Re: before Russ ships out...
I think I am finally thawed out...
I just finished the left over half off my Meers burger!
donroger1 said:
Wow Rich.
You said you were flying when you came over Indian Bridge but I had no idea...
GPS Screenshot
Aw, that ain't nuthin' (and you guys thought I was SLOW)
(BTW, thanks for waiting for me, Russ and Stephen)
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My slant on things (biased,of course):
I started out the day looking forlornly at the empty spot on my handlebar:
My mascot, Bob, was supposedly kidnapped last Saturday in Hico. However, the facts seemed to indicate that he was looking for adventure, fast cars, and fast women.
Looks like he is painting the town red down in Houston and Huntsville...
Next, it was waiting at the Minyard parking lot about 6:35 AM
- me and about 50000 black birds. I heard this sweet sound of a dual pipe and Ryan (l8rg8r) turns in and he makes a run at the birds, scattering them all over the place! I held my breath while he had trouble slowing down (he said a "glove problem"), went over the low curb, accross some grass and almost into oncoming traffic on Green Oaks!
But he saved it and came up saying "I probably shouldn't have done that..."
That said, we took off for Decatur where we would meet up with some other folks. Uneventful other than it sure seemed colder than 41 degrees (34 with wind chill), we stop at the Shell station to find Leon (focus frenzy) and his GS1000 (note the cap):
While waiting, I found out that Ryan had recently gotten his personalized plate:
(he said l8rg8r was already taken)
After a bit, Stephen (Yeeha Stephen!) and Byron (Trinity), both on Beemers, rolled in.
(Byron on the GS, Stephen on the RT)
We left Decatur about 20 minutes late, but found some good roads headed north. I thought Stephen was going the wrong way but he made a quick stop at the
Running N Ranch:
This place had some unique artwork - daisies made from old aircraft radial engines, old VW bugs, and some artwork from telephone poles...
Take a look at the guy on the far right - an alien maybe? It was those orange eyes. Maybe related to the guy Elzi was looking for it the Aurora cemetary?
Anyway, he seems to know Stephen...
We stopped at the Red River bridge & found Don (donroger1) waiting for us.
Ryan went back to get some middle of the bridge shots...
Since this was my first out-of-state trip on the bike, I wanted a sign that said Oklahoma! or something like that. I did find this...
At least there was water in the river:
After just a short bit, a lone rider on a red Honda ST came screaming up and skidded to a stop just past us...
It was Rich (Simmons1) and he asked "Hey, are you guys running late?".
Well, yeah...
After that, it was seven of us following Stephen north and west. The wind was a major factor, at least for me, especially running due west on US70 with the little or no wind breaks that the Oklahoma plains provide...
Stephen deviated from the original route and continued up OK89 instead of 32... We ended up gassing up in Waurika since the wind was killing our gas mileage.
Finally, we hit I44 and it's a toll road! Stephen foots the bill for the team and we save the folks behind us a lot of time. Thanks, Stephen!
We rode across Lawton and ended up at Russ' place:
(that's Russ in the white sweater)
Dunno what his neighbor's thought about all the visitors from Texas...
Russ then took us on a little tour through the wildlife preservation area. Here is a stop at a viewing point with Mt. Scott in the background.
We then took the road that winds around the side of Mt. Scott up to the top. The view from the top was really nice - not expected to be found in southern Oklahoma...
Lots of looking and picture taking
You can see what the wind does to the water surface from up here
(the GPS said we were at 2478 feet above sea level)
Finally, Russ declared he was hungry and we headed over to the Meers Store:
After a short wait, they were able to get us two tables that would seat a total of 9 and we could get on to the business of gabbing and eating:
Stephen, Rich, Byron, Russ, Elzi
Our table had Leon and Don.
(Don got a photo of Ryan and me)
After lunch, Rich headed for home and the rest followed Russ down OK115 and back. We stooped at a gas station so we could fill up and say goodbye to Russ and Elzi (staying for some more site seeing).
The trip back was less bothersome by the wind, but it still made its presence known when we headed SW instead of SE. Leon stopped in Bellevue in order to stretch his legs. The rest of us stopped one more time in Bowie and each made sure where everyone was bailing out. One by one, the riders headed off toward home. Don in Decatur, Byron on 114, Stephen at 820. I lost Ryan in the madness that is I35W north of downtown Ft. Worth.
Despite the cold and wind, it was a great trip. Glad to visit old Russ for once. We hope to see him one more time before he ships out for a year.