It was a beautiful day,

the kind you want to toast.

We were riding south on the Ultras,

looking for a harley trading post.

Off to the east we spied,

the billowing clouds of smoke.

The fire was out of control,

and people had lost their lives.

Bastrop, Tx was burning down,

houses were lost and animals too.

The drought has been substantial,

and now its taking it’s due.

Fireman and rescuers are out in force,

battling the blazes and putting out the embers.

But they can’t stand up to mother natures course.

I felt guilty about enjoying the day.

We had waited so long, for the 100 degree temps to go away.

We rode through smoke in San Antonio, Blanco, and Marble Falls.

Texas is burning, God help us all!

Last night was the breaking point for me. It has been a few weeks since we got the bike out and went for a ride. The stir craziness got to me last night and at 8:45 pm, I decided we needed to ride. We left the house and went straight to the gas station. Then we made a loop around Georgetown and ended up going south on Parmer. After passing a multitude of Deer we turned around just north of 1431 and headed back. Same deer still watching us with the addition of other night creatures. Scary. After about an hour we returned home and turned the tv back on. Such is life for a biker in a heat wave.

When for short ride today. We left around 11 am for a back roads adventure. It was around 90 when we left and about 99 when we got home.

I had been wanting to try out an idea I had for hot weather riding. We bought some mesh jackets when we first started riding again and aside from long road trips, we really never use them. When we do, it’s usually over some cotton Harley t shirt we’ve picked up on the road. Today I put it on over a sleeveless Under Armour heat gear shirt. Now I don’t look all that muscle-ly (is that a word?) when I wear it, but wasn’t going for looks today. I was going for cool (or as cool as can be) so we could go some miles. I have to say that it worked nicely. The breeze flows through the mesh and since the sun isn’t beating down directly on my skin, it does feel cooler. I think the hot setup (pun intended) may be an aqua vest (basically a swamp cooler you wear) between the under armour and the jacket. At least around here. Not sure how it would work in the humidity of East Texas. Today I felt the heat mostly on my feet. I’ve all ready bought some light colored boots, so not sure were to go there. Also, blue jeans are not the right gear for summer riding. I think the mesh suits the BMW riders wear is probably the way to go, but I don’t ride a Bimmer.

We made two stops today one at the Sonic in Lago Vista so I could get myself a hot dog (traditional 4th of July lunch, no?) and get some liquids in our bodies and another stop at Eagle Peak Shooting Range. It’s Independence Day and a drought, so no fireworks. So we broke out the .45 my friend Darrell Bishop designed and put lead through paper in honor of our founding fathers while exercising our 2nd amendment rights. Darrell left us this year and we miss him as I’m sure his family and friends do. RIP Darrell.

Happy Independence Day, Ya’ll.

I guess I should round up that last trip, so you can figure out if you want to try it. There are a couple of posts I put out while on the road, but nothing that goes into the ride itself. I took a few minutes to read my posts concerning the trip. When we last spoke, we had just settled into the Canyon Ranch Motel in Springdale, UT. It’s roughly a mile from the south entrance to the park.

We woke up the next morning and I wanted to go to the local Harley shop for a T-Shirt and to see if someone would give Ruby a wash. I was in luck, one of the service guys cleaned her up nicely, we got a couple of cool t-shirts and then headed back to Springfield. On the way out I had noticed a “pick your own” apple orchard so on the way back we stopped and checked it out. I grabbed a sandwich and a bottle of water and Phyllis got some apples. We sat outside and visted with some folks from Las Vegas for a bit and then headed to the park.

We rode from the South Entrance to the North and back and took some video of the experience. We parked in the South Parking lot and grabbed a bus to see some sites. I was wearing my riding boots, which are terrible for walking (more on that later)so we would walk to the vista point and then sit down on a bench and take it all in. We did this for a few hours until time for dinner, then we grabbed one of the busses and went to the Red Rock Grill in Zion Lodge for steaks and wine. I’ve got to say the service was excellent, the wine was good, but the steaks were just ok. Still in the restaurant with floor to ceiling windows and million dollar views, the dining experience was excellent! When it was time to go, the sun had set and darkness prevailed. I don’t know if dark is the word for it. Without a flashlight, you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Beautiful starry night and the critters had come out. The bus ride back to the parking lot was filled with stops for the animals to get off the road. Great time! We rode the mile back to the hotel and had a bit more wine before calling it a night. The next day would take us down IH-15 through the badlands of Utah, Arizona, and Nevada and into Las Vegas.

