Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! 
Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to 
Texas Hill Country 2008 - March 11-16
Disclaimer: We noticed that some of the videos don’t seem to want to play properly in Firefox, but seem to work ok in Internet Explorer
March 11, 2008 - The bikes are loaded up and ready to go!
A quick check of the odometer on the ST...
And the 599...
We left right at 10am. Our first stop was in Fayatteville for
lunch. Orsak's Cafe has the best hamburgers!
After lunch we continued to Lockhart where we stopped for gas. Sloan
left the key on in his motorcycle while he went inside the store and when we came back out, his bike wouldn't start. We called AAA and about an hour later we were back on our way with a charged battery.
We finally arrived at the River Inn Resort just outside of Hunt at around 6:30. Here are a few pictures just outside our room looking down at the Guadalupe river as the sun was starting to go behind the hills.
This is a waterslide that uses the power of the river to provide the water flow. It moved pretty fast.
You can probably buy this signs at lots of novelty shops, but we still thought it was funny. It was mounted on the end of the condos.
March 12, 2008 - The 3 sisters - Ranch Road 335, 336, and 337 as they
are known by motorcyclists everywhere. Overall good road surfaces with
lots of curves and hills. Awesome riding. Here's a few videos taken
with Melanie's digital camera mounted on her left handlebar.
336
http://www.youtube.com/v/su8sljZuhjw
336
http://www.youtube.com/v/rxYChk6RKio
335
http://www.youtube.com/v/54JokypF0qs
337 – This road would have been great with HUGE elevation changes if not for 5 miles of road construction east of Leakey. We made the mistake of going that way and ended up slipping, sliding, and eating dust for 5 miles before we got through it. Next time, we’re turning around and going back!
http://www.youtube.com/v/ybUJ7lHPpA4
Just east on Leakey on 337 we stopped for a second and while we were there, decided to take a picture of the motorcycles sitting under this big tree. How about that background? Nothing like a cemetery to spice up a photo!
March 13, 2008 - Cooper's and Lukenbach
Here's Sloan putting his stuff away as we get ready for BBQ nirvana at
Cooper's BBQ in Llano. We can both honestly say that it's the best BBQ
we've ever tasted. Sloan really liked the pork loin.
Here's where you order. Basically you order however much of each meat
you want, and then pay by the pound inside. They'll cut any amount of
anything except the chicken and the pork chops. You can't really go
slicing off pieces of chicken, and pork chops can't really be divided (probably because nobody would want to pay for the bone portion)!
Watch Sloan picking out different meats while I'm filming. Don't miss the HUGE pork chops about in the center. They're just to the
right of the pork loin that you'll hear Sloan picking out. They say that the chops are 2 inches thick, but we swear the ones on the grill were at least 3 inches thick! We didn't actually get a pork chop (we will next time) because we figured we already had 20 bucks worth of meat picked out with brisket, ribs, sausage, and the loin. Pay attention to how the guy asks if you want sauce on your meat, and see what he does when you say “yes”.
http://www.youtube.com/v/90u2IwOvQAQ
“Let's go to Lukenbach, Texas, with Waylon, Willie, and the boys....”
Here we are at the little ex-post office made famous by the song. The
real, working post office is a couple miles back up the road, but this old one is the tourist trap, I mean attraction.
The sign on the tree is a little hard to read in this shrunken photo, but it of course says, “Motorcycle Parking”
Coming back from Llano and Fredericksburg we rode the Willow City Loop which was really just a little side road that didn't even have a center stripe. It was just a little sedate ride with some nice scenery and COWS!! Interestingly enough, the cattle guards on this little road were smoother than the ones on 336!
http://www.youtube.com/v/RuPH3Jsm3XY
Hwy 39 next 2 videos
http://www.youtube.com/v/om5w3tDkqp4
Hwy 39
http://www.youtube.com/v/f-0nn8I9ZJI
Stonehenge II – This is a scale semi-replica of the real Stonehenge. It’s
not an exactly duplication of the original in England but instead somebody’s interpretation. Still, it was pretty cool.
