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2008 TAR Ride Report

Joined
Jan 1, 2005
Messages
4,465
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1,222
Location
Buda, TX
First Name
Rich
Last Name
Gibbens
I just got back from the 2008 Texas Adventure Ride and thought I would kick off the ride report. Riders, feel free to add your report to this thread.

I want to extend a big thank you to everyone who attended. We ended up with 225 registered riders this year, which was quite an increase over the 125 we had last year.

This year's logo
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I'll write more later, but here are some of the pics I took over 4 days of fun and adventure.

The City of Junction sponsored this year's TAR. Here's the banner they had made to welcome us to Junction.
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The Junction Chamber of Commerce gave out goody bags to all registered riders. Goody bags and KLRs go well together, don't you think?
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Bikes in repose, parking lot at Isaak Restaurant
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Wild Man Mike Frederick
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I couldn't pull this event off without the assistance of Mrs Richard_ and Dirtbike Dave
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The riding was fantastic. So was the weather.
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Water crossings were everywhere
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Old Junction Road never disappoints
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Getting jiggy wit it
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One of the Kimble County crown jewels
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Owen and Rusty getting ready to ride after the morning riders meeting
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Carved into this stone: MacKenzie Trail 1876, 3 horse thieves hung by Texas Rangers and buried here.
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Sat night banquet
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Foot peg meets shin. Foot peg wins.
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Richard, you beat the rain back? We were in blue skies by time we reached F'burg but after a cup of coffee with friend in town the storm clouds had re-grouped. I had to really wring out the DR to stay ahead of the storms. The winds were pushing me all around. Glad you made it back safely and thanks for organizing such a great event. -Fletch

Here are some pics from the trip. My apologies that I did more snapping than
talking so I don't have many names to go with pictures....

Welcome to TAR and Junction (and the lovely La Vista Motel):
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Pre-ride briefing by our fearless leader:
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Bikes, bikes, bikes!:
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Motorcycles weren't the only cool rides in town:
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Getting a hand through the water:
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Big Adventure going swimming:
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Making a friend on the road:
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Dick McCall was like a crack dealer with his Super Enduro..."The first ride's free but you just HAVE to buy one after the first hit!:"
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How to cool off at TAR:
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My riding group for the weekend. Mark, Todd, Bill and Loren. Thanks, guys. Y'all were a pleasure to hang with:
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Our rides for the weekend:
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A brace of yellow DR650's - Mine and Mark's (his is faster unless he is riding mine in which case it suddenly somehow becomes the faster one):
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Waiting at the water hole for the next victim, er, rider:
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You know him, you love him. Scott "Tourmeister" Friday and his cool brown-seated KLR with ubiquitous Ron Paul sticker:
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Shriner on a mini-motorcycle (or is it a carnival gorilla on a mini-bike?):
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Relaxing at the La Vista after a full day of riding:
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Dick's KTM WAS bad ****!.

Rusty?? You feeling ok? I'll let you tell the story but, I felt helpless watching it happen and not being able to stop it in some way. I hope you're feeling better.

Richard, Uncle, Scott, and everyone else that help organize this event, thanks so very much for everything ya'll did. :clap: Your hard work and determination to make this a class act really showed through.

And to Bruce, Pam, Greg, Roger, Peanut-n-wife, Walter, Bob, Paul and everyone else that I rode with, a sincere thanks for the memories and great times. I needed this "get-away" bad and all you guys really made it enjoyable. Thanks.:clap:

The 20 year old XR250 served me well. I'm still grinning. Over 500 miles in two days and I was smiling the whole way. You can count on me being there next year. I'm out. Terry:rider:
 
I'm sore, but moving okay. I won't be doing pushups any time soon though. Gear is good, green stuff on wet concrete is bad.
 
I'm sore, but moving okay. I won't be doing pushups any time soon though. Gear is good, green stuff on wet concrete is bad.
.
.
Is there an Echo in here......These could be my very words.
.
But let me clarify just one thing......"Green stuff on wet rock, is a VERY BAD thing.....especially for collar bones"..........Will go shoot an X-ray tomorrow and will know the whole story.
.
Next question?.......How to preach to patients when you have arm in a sling?
.
.
........Still had a great time, great people, great roads....Will do it again.....just not any time soon.
.
........Doc
 
know what ya mean, we rode the kent creek section, me on my 1200 gs, went through with no problem, then dump it on the creek crossing going out. no real damage done except for my pride,:doh: but all in all met some great people, and the rides were really great!!! can't wait until the next one!!:clap::clap: great job to all who had a part in putting this on was first class!!:clap: :clap:
 
Thursday

We had a plan. Dave and I would ride the bikes to Junction, taking a cross-country, dual sport route. Connie would trailer her bike, the spare bike, and all the rally stuff and we would all meet up in Junction exactly at 2:07 pm to get everything set up.

