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shipman
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- Location
- Fort Worth/Funkytown/Panther City
- First Name
- Jamie
So, last weekend my wife and I shared a nice cabin with some friends in Beaver's Bend State Park in Broken Bow, OK. I managed to convince her to ride up there with me on my Suzuki TU250X, which was surprising because she's only ridden with me one other time before. This was my first "longer" ride (500+ miles when all was said and done), I usually just commute to work or ride around the metroplex area. I really enjoyed taking the tree-lined back roads, and this trip was the best riding I've done so far in my short riding career...
Anyway, this isn't much of a ride report, nothing TOO exciting- I just wanted to share a few pictures. Let me first say that I am not the picture-taking type. I like to say that I prefer to live life and experience things as opposed to worrying about documenting them... Not that I don't appreciate living vicariously through other people's photos, though! That said, please pardon the bad photos- they were taken with my trusty old 1st-gen 2G iPhone...
The trip began with us dropping off my daughter at my mom's and then us dropping off our bags in Fort Worth, loading them into our friend's roomy extended cab F-250. It sure is nice being able to take a trip on a motorcycle and not have to worry about where to put luggage! The first part of the ride was the most boring- slabbing it out on 121 up to Bonham. The wind was strong, the traffic fast. We were humming along at anywhere between 55-65mph as grade and wind conditions allowed...
We stopped in McKinney for gas and to stretch, at least the most grueling part was over with. After that, we continued on 121 to Bonham, stopping there briefly at a not-very-picturesque gas station to stretch, snack and look at the crappy directions I had printed out from Google...
We continued on toward Paris, TX... Stopping occasionally to stretch. My wife was surprised at how tired and sore she would get riding pillion. The TU is definitely no Goldwing! But, to her credit, she soldiered on... I finally disciplined myself to stop and take a picture once we got to Paris:
We rode through Paris, admiring the quaint town square AND the notion that Texas small towns can be both rural AND ghetto...
At this point, my crappy Google Maps directions failed me a little and we got turned around. I eventually righted myself, stopped at a gas station to verify I was on the right track, and rode FM195 out of Paris up toward Oklahoma. I knew that I was basically going to be on this road for a while, so I just enjoyed the scenery instead of paying attention to road signs. At some point, the road was perfect- lots of curves (at least for my nonexistent experience), no traffic around whatsoever, pine trees all around... I was really digging it. I did start to wonder to myself why I wasn't noticing any of the town names that I had expected to see on my map, but oh well- why worry?
Then my "low fuel" light came on. Hmm, time to start looking for a gas station. We drove on a while longer, seemingly in the middle of nowhere and not passing a single town, gas station or major road artery...
Until we hit Pat Mayse Lake. No wonder its so nice out here, this is a wildlife reserve! And one that I know only from seeing on the map- it's WAY north of where we're supposed to be!
Needless to say, my wife was NOT amused...
"Do you know where to go from here?"
"Um no, not exactly"
"Well, look at the map..."
"It cuts off just below here, I wasn't planning to be THIS far north"
'Well, how are we on gas?"
"We're almost out..."
At this point, the battery on her smart phone was dying so no GPS. I'm too cheap to pay for a data plan, so unless this state park had wifi I was S.O.L... But hey, this place is beautiful, let's take some pictures!
Those are the only two with the bike in them, I know they don't show much. Once again, I'm no photog. But there was a road going over the dam and a picturesque lake and lots of trees. It was beautiful, and you'll just have to take my word for it.
We eventually got back on the road, stopped someone for directions but he wasn't from the area... We stumbled onto a major road, found a gas station and got some good directions. Turns out we were only a mile from the Oklahoma border, so with a new improvised route taking us up 271 to 70 to Idabel, we were on our way! At this point we were just tucked in, trying to haul *** because we were behind schedule and had people waiting for us at the cabin already. It seems like we were having to stop a lot to stretch at this point, just pulling over to the side of the road for a couple minutes before hopping back on. Here's a random photo of some unimportant place in OK when we stopped one time (What a photo op! Aren't you glad you're along for this ride?):
If I remember correctly, at that particular stop, we were discussing the relative merits of backrests and fairings/windshields...