March 14, 2008 - Mooney Airplane Factory
You may not know it but Texas has its own airplane manufacturer located in Kerrville. Sloan is of course a pilot, and we’ve never seen an airplane being built, so we went for a tour of the factory. We had a super gentleman named Stanley give us a tour of the factory. EVERYBODY seemed to know Stanley, and they should because he’s been with Mooney for 50 years!
Here’s Stanley showing us a seat frame. We learned that almost every little part of the airplane is made right there in the factory out of raw material (metal tubes, aluminum sheets, fiberglass, wiring, etc). Stanley is pointing out the little black knob on the crank handle that raises and lowers the seat. I don’t think it’s visible in the picture, but he’s saying that out of the 25 or so parts that make up that seat, the plastic molded knob is the only piece they don’t make themselves.
This is an almost completed wing, ready to be attached to a airframe. Some panels are open and a big sheet of metal is still peeled back for making some final adjustments. Just to get you oriented, If the whole airplane was hanging there, the nose would be pointed up.
Stanley is now showing us the very beginning of the assembly line where all the big pieces start to come together. The is the frame around the main cockpit and it’s on a tool where it can be rotated 360 degrees. Right now the top of the frame is facing us and Stanly is standing about where the windshield will go.
Here’s the cockpit area after all the skin is on and Plexiglas is installed. The door goes on the other side, but you can see the rear baggage compartment door opened above the body on the far rear side. This is about a third of the way down the line. The wing and other major parts will be attached soon.
This last picture getting close to the end. The wing, tail, and engine are installed, but notice that the airplane is still on jacks as the landing gear has not been installed. Next would be the landing gear and a bunch of final adjustments before the plane goes out for its first flight with a company test pilot, and THEN it’s painted after that followed by customer delivery. All in all, there were about 10-12 airplanes in various stages of assembly on the line, not counting back in the factory were thousands of small pieces were being readied for the next set.
After the factory tour we headed south to Bandera for lunch and then
continued west on Hwy 470. There was some road construction on 470 but it was only a couple of little spots so we rode through it. It was nothing compared to the mess on 337.
http://www.youtube.com/v/6WioeYMDuNw
336
http://www.youtube.com/v/aVS2IF6VkqA
336 would have been Sloan's favorite road, except for the cattle guards! We tried running over them at everywhere from 20 to 60 mph, hoping we would fly over them at the faster speeds. 20 worked best, so we had to slow down every time.
http://www.youtube.com/v/-fl1VLvGJDo
March 15, 2008 - Lone Star Motorcycle Museum and Fellowship Riders.
Here’s our rides parked at the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum just north of Vanderpool. There were lots of
neat, older bikes inside and also a restaurant that served burgers and Aussie meat pies. Sloan tried an “original” and an “Aussie-Mex”. He liked the original the best. We were the only 2 motorcycles there when we arrived, but when we left maybe an hour later, there were probably close to 30 in the parking lot!
On Saturday, 12 other motorcycles showed up from Houston with the Foundry Fellowship Riders. That afternoon several of them went on a ride with us. Since we knew where we were going at this point, we stayed at the back of the group. Sloan stayed behind me at the very back so I could film some other rides and he figured with his bright yellow motorcycle and gear, he’d be easy for the leader to see and keep tabs on the group.
Headed out of the parking lot with 8 other Fellowship riders. FINALLY I got to film something besides Sloan! Just Kidding!
http://www.youtube.com/v/TfoS5JWVRBU
Headed west on Hwy 39 out of Hunt
http://www.youtube.com/v/6fSapVa7sek
More Hwy 39
http://www.youtube.com/v/9PrLemv8w7c
Several videos on 336 again. Watch out for those cattle guards!
http://www.youtube.com/v/0thGzyIULAw
336
http://www.youtube.com/v/jZommv177Tc
336
http://www.youtube.com/v/3-9BVpGCBQg
March 16, 2008 - DQ Country in Smithville. This one is for
Mellow and his Dairy Queen photo collection!
And the photos ended there. After 1538 miles, we were too tired to take
any more!