Packed and ready to go
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We ran some of my favorite, small county roads from Austin west to Hwy 87 north of Fredericksburg, when we finally reached the fun dual sport roads.

Threadgill Creek Rd was in fine shape this year. It must have rained here recently as the dirt was well-packed; last year there were several sandy sections that caused a few riders to abandon this road, but there was no sand this year to speak of. There were also no bluebonnets. At last year's ride the countryside was covered in bluebonnets, but we saw very few this year. Not enough rain, I guess.

Dave on Threadgill Creek Rd.
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There is a really scenic water crossing on Threadgill Creek Rd. Since it was his first time on this road, I had Dave cross the bridge twice so I could get some decent pics. No, I wasn't secretly hoping he would drop it in front of my camera so I could get the pic of the year. Really, I wasn't.

It starts off deep...
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...but then gets shallow
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We continued to work our way west, arriving at Salt Branch Rd., which is a basically a dirt road that runs straight west for many, many miles. Salt Branch is an easy class 1, but it is pretty out there.

Dave on Salt Branch Rd
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For those with an adventurous spirit, Salt Branch Rd will take you to the southern end of James River Rd. What's so adventurous about the James River Rd you ask? Well, it leads you to three water crossings, one of which is the largest water crossing in this neck of the woods. This wide water crossing is also very, very slick and has claimed many a bike, as some TAR riders can attest (including me).

The intersection of Salt Branch and James River roads. Go right for certain death :eek2: or straight for the scenic route. Dave isn't sure which way to go...
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...we ended up choosing the scenic route. After all we had to meet Connie at exactly 2:07 p.m. in Junction. We'll be back to tackle the certain death route another day. :giveup:
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After deciding discretion was the better part of valor (or something like that), I took advantage of a brief water & beef jerky rest stop to reflect on our journey and decided it was an appropriate time to think about the meaning of life. Life can be tough in this part of Texas. You gotta be quick or you could end up dead. Run over from behind by a teen driver distracted by a cell phone. Or have a rancher in an F150 not see you while turning left in front of you. I decided that getting run over by a car would be a bad thing. Run over by more than one would be even worse. You could end up dead and flat as a pancake and who wants that?











See what I mean? Pancake flat. This poor lil' fella was in pretty bad shape
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Satisfied that I was back up to speed about all that philosophy stuff, Dave and I jumped back on our dirt bikes and hauled the heck outta there. We had more dirt roads to go ride.

Kimble County Roads 420 (aka Blue Mountain Road) and 410 (especially 410) are great fun. They are part of the Kimble County West loop in the TAR ride guide and I highly recommend them to you the next time you are in the area.

Dave on Kimble CR410
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If this road doesn't appeal to you, then you won't like any of the roads in this part of Texas.
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Dave and I arrived in Junction at 2:07 p.m. on Hwy 2169 and stopped at the traffic light on the bridge crossing the Llano River. Exactly as we planned and executing with military precision, Connie arrived at precisely the same time and was the next vehicle to pull up behind us as we sat at the stop light. Who would have thought we could really have pulled it off! Perhaps fate was intervening to let us know that TAR was going to be an absolute blast again this year. Maybe my deep philosophical musing over pancake flat critter earlier in the day had aligned the stars for everyone for the next 3 days. Or, it could have just been a lucky coincidence that we arrived within 2 seconds of each other. Either way, we all arrived safely and at the same time at the ride HQ.

Connie and Dave ran the rider check-in, passing out TAR t-shirts and goody bags...
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...while Mr. Benny sold breakfast buffet & banquet tickets and cold beer. (P.S. Hi, Ed.)
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Uncle was the official greeter. He was supposed to wear the "Uncle" name tag, sit in the chair and welcome all the riders to TAR - "Hey, howyadoin? Welcome to TAR."...
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...but the more unsavory types in the group kept stopping by and distracting him with cold beer and wild stories of motorcycles, women, and adventure. Gotta watch those unsavory types or no telling what might happen to you. (P.S. Hi, Mike)
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We hung out in the parking lot, checking riders in, and drinking beer until 10 p.m.; an excellent end to an excellent day.
 
