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'The Destination
is the Journey'
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Trip Report for July 2005 Breakfast RunSherman-Denton-Lake Murray and Return
A lot of folks showed up for the breakfast run last Saturday. We counted 9 bikes in at the embarkation point at FM1417 and US75. We were joined by three bikes with 2 passengers (5 people) from our local American Legion group. All of you who receive email on this shmc mailing list know about the American Legion M.I.A. Post 231 because we post their events to this mailing and we also link to them on our web, seeing how they are fellow bikers. So we were happy to meet with and have some “new” folks join in the fun.
We left Sherman heading west on 1417 the ‘back way’ to 289 pretty much on time. Because the group was fairly large and because we had some new riders with whom we were not familiar, we kept it just at or below the speed limit. From 289 we headed south to 902 to enjoy the westward leg on that winding county path. As we approached 377 in Collinsville, we pulled up in the town square to wait for a small contingency of bikers who were lagging behind. This is SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for our group - nothing out of the ordinary. We have riders that like to hang back, take curves at a more leisurely pace and enjoy the scenery “their way”. We always adjust to this – waiting and regrouping periodically at convenient and safe rendezvous zones along the way.
This group-splitting practice has worked well for us on many rides in the past. This helps by preventing a long, snakelike formation of bikes going just at or below the speed limit with cars and pickup trucks tailgating and waiting for their opportunity to pounce on the passing lane. The long snake-formation presents other dangers, as other motorists are often prone to tailgating, cutting in between bikers in the formation, and passing in areas they really should not – having to pass a really long string of bikes. It also allows everyone to ride within their own comfort zone. Something we always encourage and strongly support.
Once we regrouped up, we continued the trip south on 377 to Pilot Point, then west on 455 through the beautiful horse ranch country, across the dam of Lake Ray Roberts. Winding around the south shores of the lake we picked up 2164 south just this side of Sanger and headed for the ‘loop’ in Denton. Just as when we went to the Hill Country this spring, we opted to take I35 for the short distance south to the Cracker Barrel and avoid the stop-and-go traffic in Denton.
Once in the parking lot of the CB we found a large open area of parking spaces where all the bikes could fit in one long line. This was ideal for the ensuing ‘photo-op’. This is also fairly unusual. We also noticed Gary Varnell ride up on his Orange GL1800. We added Gary and his wife to the shmc email list after a chance meeting at Plano Honda sometime last year. He receives all the shmc mailing along with the trip notice email and decided to ride up from McKinney (or Plano) to meet us in Denton and join in the ride. Gary rode with us for the rest of the trip. Welcome aboard, Gary!
While gathering up for the ensuing breakfast, I asked everyone how they were doing and how the trip was going for them so far. It was at that point I noticed that two of the three ‘new’ (to our group) bikers were visibly upset. A little breakfast, some conversation and such will fix all that. At least that’s what I thought at the time.
We put in for the entire group and the folks at the Cracker Barrel started rearranging the tables immediately. I had suggested that we may need to split up into smaller breakfast groups to speed things up, but the folks there assured us they would have us all set up shortly. When we conveyed this to everyone the shopping began. At least for most. The two ‘upset’ riders did not want to eat with us and made their own reservations.
The CB folks were amazingly adept at accommodating such a large group – since almost all of the 10 bikes were 2-up. We had the usual very good CB breakfast, told jokes, war stories and all sorts of lies. We then broke for the bill-paying, last minute shopping and parking lot gathering phase of the operation.
As we all prepared to ‘mount up’ we noticed the group was sans-two bikes. Oh well. The third AL rider and his wife were still there. They did also express politely their concern for the speed – especially in the corners. They were not used to that. We assured them that this was not a problem – they could drop back and we’d pick them up again. We already had reduced our normal speed to at or below the limits. We didn’t really have any more problems the rest of the trip.
We left the Denton CB heading west on some roads I had never been on before. We wanted to avoid I35 and similar super-slabs, so I let Mr. Garmin (GPS) do the ‘planning’ for this leg of the trip. It worked out quite well – although I must admit there were times when I was wondering if the ‘Do Not Chose Unpaved Roads’ option was really effective, it turned out it was. We were in the boondocks – and it was a really nice ride.
