Armadillo Grill Lunch Ride

Sherman to Bowie, Texas Sunday, May 13 2007

The Ride

The fact that only two bikes showed up for the ride did not diminish the fun for the three participants that did go at all. Wanting to get some more miles on his new bike, Romex felt such a run would be a good 'shakedown cruise' as it were. So two bikes - Willie & Ken on their Silver 2005 GL1800 and Romex on his brand-new (except for a few trips to Houston and Galveston) Metalflake Black 2007 GL1800 headed out for adventure. The weather was great and the ride was actually spectacular. Read on.

After some coffee and juice (not to mention the Egg McMuffins) we headed out. First stop, Luella to pick up a forgotten cell phone. We had decided it wouldn't be necessary to have the phone, but since we were going in that direction...

From Luella we headed out 902 to points west. We wanted to explore some of the curvy and hilly roads in the Forestburg area out west. There really are some nice roads that have great curves and very little traffic in that area.

At this time of year in Texas, the 'second set' of wildflowers are blooming. Even though the Bluebonnets are the most popular and well known, the other flowers in Texas are no less beautiful. After the Bluebonnets come the Indian Blanket, Wine Cups and Yellow Russian Daises and a myriad of other species that grow native in our great state. They were all along the roadsides and up into the pastures and woods. It was as good as any 'wildflower' run we have ever made. The most spectacular displays were along Highway 922 west of Valley View. See a few representative pictures below.

Lunch

Out lunch stop also coincided with our first gas stop. We came into US 287 from Highway 59 and stopped at a small gas station on the west side of US 287. It wasn't crowded - in fact, we were the only ones in the station. A glance at the gas pump told us in an instant why. For a second I wondered if we hadn't gone a LOT further west than we thought and ended up in California. Regular gas was priced at an amazing $3.15 9/10 per gallon. We pinched ourselves, decided it wasn't a dream and that were in fact still in Texas and decided to 'bite the bullet' since we were already there and dismounted. Of course, we didn't see any large signs advertising their gas prices - only the ominous values shown on the pumps. In fact, Romex says this set a new world record for him gassing up a motorcycle.

$3.16 / Gallon
Almost $17 in a motorcycle!

After recovering from gassing up, we headed just a few miles west on US 287 to the next intersection for our planned lunch stop at the Armadillo Grill in Bowie. Or, just out side of Bowie - on the west side of US 287 near the intersection of Highway 74. It's kind of a neat place and the hamburgers were very good. They were a bit crowded because of the Mother's Day crowd, but fortunately most folks like to take their mother to something other than 'The Armadillo Grill'. So we didn't have to wait long.

Return Trip

Since the wildflowers were so spectacular along Highway 922 we opted to return via that route, scrapping the original planned route. We headed back to Sunset on US 287 where we exited to pick up 922 east - and so we saw all the wildflowers again from the other direction.

On the other side of Valley View in Mountain Springs, we decided to vary the return trip slightly and continue on 922 east to Tioga and Gunter. From Gunter we took the back way through Hidden Lakes to Hall Cemetery Road to 902.

We headed back into Sherman and enjoyed a couple of cool ones - no, not beers. This was in the Dairy Queen. After discussing the trip, what to add to and what not to add to the new bike and other important things, we split up and headed in our respective directions for home.

The weather was great, the company was great, the views were breathtaking and everyone enjoyed the trip.

Trip Statistics		Trip Map
Moving Average - 55.3 MPH Total Average - 42.5 MPH Maximum Speed - *censored* Moving Time 4:39 Stopped Time 1:24 Total Time - 6:03 Trip Out: 148 Miles Return: 108 Miles Total Miles: 266 Miles
(From Garmin GPS Data)		(Click Map for Enlarged Version)

Trip Pictures

(Click any thumbnail picture to see an enlargement. )