-9, 2007

Just an easy
laid back ride
in south Texas...

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Tuesday/Wednesday 12/4-5
Dallas to Oklahoma
215 miles

I decided to go visit my parents before starting this trip so I headed north after work on Tuesday and hung out with them on Wednesday. My work schedule has been strange the past couple months and I haven't had the chance to see them as much as I usually do so it was nice to catch up.

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Thursday 12/6
Oklahoma to Garner SP/Lost Maples SP
650+ miles

I didn't bring any heated gear with me as it was only going to be 44 degrees so thought I'd just layer up and it would warm up soon. It was projected to be in the mid to upper 70's in south Texas so no reason to bring the electrics, right? Well, it was 36 when I left OK and it hit 37 and stayed there for about 400 miles. I was uncomfortable but not miserable so I just kept riding, layering helps a lot.

It was 68 degrees when I finally pulled into Garner State Park ahead of Rick and I was finally thawing out. I went into the office and the ranger stated they were closed 2 weeks out of the year for deer hunting, guess which two weeks that was? HA!!!!..
Then, she said it was only during the week so they'd be open the next day, Friday, at 2pm. I waited for Rick and he was only 30 mins behind me. We decided to try Lost Maples SP but usually they are packed and given Garner was closed we just knew that was going to be the case and this was to turn into another one of our 'adventures'.

However, when we got to Lost Maples, they were just about empty. So, we set up our tents and had hot dogs for dinner.



We tried to find some firewood but that place looked like they had vacuum cleaners as there wasn't a twig to be found. With no fire we hit the sack at 8pm. Usually, fire going, we're up 'til midnight.

On the way to Garner I was noticing the bike lurching a bit when accelerating. I had just changed the spark plugs the week before and didn't ride the bike until my trip to see my parents, it ran fine then. If there's one thing I've learned it's that if your bike is acting funny it has something to do with the last thing you did to it. In my case, it was the spark plugs. I thought one of the wires just came loose so I pulled them and reconnected them to the plugs and would see how it ran in the morning.

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Friday 12/7
Hill Country Riding
200 miles

We took out time today as we didn't have any real plans other than to go back to Garner SP around 2pm to check in and get a site. So, we had breakfast in Utopia at the Lost Maples Cafe. The weather sucked. It was a misty, dreary, foggy, crappy morning and it didn't look like it was going to burn off.


My bike was still acting up so we decided to head to Uvalde, TX and find an auto parts store to get a new set of plugs thinking one was bad. On the way, my bike hit a milestone, 50,000 miles, so I took a pic.

After picking up the plugs we headed back towards Garner and did hwy 336 and I made a left instead of a right and we did some straight roads but this was an easy day with no real agenda so we just did whatever.



When we got back to Garner, I changed my plugs.



Rick's bike did very well in the twisties and also kept up with me on the highway, one of his reasons for bringing this bike was just see what works on a real trip so this was a working-session for him.



We setup camp and proceeded to look for firewood. Mac would have been proud of us, there was a huge 8 ft log that I sawed up and Rick found some other misc dead fall elsewhere.







We got the fire going and, yeah, had more hot dogs. I don't think I ever want another hot dog.



However, with the fire blazing, it was still a nice evening.

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Saturday 12/8
lddave's annual BBQ ride-to-eat
200+ miles

Every year, Dave B. has a BBQ somewhere in TX and this was the 8th year so being in the area we decided to make that part of this trip.

It was another crappy, misty, rainy, foggy morning and we had to ease our way over 337 and roads that look like glass when wet. Not the typical run we have on these roads but it's all about the adventure isn't it?

We zig-zagged our way through back roads and made it to Louie Mueller BBQ in Taylor, TX just northeast of Austin around 11am. Lots of bikes were already there.



And, the food was excellent.



After lunch, we decided it didn't make much sense to ride all the way back to Garner when there were closer campgrounds that would make our ride home easier on Sunday. Rick's family has a ranch that was just a couple hours away so we headed for that and BJFazio, being from Louisiana, decided to join us. Rick has a nice place and it will make for some great future MotoCampers.com outings.







We went into town, Crockett, TX, and had a burger at Texas Burger. They have very good burgers. Then, went back to the ranch and made a fire. I can't believe I didn't get a pic of that, oh well, can't win 'em all.

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Sunday 12/9
Homeward Bound
170 miles

It was 74 degrees when I left Rick's ranch at about 7am. When I was about 1 hour outside of Dallas I topped a small hill and the temp dropped to 46 degrees in less than 1 mile. It was 43 degrees and raining when I made it home. Again, it's about the adventure, yeah, right, that's it...

Here are a couple pics I took along the way.





Here are all of my pics.
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