Ok, who's ready to go again?!
Disclaimer: We noticed that some of the videos don’t seem to want to play properly in Firefox, but seem to work ok in Internet Explorer
March 11, 2008 - The bikes are loaded up and ready to go!
A quick check of the odometer on the ST...
And the 599...
We left right at 10am. Our first stop was in Fayatteville for
lunch. Orsak's Cafe has the best hamburgers!
After lunch we continued to Lockhart where we stopped for gas. Sloan
left the key on in his motorcycle while he went inside the store and when we came back out, his bike wouldn't start. We called AAA and about an hour later we were back on our way with a charged battery.
We finally arrived at the River Inn Resort just outside of Hunt at around 6:30. Here are a few pictures just outside our room looking down at the Guadalupe river as the sun was starting to go behind the hills.
This is a waterslide that uses the power of the river to provide the water flow. It moved pretty fast.
You can probably buy this signs at lots of novelty shops, but we still thought it was funny. It was mounted on the end of the condos.
March 12, 2008 - The 3 sisters - Ranch Road 335, 336, and 337 as they
are known by motorcyclists everywhere. Overall good road surfaces with
lots of curves and hills. Awesome riding. Here's a few videos taken
with Melanie's digital camera mounted on her left handlebar.
336
http://www.youtube.com/v/su8sljZuhjw
336
http://www.youtube.com/v/rxYChk6RKio
335
http://www.youtube.com/v/54JokypF0qs
337 – This road would have been great with HUGE elevation changes if not for 5 miles of road construction east of Leakey. We made the mistake of going that way and ended up slipping, sliding, and eating dust for 5 miles before we got through it. Next time, we’re turning around and going back!
http://www.youtube.com/v/ybUJ7lHPpA4
Just east on Leakey on 337 we stopped for a second and while we were there, decided to take a picture of the motorcycles sitting under this big tree. How about that background? Nothing like a cemetery to spice up a photo!
March 13, 2008 - Cooper's and Lukenbach
Here's Sloan putting his stuff away as we get ready for BBQ nirvana at
Cooper's BBQ in Llano. We can both honestly say that it's the best BBQ
we've ever tasted. Sloan really liked the pork loin.
Here's where you order. Basically you order however much of each meat
you want, and then pay by the pound inside. They'll cut any amount of
anything except the chicken and the pork chops. You can't really go
slicing off pieces of chicken, and pork chops can't really be divided (probably because nobody would want to pay for the bone portion)!
Watch Sloan picking out different meats while I'm filming. Don't miss the HUGE pork chops about in the center. They're just to the
right of the pork loin that you'll hear Sloan picking out. They say that the chops are 2 inches thick, but we swear the ones on the grill were at least 3 inches thick! We didn't actually get a pork chop (we will next time) because we figured we already had 20 bucks worth of meat picked out with brisket, ribs, sausage, and the loin. Pay attention to how the guy asks if you want sauce on your meat, and see what he does when you say “yes”.
http://www.youtube.com/v/90u2IwOvQAQ
“Let's go to Lukenbach, Texas, with Waylon, Willie, and the boys....”
Here we are at the little ex-post office made famous by the song. The
real, working post office is a couple miles back up the road, but this old one is the tourist trap, I mean attraction.
The sign on the tree is a little hard to read in this shrunken photo, but it of course says, “Motorcycle Parking”
Coming back from Llano and Fredericksburg we rode the Willow City Loop which was really just a little side road that didn't even have a center stripe. It was just a little sedate ride with some nice scenery and COWS!! Interestingly enough, the cattle guards on this little road were smoother than the ones on 336!
http://www.youtube.com/v/RuPH3Jsm3XY
Hwy 39 next 2 videos
http://www.youtube.com/v/om5w3tDkqp4
Hwy 39
http://www.youtube.com/v/f-0nn8I9ZJI
Stonehenge II – This is a scale semi-replica of the real Stonehenge. It’s
not an exactly duplication of the original in England but instead somebody’s interpretation. Still, it was pretty cool.
