Ride Report for Texas Hill Country Rally - BARF

bhaynnes · 05-24-2005, 03:38 PM

We (razel and I) left Sunday the 10th of April. Great weather and we headed towards Death Valley to see the huge bloom of wildflowers. On the way to Death Valley, we learned that the bumper crops of flowers etc., had also created a bumper crop of bugs. We had to stop every 30 minutes or so to clean the bugs off our faceshields in order to see where the hell we were going. We both had Escort Passport 8500 X50 radar detectors and Garmin GPS to keep us from getting lost. The radar detectors helped me to avoid velocity awards in 4 states. We were moving at a pretty hefty pace the whole way. The drop down into and up out of Death valley is a very nice set of twisties. We made it to a place called stovepipe wells The motel there was fairly nice with a wide range of rooms to rent. The Restaurant served good food but was a bit pricey. Across the street from the Motel was a General Store that had everything from bedsprings to bb's, unfortunately they seemed to be out of everything all the time.
We left Stovepipe wells and traveled all the way down to badwater seeing signs along the way; 130 feet below sea level etc. all the way down to 282 Ft below sea level I think. We rode into Boulder City near the Hoover dam for lunch. We rode across Hoover dam after lunch and noticed that they are building a bypass across the colorado river. The days that you can ride across the dam are numbered. I rode on into Phoenix that night while Razel went to visit family a bit north of Phoenix.
We hooked up the next day and continued across new Mexico to Just before the Texas Border. We spent the night in Las Crusces NM after almost running out of gas at about 11:00pm at night.
The next day early on we were in Texas. We headed out for Kerrville in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. As soon as we got into the hill country Texas changed radically. There was water everywhere. Streams and lakes abound. And there is some of the sweetest high speed sweepers on this earth. The motel when we got there was absolutely top notch. We each had a suite The parking lot was filled with about 100+ BMW motorcycles each night. We spent the next three days riding some of the sweetest motorcycle roads I have ever seen. Very little traffic on the roads. You wanted to be safely tucked in before dark though as the litter of dead deer attested to each morning. We would wick it through the sweepers at triple di ... I mean very fast indeed and lean the bikes all the way over to scraping on both sides. The scenery was fantastic. We were busy snapping shots of longhorns and buffalo and the beautiful Texas Bluebonnets. In the Hill country they have spots all over the place where the water runs right over the road. That can get hairy if you are moving swiftly and come over a hill only to drop way down very suddenly into a stream with moss and all running over the road. Time to hit the brakes hard!
We left Sunday morning to the tune of a little rain but soon rode out from under it. We thought HWy 10 out was a little boring so me decided to take 40 back. I think the road from 40 to 10 that we picked seemed to be about 1,000 miles long and straight as an arrow. We hit hwy 40 and headed west. We just missed a pretty heavy thunderstorm and pulled into Roswell NM to spend the night. I set a trap out in the parking lot to catch me an alien, but all I caught was a wino with an attitude. Sheesh! HWY 40 was a little better than 10 was coming out but it was still a superslab.
We left Roswell after being chased by a UFO that turned out to be an ambulance. The ride across New Mexico and Arizona was surreal. We had a wind blowing from the left that could have moved railroad cars. My bike was leaned over so far that I could almost touch the ground the whole dang time. We went through some places that you could roast an egg on the tank and we also went through some areas that would freeze the nuts off a carabou. We stopped in some town near the Calif Ariz border for the night.
We got up, ate breakfast and then headed out. We rode right straight through stopping only for gas until we got home. Arriving at 10:00pm on Tuesday night.
I had been having heartburn the whole dang trip. I was guzzling tums and rolaids like crazy. Well at 5:00am the next morning I had a pretty large heart attack. If it had happened on the ride ............. I don't even want to think about it. Anyway, when my house gets finished remodeling, I'll set up the computer and break out pictures we took.

deaconblues · 05-24-2005, 06:23 PM

holy fuck, a heart attack??

hope you're doing OK from that.

And yah, impending heart problems can feel like indigestion, and vice versa.

sounds like a kick-ass ride.

bhaynnes · 05-25-2005, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by deaconblues
holy fuck, a heart attack??

hope you're doing OK from that.

And yah, impending heart problems can feel like indigestion, and vice versa.

sounds like a kick-ass ride.

Yeah, I'm fine. They put 6 stents in the arteries in my heart and I felt better than I had in a long time when I got up off the table. You're wide awake when they put those stents in your heart. I was fortunate, there was no damage to the heart muscle at all. I was hammering the twisties exactly 10 days after the procedure. 2 weeks and I was back at work.

Yeah, it was a kick ass ride. 10 days of riding sunup to sundown. The only way it could have been better was less superslab travel but alas, we had to get there.

Spurber · 06-13-2005, 12:22 PM

Wow.

mcguirezone · 07-08-2005, 11:01 PM

I grew up in Austin and rode all over the Hill Country. You're right, the roads out there are cherry. The bugs are big, flash floods are common, and hail hurts. The deer own the roads at night, and the buzzards clean up the roads in the day. Road beasts can quickly ruin your day.

I recommend flying to Austin, renting a bike and riding the Hill Country (in the spring, NOT SUMMER) for a week or two. It makes for a nice vacation. Great food (lots of bar-b-cue everywhere you go) and plenty of fun to be had.

bhaynnes · 07-11-2005, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mcguirezone
I grew up in Austin and rode all over the Hill Country. You're right, the roads out there are cherry. The bugs are big, flash floods are common, and hail hurts. The deer own the roads at night, and the buzzards clean up the roads in the day. Road beasts can quickly ruin your day.

I recommend flying to Austin, renting a bike and riding the Hill Country (in the spring, NOT SUMMER) for a week or two. It makes for a nice vacation. Great food (lots of bar-b-cue everywhere you go) and plenty of fun to be had.

