It should be known that anything that went wrong on this ride was Wayne’s fault.
Saturday morning began as usual, a nice day that was going to get hot. My yard was mowed to perfection, so my wife who does not want her name mentioned in these articles, had approved a day pass for me. I pushed the bike out of the garage and cleaned the windshield, headlights and mirrors. This time I also remember to clean both face shields on the helmet.
Oh, I see, you are back and you just have to ask questions. You want to know why, two face shields, I may have miss spoke, there is one face shield and one tinted shield to cover my eyes (a sun shield kind of like built in sun glasses). Before you ask, yes both are retractable.
I was already perspiring and it was only 9:45am. I decided to call Wayne and see if he was up. Wayne has a tendency to sleep in on his days off. I asked if he wanted to go for a ride ending somewhere for lunch. He agreed saying that he would need to shower and feed the dogs then he would come to my house. It was 11:00 o’clock when he arrived. We decided on a short ride ending at the Bunkhouse then try to get home before it became too hot.
Although there were a few clouds in the sky, they were not offering any relief from the heat. We rode through Mother Neff state park and took the back road out of the park which winds about 8 miles through the country side before connecting to a main road. Wayne and I have CBs on our bike and he commented, “I guess it is too hot for the deer to be out, they are probably trying to keep cool in the woods”. Just then a big buck came from the field on our left across the road and into the woods. We have to ride slow on this road so there wasn’t much danger of hitting the deer, unless he runs into you.
After about two hours of riding and lots of gossip on the CB we arrived at a gas station near the women’s prison in Gatesville. We took a short break rehydrating ourselves with a cold bottle of water. It was suggested that Wayne “might” be able to get a date with one of the inmates.
Back on the road we were heading for Turnersville, TX. Don’t try to find it on a map it isn’t there. I don’t know the population but I would assume about 100 people. After we had passed through Turnersville we came to an intersection. We knew where two of the roads went but we were not sure of the third.
Being “adventurous bikers”, we took the unknown road. It was a rough road with no traffic. This road turned out to be about 15 miles long. We were about half way through this road when we saw an old church. We had visited the old church several years ago (2004).
Someone keeps the church open for visitors, there is a donation box to help take care of the church.
I will go back one of these days and get additional photos. (Photos from Oct. 3rd 2004)
Continuing on we finally came to the end of the road and we were in Cranfills Gap, TX. Cranfills Gap was 20 plus miles from where we wanted to be. We turned right on HWY 22 riding at the speed limit of 70 mph we finally arrived at the Bunk House at 2:00pm for lunch.
Heck, 2:00pm is time for me to be taking a nap, not eating.
We parked our bikes under the awing out of the sun and before you ask, it is not a parking spot we just parked there.
On Thursday they give a 10% discount at the Bunk House but not on Saturday. We went inside and was greeted with a big “welcome, come on in”. To our surprise they had a special; large sandwich, drink and side for $6.50. Well that was as good as a discount to me.
We placed our order and found a table to put our helmets on. Being somewhat dehydrated, I went for the ice tea. Three hours siting in the sun with a helmet on has a tendency to suck the water out of you. I downed two glasses of un-sweet tea in the time it took Wayne to use the little girls room. No, I don’t know if he really used the little girls room.
If you like to watch people this can be a good place to do it. At one table were two young men wearing slacks and clean shirts. They were discussing management techniques. These are the, ”want-to- be”, they want to be important but are not. They talk loud enough for others to hear them in an effort to seem important.
There were a couple tables with older people eating quietly. I perceive them as having worked on the farm or ranch all their lives.
One table there was a couple cowboys; their boots were worn, their hats were clean and their pants were pressed and starched with a heavy crease.
At another table was a family with three kids. They were not loud and all seemed to have a good time. One of the boys was about 5 years old, he was well behaved. The girl that I estimate to be 14 or 15 was dressed in jeans with a cowboy hat, a very pretty young lady. I assumed they were heading to some type of rodeo event.
We enjoyed the cool air, food and several glasses of tea before leaving.
It was a 30 plus mile ride on Hwy 6, from the Bunk House to Hwy 185. Wayne took 185 home and I stayed on Hwy 6.
Once at home I decided to take a nap. I was surprised that I did not seem sleepy even though I was in my recliner. I then remembered, several glasses of tea has a tendency to keep me awake.
From the re-hydrated mind of Don Ford
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