For serious and fun minded motorcycle riders in the Greater Texoma area and beyond.

Preliminaries

Most will remember that the final destination of the lunch run was still up in the air at press time. Adhering to our motto, "The Destination is the Journey" it didn't really make a difference - but as a practical matter, we did have to make a decision at some point. That point was about five minutes before we embarked. We all stood around, voted and decided it would be the Angus Pit Stop in Calera, Oklahoma. Except for the lead bike couple, no one else on the trip that day had been to the Angus Pit Stop before. Not even Romex!
See http://www.anguspitstop.com/

The Journey Out

We left Sherman and took a circuitous route - starting with the Ida Road leg and continuing north to the Carpenter's Bluff Bridge crossing into Oklahoma. From there we went through Achille and continued north paralleling US 69/75 to Calera. We dined at the Angus Pit Stop - a really good BBQ place al la Cooper's BBQ in Llano, Texas.

The Lunch

If you're not familiar with Cooper's - or the Angus Pit Stop - here is the routine: You line up by a holding pit - where all the various smoked delights are funneled for selection and purchase. You select how many ribs, how much beef, how big a pork chop, a whole or half chicken, how many feet of sausage - and so on - that you feel you can eat. Your selections are then weighed, put on a tray and tagged with a price as is done in a butcher shop. You then take your selection(s) to the next stage, where you select sides and a drink. Then you pay for the whole mess, take you tray and sit down with others at a picnic table and bench in the dining area. You get free drink refills and free beans and bread. You can go back to the pit and purchase more, but that never happens. Well, almost never. And that's how it's done.

One final note on the subject: Almost everyone orders much more on their first visit then on subsequent visits. It's the old learning curve applied to eating in a select-your-meat environment.

The Return Trip

After eating and burping, we gathered our stuff together, which included a number of carry-outs, and headed back. For the return trip, we again avoided US 69/75 and all other major super slabs - as we are frequently want to do - and took another circuitous route back to Sherman. Leaving Calera on Smiser Street, we picked up E2120 Road west to the Mead-Platter Flats super-bypass, which is called Leavenworth. I've been taking that road on and off for over 20 years now and never knew it even had a name. Until recently - after they put up the road signs. In fact, now I find it has TWO names - as it is also referred to as 'Mead Road', but the street signs agreed with the 'Leavenworth' nomenclature. This is also the short cut to Lake Murray for folks that live in Denison. But I digress. We then took Leavenworth south, through Platter Flats, turning again west on Platter Road. We continued across the Platter Dike - where we continued to wonder and gawk at all the new houses being built there in the flood plane - just to think that there is something else we get to fund through our Federal Taxes next time there is a big rain - and then on to the north extension of Hwy 75A (whatever it is called), across the Denison Dam back into Texas. Kris and Susan left for their Denison abode at this time. We then turned off the Dam road and headed across the spillway - which you can do in this dry weather - continuing on to Highland, a short jog on Hwy 120 to Preston (in Denison) and south on 131/Loy Lake Road, a short leg on 56 to 1st Street in Sherman, down First to Dewey/Highway 11 and onto the thriving metropolis known as Luella, Texas. David and Mary continued to the thriving metropolis of Tom Bean from there. (For those who are keeping count, Romex departed for his Southmayd bachelor's pad when we hit Hwy 56.)

Summary

We had great weather and everyone enjoyed the trip and raved about the BBQ at the Angus Pit Stop. I think the temperature got up into the 80's - if memory servers. It was tee-shirt riding weather! Four bikes made the trip - Ken & Willie leading on the Silver 2005 Honda GoldWing, followed closely by David and Mary on their Dark Blue 2000 Honda GoldWing, Romex on his Metallic Red 2000 Honda GoldWing and Kris and Susan on their Black Honda Shadow 750.

Trip Statistics

Trip up: 44.1 miles (on GPS track)
Return Trip: 39.7 miles (on the GPS track)
TOTAL: 83.8 miles.

The other GPS stats got erased before we had a chance to write them down. (Max Speed, Running Time, Stopped Time, etc.)

Garmin .gdb files with track are available upon request.