Originally settled by Mormon farmers, they named it Kolob – the heavenly place nearest the residence of God. They must have felt the same thing I did. It’s a magnificent park and very worthy of the “National” title. If you don’t believe in God, visit this place and try to tell me it’s the result of some earthly manipulations.

We are staying in the Canyon Ranch Motel just outside of the South entrance to the park. Surrounded by Zion’s mountains. I am sitting outside watching the dark and a thunderstorm move towards us. The lightening dances around the tops of the peaks, my own personal light show created by the One who creates all things. A chilly wind blows over my neck. I’m enjoying my evening bourbon, thinking about what today was like.

We started early this morning, a short run from Bluff to Mexican Hat for a damn good breakfast at the San Juan Inn and Trading Post. From there we rode through the awesomeness known as Monument Valley. It’s roughly a 25 mile straight road, the only curves being the ones that go around some of the monuments. If you’ve ever watched a John Wayne movie you’ve seen parts of Monument Valley. If you ever watched Road Runner, you’ve seen it in cartoon form.

The ride through Monument Valley put us in Arizona and we stopped in Kayenta for gas. From there we headed west for a couple of hours. We were flanked on our right side by miles and miles of red cliffs.

We past more monuments and encountered a bit of rain. We rode past the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area which includes Lake Powell, the second largest man made lake in the US behind Lake Mead. We crossed the Rainbow Bridge and was back in Utah. The landscape changed and we were back in the mountains and canyons.

We stopped in Kanab for lunch around 2:30. Kanab bills itself as “Little Hollywood” as there have been several movies filmed here. We ate at the Rewind Diner. Outside on the street there was plaque dedicated to Don Knotts and his starring role in the “Apple Dumpling Gang”.

A short 30 minute ride put us at the North Gate of Zion. I like the way that sounds. We paid our money and started our ride through the canyon. As I said earlier, the place is magnificent! Every turn brings us to a new vista, a new way to look at the world. We pulled over to take it all in and a gentleman walked over to us. He had his camera out and pointed out a ram on top of this cliff just above us. We watched the goat a few minutes and then continued on our way across the park. Zion has two tunnels. We got the short one first and rolled through it. A few miles later we came to the long one. The Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel is 1.1 miles long and there aren’t any lights in it. It’s burrowed through one of the mountains and every so often there is a window open to a glorius view. It’s also narrow, so if you want to drive your RV through it, you have to pay an extra $15 to get a lead through. What that means is that they have to stop cars from entering the opposite end so you can pull your oversize vehicle through it. Regardless, in a 1.1 mile tunnel, Ruby causes quite a stir. The pipes aren’t real loud, but they have a deep resounance which get’s amplified in the tunnel. I’m not sure the people behind me enjoyed it as much as I did.

We exited the tunnel to find the road construction. They had taken up the old asphalt and were laying down new. Evidently we caught them on the day between as we had wet packed dirt to drive down the mountain on. I had to slow way down and thread our route trying to stay on the dry area of the dirt. This didn’t endear me to the people behind me anymore than the pipes in the tunnel. I took the first pull out I could find and let them all pass. We made it on to the asphalt without incident and passed out the south exit of Zion. We are staying here again tomorrow so that we can experience more of Zion. Friday we head for Las Vegas, NV.

That’s what I’m looking for, it’s what I need. 50+ hours per week, I work for Cisco. When I’m not sitting at my desk or visiting with a partner, I’m usually thinking about them. I’ve been on vacation now for 3 days and they still find their way into my thoughts. In the big picture does it really matter? When my story has been told, what will my children and grand children remember about me? He was a hard worker? He provided for us, but was never around? He never truly connected with me? These are the things I think about. 50 years from now when my grand children have their own and they see this picture of me, I hope they remember that I tried to live life to it’s fullest.

Inspiration. I did find some today. I found it out there on a back road, riding a motorcycle in God’s creation. He showed me just how small I am. The mountains, the rivers, the plains, the colors, the smells, the wind in my face, the rain stinging my cheeks, the cold freezing my hands, and the creatures in the wild all worked together to wake me up.

To show me that there is so much more to life than what I’ve been doing the last 10 years. I thanked him for the beautiful woman riding with me, I thanked him for my beautiful children and their spouses, I thanked him for my parents and grandparents who’ve helped me along the way to become the man I am. I thanked him for the family and friends he continues to bless me with. Everyone needs a wake up call now and then. I’m glad I finally got mine. How will this change me? I’m not sure, but hopefully you will see it next time I see you.