March 14, 2008 - Mooney Airplane Factory
You may not know it but Texas has its own airplane manufacturer located in Kerrville. Sloan is of course a pilot, and we’ve never seen an airplane being built, so we went for a tour of the factory. We had a super gentleman named Stanley give us a tour of the factory. EVERYBODY seemed to know Stanley, and they should because he’s been with Mooney for 50 years!
Here’s Stanley showing us a seat frame. We learned that almost every little part of the airplane is made right there in the factory out of raw material (metal tubes, aluminum sheets, fiberglass, wiring, etc). Stanley is pointing out the little black knob on the crank handle that raises and lowers the seat. I don’t think it’s visible in the picture, but he’s saying that out of the 25 or so parts that make up that seat, the plastic molded knob is the only piece they don’t make themselves.
This is an almost completed wing, ready to be attached to a airframe. Some panels are open and a big sheet of metal is still peeled back for making some final adjustments. Just to get you oriented, If the whole airplane was hanging there, the nose would be pointed up.
Stanley is now showing us the very beginning of the assembly line where all the big pieces start to come together. The is the frame around the main cockpit and it’s on a tool where it can be rotated 360 degrees. Right now the top of the frame is facing us and Stanly is standing about where the windshield will go.
Here’s the cockpit area after all the skin is on and Plexiglas is installed. The door goes on the other side, but you can see the rear baggage compartment door opened above the body on the far rear side. This is about a third of the way down the line. The wing and other major parts will be attached soon.
This last picture getting close to the end. The wing, tail, and engine are installed, but notice that the airplane is still on jacks as the landing gear has not been installed. Next would be the landing gear and a bunch of final adjustments before the plane goes out for its first flight with a company test pilot, and THEN it’s painted after that followed by customer delivery. All in all, there were about 10-12 airplanes in various stages of assembly on the line, not counting back in the factory were thousands of small pieces were being readied for the next set.
After the factory tour we headed south to Bandera for lunch and then
continued west on Hwy 470. There was some road construction on 470 but it was only a couple of little spots so we rode through it. It was nothing compared to the mess on 337.
http://www.youtube.com/v/6WioeYMDuNw
336
http://www.youtube.com/v/aVS2IF6VkqA
336 would have been Sloan's favorite road, except for the cattle guards! We tried running over them at everywhere from 20 to 60 mph, hoping we would fly over them at the faster speeds. 20 worked best, so we had to slow down every time.
http://www.youtube.com/v/-fl1VLvGJDo
March 15, 2008 - Lone Star Motorcycle Museum and Fellowship Riders.
Here’s our rides parked at the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum just north of Vanderpool. There were lots of
neat, older bikes inside and also a restaurant that served burgers and Aussie meat pies. Sloan tried an “original” and an “Aussie-Mex”. He liked the original the best. We were the only 2 motorcycles there when we arrived, but when we left maybe an hour later, there were probably close to 30 in the parking lot!
On Saturday, 12 other motorcycles showed up from Houston with the Foundry Fellowship Riders. That afternoon several of them went on a ride with us. Since we knew where we were going at this point, we stayed at the back of the group. Sloan stayed behind me at the very back so I could film some other rides and he figured with his bright yellow motorcycle and gear, he’d be easy for the leader to see and keep tabs on the group.
Headed out of the parking lot with 8 other Fellowship riders. FINALLY I got to film something besides Sloan! Just Kidding!
http://www.youtube.com/v/TfoS5JWVRBU
Headed west on Hwy 39 out of Hunt
http://www.youtube.com/v/6fSapVa7sek
More Hwy 39
http://www.youtube.com/v/9PrLemv8w7c
Several videos on 336 again. Watch out for those cattle guards!
http://www.youtube.com/v/0thGzyIULAw
336
http://www.youtube.com/v/jZommv177Tc
336
http://www.youtube.com/v/3-9BVpGCBQg
March 16, 2008 - DQ Country in Smithville. This one is for
Mellow and his Dairy Queen photo collection!
And the photos ended there. After 1538 miles, we were too tired to take
any more!
Ok, who's ready to go again?!