For anyone interested in the particulars of this leg, we left on 380/University heading west. We could have remained on 380 for 3 more miles and picked up 156 north to 2450, but I put my faith in the GPs and took a ‘back route’ which ended up on 2450 in Krum. It was interesting. From Krum, we followed 2450 north 51, the jogged on 51 over to 922 west to 373. We took 373 north to Muenster. David and Mary had requested we stop at Fischer’s in Muenster. He had a cooler and was looking forward to loading it up with some of that great Fischer’s sausage. We all had a good time in Fischer’s, watching the little German clock figures come out and dance around the precipice of the clock, shopping and buying stuff. Several folks got some of that great Fischer’s Beef Jerky. Rich got a cooler, some ice and loaded it with sausage and cheese from the market. After some more gossip, photo-ops and water downing – oh, I almost forgot the one-person wet-tee shirt display there in the parking lot of Fischer’s. But you’ll have to ask LaWanda about that one. Afterward, we mounted up and headed north.
Still on the beautiful stretch of 373, we headed up past Bulcher. For those who don’t know about Bulcher, it is the location of a very large motorcycle recreation area located along the Red River. They have also had the WORLD Championship Motorcycle Trials Competition there on several occasions. I can tell you that is really a worth while trip and is a definite ‘not miss’ when it comes back to Bulcher. But on this day we were just passing it by on our way north.
Highway 373 tees into 677 which we took north and across the Taovayas Indian Bridge into Oklahoma, where the road turns into Ok Hwy 89. We took a short jog north on 89 to 32 where we turned back east. This is probably the ‘straightest’ part of the entire trip – although the scenery is very nice and very ‘country’, the road is for the most part, very straight. We were able to negotiate the only curve in the entire stretch of Hwy 32 until you get to Kingston. Normally we follow 32 to Kingston but on this day we tried a new experiment, since we wanted to go to Lake Murray anyway. We turned off 32 Rubottom and headed north. I don’t know what Romex was doing at this point (in Rubottom) – and we probably don’t want to. But we did head north to US70 and followed 70 into Ardmore. We gassed up (and watered-up) in Ardmore for the next leg.
Rather than bypassing anything, I let the GPs lead us to the very beginning of 77S in Ardmore – which is called Lake Murray Drive. We found it among the housing area, and followed it south along the eastern and southern shores of Lake Murray. It is a very curvy and winding road with beautiful scenery all along its length. We stopped at the southeast ‘corner’ of the Lake for some water and photo ops and good lake scenery. After a short ‘rest’ there, we continued south and east, taking the ‘back way’ out from Marietta Landing (NOT in Marietta) through Enville, Powell, Lebanon and over to 377. Jeff and LaWanda left the group at 32 and 99C near Powell so they could head into Kingston on 32 and visit with family. We took the 5-mile short cut to 377 and headed south across the Willis Bridge and Lake Texoma and onto Dixie – just north of Whitesboro – where we all decided some of Don’s BBQ and air conditioning would be a great adjunct to the trip. It was around 4:00 PM by that time. Terry and Cindy had a prior engagement and left us to go to there home a very short distance away. Don’s BBQ in Dixie was recently reopened after burning down some time ago. It’s really good and we recommend this as a great eat stop.
It was during the meal that Willie got talking with everyone and got everyone thinking it would be interesting to go out to ‘the land’ in Sadler – a short distance from Don’s BBQ – and take a look-see there. We drove into the property area and down to the pond where we could park in the shade and watch the fish feed. One small mishap occurred when a bike fell over – going about 0.3 MPH, down near the pond. Some minor injuries, but no permanent damage. We all felt bad about that. Those darned ‘Wings just are not all that stable at speeds below 1 MPH! We are glad no one was seriously injured and that no serious damage occurred.
From there we left, headed south and joined US82 just east of Whitesboro. We took 82 east and from there various members of the group began peeling off one by one as we approached their varies home venues.
The last two bikes standing (from our vantage point) were yours truly and Willie as we waived good-bye in Luella to David and Mary as they headed south to Tom Bean. It was getting hot and the pool sure felt good. We were in the water before David got in his driveway.
All and all it was a very good trip. Everyone I have heard back from reported that they had a very good time. One added bonus to the trip is that we all got to meet Kris and Susan on their 750cc Honda Shadow. They enjoyed the eating, the riding and the stories and both look forward to the next trip – albeit a bit slower through some of the curves. We welcome them to our very informal group and look forward to future rides with them. Trip Particulars
Click Here for Garmin GPs Route [.gdb File] Click Here for Trip Description
9 Bikes continued from Denton CB and completed the journey. Trip stats:
The only thing we really missed on in the planning was the estimated time or return. This was off in calculation and was further skewed by the fact that we made some extra stops. Mostly was off due to bad planning calculations. Keep on bikin’, - /<en |
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