Today we rode roughly 150 miles from Ouray, Co to Moab, UT. Great ride and I’ll catch you up after we talk about Los Alamos, NM to Ouray. We ate breakfast at a coffee shop next door to the Blue Window Bistro from the night before. It was some of the best Chorizo I’ve ever had. The coffee was pretty good as well. You can’t go wrong with a local place. I’ll take one over IHop any day of the week. We headed back down the twisty mountain road and then headed north. 45 – 55 mph for the next two hours due to tribal lands. Ok, I get it. I go slow in my neighborhood, so no reason to speed through yours. But when it’s a 4 lane road that’s 25 miles long, straight, and no neighborhoods let me go 65, OK? No it’s not OK and I didn’t do that, but I sure wanted to. Our route took us through Chama, NM so we stopped and checked it out. We went into a cafe called the Rail-yard or something similar. I felt like it was a tourist place, but they fixed me a passable green chile cheeseburger. I started to take a picture of it, but noticed someone griping about food pictures on facebook a couple of days ago, so decided to forgo it. From there it was more of West Texas type terrain. Lots of open fields and scrub. We stopped in Pagosa Springs, CO for gas and continued to Durango. We had gotten small taste of what was in store for us just north of Chama as we entered Colorado. The trees we varying shades of yellow, red, and green. Once we cleared Durango (as painful as Santa Fe) we were treated to extreme colors of fall. We were talking about how beautiful it all is and I realized I’ve never truly seen the colors of fall. This is something I definitely want to see more of.

At times on the “Million Dollar Highway” if felt like we were gliding through a kaleidoscope. The trees were arched over the road and the colors were breathtaking. But enough of this touchy feely stuff! The road was awesome and commanded respect. As we started climbing toward Silverton, I kept going slower and slower. The temp was in the low 40′s, I was freezing and there was no place to pull off! The sheer drops off the side of the road made me want to ride the center line, but on the blind turns I had to venture over to the ride side of the lane. Why you might ask? Because there were plenty of people on this road who believed they were expert drivers. They were so good, that when they went into a tight hairpin turn on the side of a mountain, they came over the center stripe into my lane! I’ve never seen so many wannabe drivers. Regardless, we got to a viewing area with a nice parking lot and pulled over a few miles from Silverton. We finally got to put on some hoodies under our leathers and warm up a bit. While I was arranging my gear, another fellow on a Harley rode up. He had been planning on riding to Silverton, but got so cold that he was turning back. We were watching what looked like a pretty nice snow storm on the top of the mountains we could see. Phyllis and I got back on the road with our hoodies and leathers on and the cold wasn’t quite so bad. We rode into Ouray just before dark and after a nice dinner, settled in for the night.

This morning, we rode into town to get her some breakfast. We spoke to a guy who said the snow was on it’s way, so decided that we needed to get out as quickly as possible. On the ride into Ouray, I had been so focused on the road that I really didn’t get to enjoy the scenery. On our way out, we went past Telluride and there was plenty to be seen. The fall colors along with the added white snow on the peaks really made for some scenic riding. Once we made the pass and the peaks were out of sight, it was more high plains for awhile. Then we started getting into the canyons and lot’s of signs stating that the area we were in was “open grazing”. Nice. We were headed for the CO/UT border and the road I took was rough in spots, but also had spots that were fixed. The problem with the new patchs of road, is that they had a nice layer of mud on them as well. We dealt with that for about 50 miles as we made our way to the bottom of Paradox Valley. Of course once you make it to the bottom, you have to work your way back up and out. Back and forth around the sides of the cliffs to get over the pass. Repeat to get down. We stopped at the bottom and took a picture of the Welcome sign. We milled around a bit and then headed for the red rocks of Utah. We had been riding for maybe 30 seconds and Phyllis let me know that she had dropped the camera on the road. Its a little worse for wear, but still works! We rode through La Sal before picking up 191 into Moab. We checked into the hotel, went for some lunch and a walk on main street before coming back to the hotel. Phyllis needed a nap and it’s raining in Moab.

Here is our journey so far.

Yesterday was pretty uneventful. It takes along time to get out of Texas when you live in the heart of it. Some interesting town names we rode through – Goldthwaite, Bangs, Early, Zepher, Mullin, Santa Ana, and Sweetwater in no particular order. We ended up spending the night in Post which was founded by the same person of cereal fame.