Thank You Richard for putting together such great routes:clap:
Thank You Steve and Terry for getting me involved in this great sport.:rider:
As a first timer, both to the T.A.R. and motorcycle riding, I was overwelmed with everyones comrodery and the genuine concern for safety and for having a good time. We arrived Thursday around 2PM , unloaded and rode part of Ride #11, I was HOOKED! Managed to keep the bike upright for that short ride, however I didn't fare so well on Friday and Saturday. Friday, I managed to pull off an awsome water crossing on Hackberry Rd., see picture:clap: , no I didn't fall! Although had allready eaten it a couple of times by then. :eek2: Saturday was the best... I put the bike into the weeds as was trying to avoid the water across Salt Branch Rd. (turns out the water was only 6 or 8 inches deep), anyhow I fell, yes this was one of many ( see first sentence), I got up brushed myself off and quickly said "Let's roll"... Two hours later, upon arriving for lunch in Llano I realized I had NO TANK BAG:zen: of course my wallet, cell phone and camera not to mention room key were all in the missing tank bag! After begging money for badly needed nutrition and fuel, off we went in search of the missing tank bag... back tracking to the scene of the earlier mishap, off on the side of the road, maybe I should say WAY OFF TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, yes I was in the weeds, was the infamous missing tank bag, perched in the red clay just awaiting my arrival and subsiquint pick-up. All's well that ends well. To sum up the weekend... It Was Awsome!!!! Thank You to everyone for making my first, but not my last T.A.R. an incredibly enjoyable weekend.
 

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I just got in from dinner. Everything is put away and about half of my photos have been downloaded to my computer. I will do the initial tweeking and resizing and get them up ASAP.

Thank you Richard for some great routes and thank you Connie for being so supportive!

Great times and great memories in Junction.

Bigger and better (is that possible?) next year!
 
More 2008 TAR Ride Pictures

We should probably start a separate thread for gate stories. This was my first experience with bump gates on a motorcycle. They are called 'bump' gates because you bump them then they bump you. I got the hang of it after the first couple. Anyone else got any good gate stories? (Scott?) Anyone? (Scott?) Hmmmm....
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Making water crossing look easy!
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Pretty creek bed, right?
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Nope. It's a road! And part of TAR 2008! ! !
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Some of the roads felt like traveling back in time:
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Technically... It wasn't a "bump" gate... I did however give it a good BUMP! But I get ahead of myself :doh: Must sleep... Those plywood mattresses don't work well for me :whatever: So I will start on the report tomorrow if I can.
 
What a fantastic and memorable experience:rider: ! There were seven riders in our group who traveled from as far as the Rio Grande Valley and Galveston. What a great group of guys. Most of us fell at least once at various algae-laced minefields disquised as river crossings of tranquil or gently flowing water:rofl: . No serious injuries :clap: !

For many of us, this was our first adventure ride and it was incredible. Needless to say, there will be many, many more:-P .

Thanks for making this possible Richard and Uncle:clap: . See you next year. Here are just a few of my memories from the journey.
 
Thanks for all the work that went into this ride, I had a great time !!

Dr.Blackbird, sorry to hear about your injury, darn!
There were more than a couple of injuries that I saw.
I can't wait to see that picture y'all took showing slings, bandages, and the biggest purplest bruise I had ever seen.

Good to see everyone, and nice to meet some new ones.
It was a crazy ride home to Austin-pics coming later.

-Chadley
 
Had a great time for my first time on two wheels. Met some some great people on the rides. Thanks Richard for all the hard work you and others do to make this sport more fun.
 
I had a great time and want to thank every one out at the KOA for the fellowship. I hope that every one made it home safe. That ride home Sunday was tough! I can't wait till next year! Thank you Richard for a great event. JR - I hope you get the Tiger repair from the 6' bird encounter!
 
Great wide angle shots CCRN, love the one on the dry creekbed. Lots of KLR's representin'. :)

Chadleys, I met you on the Hill Country DS in 2006 I think. Did you get caught in that gulley washer on the way back to Austin?
 
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