Thoreau once wrote that one should come home from each of life's adventures with new experience and character. I think this weekend's trip to the Three Sisters definitely provided those intellectual commodities to all of us in one capacity or another.
The five of us (Carl, Marie, Weasel, Charles, and me) left Midland around 8:15 on Friday night, arriving approximately five hours later at the motorcyclists/bicyclists-only D'Rose Inn on the south side of Leakey. You can't miss the D'Rose. When you pull in, this fellow greets you at the gate:
After a few hours of sleep we awoke with much enthusiasm for the day, got ready, unloaded the bikes, and headed for Vanderpool, where we met our first group of TWTers at the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum:
'Bear on a bicycle', husband of 'ctoons' and 'ctoons' hanging out before lunch:
Consider this next one a caption contest. What is Carl explaining in the following pic?
'youzguys' and 'ctoons' waiting in the cafe area for their meat pies to arrive:
Speaking of meat pies:
The fries were good, too:
Surrounded by all the Brit bikes at the museum, Charles waves in such a fashion as to make the UK proud:
Eight million pics of the museum bikes have been posted to TWT already, so I'll spare the minutia. However, I think I have decided on the exact shade of orange I will be painting my S1:
After lunch, we went back to Leakey for fuel before heading out on the hundred-mile loop. There, we met more TWTers.
Behold Robbie (whitebread) and friends:
From there, it was all corner-shagging all the time in a clockwise traversing of the Three Sisters on a perfect autumn day. Traffic was light, we saw not a single cop, and enjoyed a spirited, but generally non-excessive pace. I don't think we ever used more than 85 percent of our lean angle and kept speeds below 100 pretty much the whole time. We had a few TS noobs with us and didn't want to leave them too far behind.
Unfortunately, as has been mentioned, our buddy Weasel tossed it in one of the tight sections near Prade. The corner snuck up on him and he fixated on some gravel near the edge of the pavement. The front end tucked at about 25 or 30 and the bike went into a rock wall.
The upper was mashed from hitting the wall, the lower left bodywork and frame slider were toast, a mirror was lost, and the clip-ons received various damage. I think the front forks could be a little tweaked too. We're still waiting for a full assessment from Weasel:
With the bike operable and Weasel (banged up but) able to ride, we headed into Leakey and rested at The Hog Pen:
Weasel had some bruised ribs, a heat-induced strawberry on his side, a ruined helmet from smacking his head on the pavement, and a ruined set of racing leathers to go with his crashed R6. That said, ATGATT did its job in a major way. Injuries were very minor.
From there, we headed back to the D'Rose, cleaned up our bikes, and got ready to ride to dinner. My old-school ZX-7R still shines up nicely:
Weasel and Charles decided to load-up their bikes and head home at that time, but Carl, Marie, and I were all looking forward to enjoying a beautiful hill country evening. We took one last ride around town as the sun set, then stopped for an excellent meal outside on the patio at the Feed Lot.
After returning from dinner, we hung out on the porch with some other motorcyclists who were staying at the Inn. Oddly enough, most of them were from Odessa. By 9:30, we were tired and turned in for the night. I found a condensed version of Eisenhower's autobiography, 'At Ease' in my room and ended up reading it for about three hours, finally falling asleep well after midnight. It's a good book, by the way. I learned things about Ike's upbringing, family, and his education at West Point that I had never known.
I was wide awake at 6 a.m., missing my wife terribly and fighting a bad case of Go Fever. But rather than waking Carl and Marie for an early start, I got ready, made coffee, packed all my stuff, and enjoyed some quiet time on the porch before sunrise:
When the sun came up, I took a few more pictures.
My room, built in the 1930s and endearingly rustic:
Great interior walls:
Here's one of D'Rose's cabin units. Very nice:
When was the last time you stayed at an inn where the original owner was entombed on the property? Dig it:
By mid-morning, the rest of our gear was loaded and we were on the road:
We stopped in Camp Wood for lunch, where Carl made a new friend. Everyone say hello to Elbert. Be sure to ask Carl to tell you about how they became so close in such a short amount of time:
Obligatory shot of that bike on a stump in Camp Wood:
We took the long way home from there, examining some back roads north of Sheffield for their motorcycling potential. We also stopped to visit our friends Dana and Nancy in Iraan. They own Mesquite Wood BBQ and host the Sportbike rally every year:
The last 70 miles home were the longest, and I was glad to finally get there. I slept harder last night than I think I've slumbered in a very long time.
Thanks to Carl and Marie for the transportation. I enjoyed traveling with you two. Another special thanks to Deb and John at the D'Rose. Finer people, you will not meet, and I'll definitely be returning there for another visit.
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The turns and layout are great but the road surface was horrible. I felt like I needed a dual sport to ride 336. I probably knocked a 1000 miles off my tires by riding that road. I did enjoy the 337 and would like to go back for it but the other two were only nice because of the scenery. I must be getting spoiled by living so close to the Gila Monster and Ruidoso.