Today was a different story. We left Post about 8:15 am to get an hours worth of riding in before breakfast. We hightailed it down Hwy 380 which is long, straight, and (on the Texas leg) fast. I might also mention that it was COLD! I had enough sense to put on my leather jacket, but could have used a sweatshirt underneath it. I turned on my heated grips (sweet!) to 4/5′s of the way to keep my hands warm under the full finger summer gloves I was wearing. We stopped in Brownfield for a taco and then got back on 380. I used to think that the Beach road from Winnie to High Island was the longest, straightest road in the world. I was wrong. Hwy 380 is the longest, straightest road in the world. I put the cruise control on and could have literally not touched the handlebars for 30 minutes at a time. When your going 70 mph, that’s 35 miles without a curve. So needless to say I was in a zone that didn’t require much thinking.

After about 200 miles of this I was finally afforded some relief in the way of some twisties! Yay! We took 380 towards Capitan, NM which runs through a pretty sweet valley. The road follows along the bottom of the valley and has some nice views and some great turns but it was extremely rough. So slow down, enjoy the view. We rolled into Capitan looking for gas and food. There was a Shell station there and a restaurant with Green Chile Stew. I got both!

We left the restaurant and headed west on 380 again. The road got smoother and I found a dinosaur rock radio station playing some good tunes. I was enjoying my full stomach, my rockin tunes, and the wonderful twisties when I got a panic punch in the back. I hit the brakes and looked down the road and we were coming face to face with the biggest 4 legged creature I’ve ever seen in the wild.

I believe she was an Elk about the size of a horse and she was running away from us. I continued to slow down and a couple of seconds later her two little ones followed her across the road. Beautiful site to see, but it definitely put a damper on my good time. I had plenty of time to stop and it crossed my mind that if I got to close, she might head butt me! We spent the next few miles going the speed limit and discussing the beauty and the beast we had dealt with.

We exited off 380 (finally) and got on NM-3, the equivilent of a Texas Ranch Road. We rode it for 15 miles and never saw vehicle. We took US285 for another 70 miles of straight hwy. At least by this time we were flanked my mesa’s and Austin type hills most of the way. We exited on to I-25 for a few miles to get around Santa Fe and then  we took 285 which is a like Burnet road in Austin, only with views. They need to get the red lights timed on this one as we caught everyone of them. We then picked up NM502 which has great views, great pavement, and a 55 mph speed limit through the Indian reservations. It was not a bad ride, but we were ready to get to the hotel and get off the bike. 502 got very interesting in the last 16 miles. This was 45 mph road that zigzagged around the sides of the Jemez mountains. This was a really steep climb with one hairpin after another. I finally took a pull off, so we could take a decent picture.

5 minutes later we were checking into the Best Western Hilltop House in Los Alamos, NM. We grabbed a pretty good meal at the Blue Window Bistro and am now relaxing in the room.

Tomorrow we head for Ouray, NM and are expecting some weather that won’t be all that pleasant.

This morning after church we headed over to the low water bridge over the San Gabriel river in Georgetown and had a baptism. It’s always a thrill to see someone turn their life over to Christ. After-wards we had a BBQ lunch in the park for some fellowship. Then about 15 of us headed to Hutto for some pie. The only problem was that the owner of the cafe didn’t seem to want us there. After a few sharp words from him, we decided to take our group elsewhere. We ended up at the Baskin Robbins in Pflugerville, where they were happy to serve us and take our money. You would think a restaurant would want a group of 15 to stop by, but for some reason, this one didn’t. Oh well, their loss.
After cooling off with some ice cream in the AC, we headed back home via the tollway.
It was good ride, but it’s still really hot. The two cool days really got my hopes up, but after living in Texas for 50 years, you would think I would know better.

or We are our own worst enemy!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that most motorcycle accidents are the result of someone turning left into them from oncoming traffic. That apparently wide-spread belief has never felt right to me based on my own half a million miles on the road, and it clearly smacks of an attempt to rationalize responsibility away from the motorcyclist.

I have included the complete text of a July 1994 report issued from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety at the end of this Tip because I could not find a URL to let you link to it yourself. [I found a URL to it after I created this tip: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/PPSC/Research/june95.htm.] In summary, however, it makes the following points:
Running off the road, usually in a curve, often involving alcohol, and almost always a ‘single vehicle’ accident accounted for a stunning 41 percent of the total motorcycle fatalities. This is more than twice the percentage of any other cause.