Yeah, a couple of days we had lunch at a place called "lost maples". The pie was to die for.

05-24-2005, 03:38 PM	#1
bhaynnes Calamari King Contributor Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Belmont CA Motorcycles: BMW K1200rs Name:	Ride Report for Texas Hill Country Rally We (razel and I) left Sunday the 10th of April. Great weather and we headed towards Death Valley to see the huge bloom of wildflowers. On the way to Death Valley, we learned that the bumper crops of flowers etc., had also created a bumper crop of bugs. We had to stop every 30 minutes or so to clean the bugs off our faceshields in order to see where the hell we were going. We both had Escort Passport 8500 X50 radar detectors and Garmin GPS to keep us from getting lost. The radar detectors helped me to avoid velocity awards in 4 states. We were moving at a pretty hefty pace the whole way. The drop down into and up out of Death valley is a very nice set of twisties. We made it to a place called stovepipe wells The motel there was fairly nice with a wide range of rooms to rent. The Restaurant served good food but was a bit pricey. Across the street from the Motel was a General Store that had everything from bedsprings to bb's, unfortunately they seemed to be out of everything all the time. We left Stovepipe wells and traveled all the way down to badwater seeing signs along the way; 130 feet below sea level etc. all the way down to 282 Ft below sea level I think. We rode into Boulder City near the Hoover dam for lunch. We rode across Hoover dam after lunch and noticed that they are building a bypass across the colorado river. The days that you can ride across the dam are numbered. I rode on into Phoenix that night while Razel went to visit family a bit north of Phoenix. We hooked up the next day and continued across new Mexico to Just before the Texas Border. We spent the night in Las Crusces NM after almost running out of gas at about 11:00pm at night. The next day early on we were in Texas. We headed out for Kerrville in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. As soon as we got into the hill country Texas changed radically. There was water everywhere. Streams and lakes abound. And there is some of the sweetest high speed sweepers on this earth. The motel when we got there was absolutely top notch. We each had a suite The parking lot was filled with about 100+ BMW motorcycles each night. We spent the next three days riding some of the sweetest motorcycle roads I have ever seen. Very little traffic on the roads. You wanted to be safely tucked in before dark though as the litter of dead deer attested to each morning. We would wick it through the sweepers at triple di ... I mean very fast indeed and lean the bikes all the way over to scraping on both sides. The scenery was fantastic. We were busy snapping shots of longhorns and buffalo and the beautiful Texas Bluebonnets. In the Hill country they have spots all over the place where the water runs right over the road. That can get hairy if you are moving swiftly and come over a hill only to drop way down very suddenly into a stream with moss and all running over the road. Time to hit the brakes hard! We left Sunday morning to the tune of a little rain but soon rode out from under it. We thought HWy 10 out was a little boring so me decided to take 40 back. I think the road from 40 to 10 that we picked seemed to be about 1,000 miles long and straight as an arrow. We hit hwy 40 and headed west. We just missed a pretty heavy thunderstorm and pulled into Roswell NM to spend the night. I set a trap out in the parking lot to catch me an alien, but all I caught was a wino with an attitude. Sheesh! HWY 40 was a little better than 10 was coming out but it was still a superslab. We left Roswell after being chased by a UFO that turned out to be an ambulance. The ride across New Mexico and Arizona was surreal. We had a wind blowing from the left that could have moved railroad cars. My bike was leaned over so far that I could almost touch the ground the whole dang time. We went through some places that you could roast an egg on the tank and we also went through some areas that would freeze the nuts off a carabou. We stopped in some town near the Calif Ariz border for the night. We got up, ate breakfast and then headed out. We rode right straight through stopping only for gas until we got home. Arriving at 10:00pm on Tuesday night. I had been having heartburn the whole dang trip. I was guzzling tums and rolaids like crazy. Well at 5:00am the next morning I had a pretty large heart attack. If it had happened on the ride ............. I don't even want to think about it. Anyway, when my house gets finished remodeling, I'll set up the computer and break out pictures we took. __________________ Bill Haynes [I do wave dammit] "you'll thank me later"

05-24-2005, 06:23 PM	#2
deaconblues Roads Scholar Contributor Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Irving TX Motorcycles: 2008 Triumph Sprint ST 1050 Name: George	holy fuck, a heart attack?? hope you're doing OK from that. And yah, impending heart problems can feel like indigestion, and vice versa. sounds like a kick-ass ride. __________________ "You're getting flamed for a good reason.....Just learn from it." - guidoninja "Remember, you cant talk your way out of a ticket....you can certainly talk your way into one." - Brash47 What you're entitled to on BARF - Thx to troy900ss \| WARNING: Post may contain traces of TMI "IT NEVER GOT FAST ENOUGH FOR ME." - Hunter S Thompson 1937 - 2005

06-13-2005, 12:22 PM	#4
Spurber Rookie Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Peninsula Motorcycles: FJR1300, Husky(s) TE-450 & 610SM, KTM 500EXC Name:	Wow. __________________ - Dude that noise is definitely coming from your bike.

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07-08-2005, 11:01 PM	#5
mcguirezone Rookie Contributor Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Martinez, CA Motorcycles: '10 R1200GS Name:	I grew up in Austin and rode all over the Hill Country. You're right, the roads out there are cherry. The bugs are big, flash floods are common, and hail hurts. The deer own the roads at night, and the buzzards clean up the roads in the day. Road beasts can quickly ruin your day. I recommend flying to Austin, renting a bike and riding the Hill Country (in the spring, NOT SUMMER) for a week or two. It makes for a nice vacation. Great food (lots of bar-b-cue everywhere you go) and plenty of fun to be had.