Texas T Campground

[Texas T]

This was in my FB Memories today so I thought I would post it up.


2018 @ Cornersville TN

At the conclusion of my San Diego to Jacksonville run (47H 35M) I met my wife at a hotel in Jacksonville (I flew her in from Phoenix), we had dinner with friends Mike and Mary the following evening and these were folks that used to be our riding partners in Arizona. Mike was the one that told me about this place and he had found it one day while on a ride after he had left AZ and moved to TN.

We left JAX the next morning, saw one of my cousins in GA that I hadn't seen in 20+ years, then headed on up to Ducktown TN to spend a few days with our friends Dean and Pam Lear. Dean was the founder of San Jose BMW out in CA and I met him after he retired and moved to Show Low where I now spend my summers. Long time readers may remember the huge off-grid place he had up here with a separate massive bunkhouse for riders passing through the area.

After leaving Dean's place we headed for Branson for the Tour Of Honor annual meet, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to find this campground. With coordinates entered into the GPS we were there in a few hours and I took the photo.

 

[Tigerkf]

That's cool!

 

[Boulder Ed]

Nice! I used to sport tour from SJ to Canada with Dean's longtime salesman Peter Connely? Those guys also worked on my earliest airheads back in the 80's.

 

[Texas T]

Nice! I used to sport tour from SJ to Canada with Dean's longtime salesman Peter Connely? Those guys also worked on my earliest airheads back in the 80's.

Very neat!

The guy that took it over from him has now made it into the largest sales volume BMW dealer in the US (I think).

Dean's got photos from various races around the country including Daytona and from when they ran at Bonneville.


Cookout at Dean's place in Show Low

Represent!

This was the "garage" area of the barn and the entire upstairs was a bunkhouse with about ten beds.

Probably the largest collection of 6-bangers in the state at that time.

His garage in TN. We spent two nights in the apartment over the garage. He and Pam build it all out by themselves.

Notice the chocolates on the pillows. They were great hosts.

 

[Boulder Ed]

Is he still around? Sure has s nice set up.

 

[Texas T]

Is he still around? Sure has s nice set up.

He and Pam have retired - retired to Alamogordo. He's about 5 miles from the Lincoln Forest and rides up into the mountains to Cloudcroft and other areas as often as he can. At 81 he's down to just three bikes; a BMW 310, a Kawasaki 800, and a Can-Am Spyder. He got rid of the big Beemer and his Harleys as he just doesn't have the leg strength to hold them up any more. He had a hip replaced a few weeks ago and says it's like being young again. He still needs to have a knee done and then maybe a shoulder, and a few other medical issues like a gall bladder issue a couple of years ago that came very close to killing him, but he's going to ride as long as he possibly can. Not being able to ride any more will kill him faster than the medical issues.

Pam doesn't ride any more but he bought her a Tracker SxS so they can ride up into the Forest together. They don't live very far from Ara - Beemerchef but have only seen each other a couple of times in the past few years.

 

[Boulder Ed]

I am glad to hear that hes still at it. At 81 thats incredible passion.

 

[Texas T]

I am glad to hear that hes still at it. At 81 thats incredible passion.

He's been riding since he was about 10.