The running of a traffic signal in an intersection, most often a stop sign and most often by the other vehicle, accounted for 18 percent of the total accidents.

Oncoming, head-on crashes accounted for 11 percent of the total. Very few of these were in intersections and a few were on divided roads. About half were on straight roads and the other half on curves. 58 percent of all these crashes were attributed to the motorcycle rider’s failure to stay in lane or using excessive speed.

Left-turn oncoming crashes, as with the oncoming crash type described above, involve vehicles traveling in opposite directions. However, for this crash type, one of the vehicles is in the process of making a left-turn in front of oncoming traffic. This was the fourth most common crash type accounting for only 8 percent of the total. The left-turn was almost always being made by the other vehicle and not the motorcycle. That is, the motorcycle almost always had the superior right of way. This crash often occurred at intersections (69 percent) or at driveways and alleys (7 percent).

“Motorcycle down”, meaning the motorcyclist loses control of the bike (including deliberately ‘dumping’ it) and it goes down on the roadway, accounted for another 7 percent of the total. These usually occurred on dry, level, and straight roads.

These five categories account for about 86 percent of all the fatalities looked at. “He didn’t see me” excuses could only be used in about half the ‘running traffic signal’ and ‘oncoming’ situations as well as most of those categorized as ‘left-turns’. In other words, no more than about 20 percent of all these fatalities involved a second vehicle that could have claimed not to see the motorcyclist. That’s a long way from ‘most’. Further, while the report goes on to make some suggestions about how to reduce these accidents, it does not read like the writings of a motorcycle rider. To suggest that an important possible countermeasure is to ‘avoid excessive speed when entering an intersection’ pales in comparison to simply insuring that another vehicle is on your right side as you enter intersections, for example.

- James R. Davis

On Friday, June 11, Jeff and I decided to join the Open Road Biker church men’s retreat in Leakey, TX. I had wanted to go, but due to work requirements, I didn’t know if I could make it or not. Jeff had work issues as well, so instead of leaving with the group Friday morning, we left after work. This would cause us to take much longer to get there as the roads south of Fredericksburg are slow to begin with and become down right hazardous after dark.
We met at the HEB and headed out. A quick run across the Balcones Canyonlands and then south on 281 to 290 had us in Fredericksburg in about an hour and a half. We passed through Fredericksburg and made it to Kerrville in another 30 minutes. We gassed up and grabbed some dinner from Mamacita’s. After about an hour break, we continued our journey to Leakey.
We rode Hwy 16 to Medina and turned back on RR 337 (or as I like to call it, Twisted Sister #1).
Right away a deer crossed our path, albeit a few yards in front of us. As the road got darker, our speed slowed considerably. The twists and turns came fast and furious. This road was recently repaved and there was plenty of loose gravel to make it interesting as well. We continued on to Vanderpool, where I had an uh-oh moment.
I had just taken a turn onto RR 187/337 and was checking my mirrors to make sure Jeff had made the turn and also my GPS, as I was interested in how much farther we had to go. I looked up and there she was. A small Doe was standing right in the middle of the road with her rear haunches on my side of the yellow stripe and her front on the other. She was just standing there trying to hide from me. I was moving to the right of her at a relatively slow rate of speed. She just stood there as I passed within 5 feet of her. After I cleared I hit my horn button to try to get her to move before Jeff got there and I guess it worked. After that, Jeff took over the lead and we slowly made our way around mountain ridges and on into Leakey.
We found the cabin and the guys were sitting outside in 90 degree temperatures with a fire blazing. Things that make you go hmm. We sat around the campfire, thought about our personal relationships with God, made fun of Butch, and watched a lightening show that was spectacular.
The next day we had a fine breakfast from the Bent Rim Grill. The couple that own’s it opened early for us. They are really nice folks and do a good business with the bikers that flock to the area in the summer. We ran the Twisted Sisters counter clockwise with no issues. The bikers were out in force and we did see the kangaroos and a giraffe. We grabbed a quick lunch in Leakey and then retraced the route Jeff and I had rode the night before back to Fredericksburg.
From Fredericksburg, we continued on Hwy 16 to Llano and then rode Hwy 29 back to Georgetown.
In summary, we rode roughly 600 miles in 24 hours on some of the greatest roads our country has to offer. We met some nice people and ate some great food. The men of ORBC are plenty fun to hand out with and I suggest you join us next time you are in the Georgetown area.