After falling in behind a bunch of bikers on Harleys for a few miles, we eventually reach Broken Bow and found our cabin. What a sight for sore eyes (we had been on the road over 5 hours at this point)!
Anyway, this isn't much of a ride report, nothing TOO exciting- I just wanted to share a few pictures. Let me first say that I am not the picture-taking type. I like to say that I prefer to live life and experience things as opposed to worrying about documenting them... Not that I don't appreciate living vicariously through other people's photos, though! That said, please pardon the bad photos- they were taken with my trusty old 1st-gen 2G iPhone...
The trip began with us dropping off my daughter at my mom's and then us dropping off our bags in Fort Worth, loading them into our friend's roomy extended cab F-250. It sure is nice being able to take a trip on a motorcycle and not have to worry about where to put luggage! The first part of the ride was the most boring- slabbing it out on 121 up to Bonham. The wind was strong, the traffic fast. We were humming along at anywhere between 55-65mph as grade and wind conditions allowed...
We stopped in McKinney for gas and to stretch, at least the most grueling part was over with. After that, we continued on 121 to Bonham, stopping there briefly at a not-very-picturesque gas station to stretch, snack and look at the crappy directions I had printed out from Google...We continued on toward Paris, TX... Stopping occasionally to stretch. My wife was surprised at how tired and sore she would get riding pillion. The TU is definitely no Goldwing! But, to her credit, she soldiered on... I finally disciplined myself to stop and take a picture once we got to Paris:
We rode through Paris, admiring the quaint town square AND the notion that Texas small towns can be both rural AND ghetto...
At this point, my crappy Google Maps directions failed me a little and we got turned around. I eventually righted myself, stopped at a gas station to verify I was on the right track, and rode FM195 out of Paris up toward Oklahoma. I knew that I was basically going to be on this road for a while, so I just enjoyed the scenery instead of paying attention to road signs. At some point, the road was perfect- lots of curves (at least for my nonexistent experience), no traffic around whatsoever, pine trees all around... I was really digging it. I did start to wonder to myself why I wasn't noticing any of the town names that I had expected to see on my map, but oh well- why worry?
Then my "low fuel" light came on. Hmm, time to start looking for a gas station. We drove on a while longer, seemingly in the middle of nowhere and not passing a single town, gas station or major road artery...
Until we hit Pat Mayse Lake. No wonder its so nice out here, this is a wildlife reserve! And one that I know only from seeing on the map- it's WAY north of where we're supposed to be!
Needless to say, my wife was NOT amused... "Do you know where to go from here?"
"Um no, not exactly"
"Well, look at the map..."
"It cuts off just below here, I wasn't planning to be THIS far north"
'Well, how are we on gas?"
"We're almost out..."
At this point, the battery on her smart phone was dying so no GPS. I'm too cheap to pay for a data plan, so unless this state park had wifi I was S.O.L... But hey, this place is beautiful, let's take some pictures!
Those are the only two with the bike in them, I know they don't show much. Once again, I'm no photog. But there was a road going over the dam and a picturesque lake and lots of trees. It was beautiful, and you'll just have to take my word for it.
We eventually got back on the road, stopped someone for directions but he wasn't from the area... We stumbled onto a major road, found a gas station and got some good directions. Turns out we were only a mile from the Oklahoma border, so with a new improvised route taking us up 271 to 70 to Idabel, we were on our way! At this point we were just tucked in, trying to haul *** because we were behind schedule and had people waiting for us at the cabin already. It seems like we were having to stop a lot to stretch at this point, just pulling over to the side of the road for a couple minutes before hopping back on. Here's a random photo of some unimportant place in OK when we stopped one time (What a photo op! Aren't you glad you're along for this ride?):
If I remember correctly, at that particular stop, we were discussing the relative merits of backrests and fairings/windshields...
After falling in behind a bunch of bikers on Harleys for a few miles, we eventually reach Broken Bow and found our cabin. What a sight for sore eyes (we had been on the road over 5 hours at this point)!
Looks like you'll had a fun trip.
