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The plan for the day was to get up early and make some time, and basically get out of Texas. Today was also the day I was going to separate from Micky and Dennis as our plans sort of diverged at this point, but we may meet up again in Las Vegas. After packing up and saying my good byes, I was on the road and moving by 8am. The plan was to ride some of the "Hill Country", then head for New Mexico. I continued on on 46 then followed the signs to "Hill Country Trail", that took me into Sattler and around Canyon Lake. Then into Wimberly and around 32, to 12 to 2325 that forms a nice loop. I take back some of what I said about Texas yesterday, these were some nice roads. Nice and hilly, and it was nice and cool out. A great ride.
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I then made my way south on 281 and passed Micky and Dennis going the other way. I got a call later from Micky asking me where the hell I was going. :) I followed 46 out to 16 into Bandera, stopped for a drink, some gas, and planned out my next bit of riding. Talking to a local, he told me of a great loop, so I decided to follow his suggestions.
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If you ever plan to ride in Texas, take note. These are the roads to ride! I followed 16 up and into Kerrville. This was a very nice rode leading up and over a ridge, tree-lined, following the river. Some nice 1st gear corners and everything! The stretch in Kerrville along 27 to get to 39 sucked. Typical strip mall lined little town. But once I got onto 39 and head out of town, whoa doggie! I follows the Guadalupe river all the way down, with many river crossings. Fun fun fun! There were a few long straight sections, but they were fun too (who knew the front end of an XX fully loaded with 3 Givis and camping gear starts to get light at about 140?) I then jumped onto 187 into Vanderpool, and turned west onto 337. 337 is a typical canyon road, up along, then down. Some great views from the top! And another one. I then made my way down the other side of the canyon and into Leakey where I came across this place. It looked interesting, so I pulled over and had a nice BBQ sandwich. Here is the proprietor. On the window was a map of all the "Best motorcycling roads in Texas" Turns out I just stumbled upon them! I decided to continue on 337 then to 55 up to 277 then to I-10 to burn up some miles since the rest of the state was flat and boring. 337 went through 2 more canyons and had some serious whoops, going from fully extended suspensions, to fully compressed. Felt like a roller coaster! But it had to come to an end, road construction. I had wait there for a good 10 minutes before we got our escort through. Once to Camp Wood it was up 55. This was rolling countryside, long straights, great sight lines, so I made some time. At one point I had to get on the brakes HARD and duck to avoid hitting one of the vultures (not sure what type) that decided right then was a good time to fly across the road. They are big suckers! Making time turned out to be a bad thing. As I was about 5 miles outside of Rock Springs, I saw a white truck heading towards me, then the V1 lit up. Dammit. The blues came on, I immediately signaled and pulled over, he turned around and pulled in behind me. I shut everything down, took off the helmet and put on my best happy face. Guy was a good old fashioned constable. He had his ticket book out and he was going to use it. Not even Reto could have got out of this. I was very polite, as was he. Told me he got me doing 85 in a 70. Wrote me up, I took his picture and I was back on my way. Sort of. The ticket need to be paid by July 11th, so into town I went, to the local bank, got a cashiers check, then it was to the magistrates office across the street where I met the nice white haired 87 judge, paid the lady and what out of there. Probably 40 minutes from the stop to me being $155 poorer. Grrrr.
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| The rest of 55 was boring. Long, straight, hot. I got onto I-10 with, what I thought, about 100 miles left in my tank, but as I was cruising along, the Low Fuel Light came on about 50 miles before I was expecting it. Then, there was nothing, no exits. And where there were exits, no services. Things started to get desperate as I was approaching 40 miles on reserve. I was coasting down hills, and keeping speeds below 50mph and watching the outside air temp creep up to 108F. I was wondering how long I was going to be able to hang out on the side of the road before help arrived. :) Then, off in the distance, I see a sign. A gas station!! I pulled in filled up. 5.48 gals in my 5.4 gal tank. Whoa. I continued along I-10 and ran into miles and miles and miles of windmills! Then into Fort Stockton, then up 285 into Pecos, where I saw my first real life road runner run right across in front of me! I was hoping to make it into New Mexico, but it was after 7pm, the temps outside were reaching 108+F and I was tired. I filled up with gas and asked if there was anything else coming up and I was told no, I decided to grab a hotel room and call it a day. I unloaded, went for a great Mexican dinner, did some laundry, then figured out the plan for the next day. |
| Ending mileage: | 71836 |
| Starting mileage: | 71274 |
| Miles for day: | 562 |
| Total: | 3622 |