A Great Day

The day started off a little rough for me, little to no sleep before I was to meet up with those wanting to go to Hico for a nice ride. I was finally able to wake up and get ready just in time to have my friend show up that was going to be riding with me. I asked my old man to join in since it looked like a great day for riding, and boy was it. It was a little disappointing that no one else showed up, but I know some had to work. I had a great time with my friend and my old man, plus I got to meet some really great people along the way.

Just as we were about to leave to head on down to Hico a couple on a 1500 Goldwing trike came up and that started a pleasant conversation between my old man and them. My old man rides an 1800 Goldwing trike and although he runs car tires on the rear he also runs one on the front as well. I'm sure Twin or somebody can come up with a name for that. A quick trip down to Alverado from Midlothian ended up with us wrenching away at the local McDonalds. Seems that when I installed my cables, my clutch was set wrong and my clutch was slipping. It was a quick fix to re-adjust the position of the cable and just as we were about to ride off again, we saw a three car wreck. Seems that some people can't drive to begin with, let alone with a cell phone to their heads while sipping on coffee.

The people involved in the wreck were ok so we decided to go ahead with our trip. The police showed up just as we passed them and for us it was good fortune since the wreck gave us a clear lane to get on the busy highway.

The ride down to Hico was just perfect, nice and cool while we rode with little to no traffic or construction to hinder the experience. Well, except for one spot, they are still in the process of repainting the Iron tussle bridge for the south bound lane over the Brazos river. Even then it was a smooth transition with no road hazards.

The wind was light but it did carry the smell of raw sewage once we got to Cleberne, and we found about 3 places a skunk didn’t make it across in enough time. Nothing can clear up your nose like the smell of fresh skunk, or wish you had it clogged.

Once we arrived in Hico we discovered that they were holding an annual steak and beef cook out. They had shut down Main Street for the even and the only parking available was bike parking next to around 90 bikes. This did kind of get us worried about being able to get into the Koffee Kup. We got lucky in the fact that they were only half full so we grabbed a table, something cold to drink (mostly tea and one coke) and enjoyed some delicious pie.

After that we headed down to the local leather shop and while cruising their selection of patches I came across one for us. I was black with a white edge and lettering that read “Come to the Darkside, We have Cookies”. Of course you know I had to get it and for $3.00 a pop we got some other patches. My old man even had his 3 sewn on while we were there, one of which read “Fat people are hard to Kidnap”.

From there we headed down to the Hard Eight BBQ and ate until our bellies were full. When we pulled in we noticed about 6-7 Valks in the corral. We enjoyed our food and got some for dinner too. After we had eaten my friend and my old man headed out to the bikes while I made a pit stop. That’s when I was approached by one of the Valk riders in a friendly conversation. Yeah, good thing they had waited until I was done before striking up the conversation.

I found out they belong to the VRCC (I think I got it right, it’s the Valk group that SmokingJoe’s apart of, just local members) and we got talking about the Darkside and the forum/web site. We got to talking and they know about Daniel Meyers and SmokingJoe. Good thing we live in a small world, oh great, now I have that frick’n song stuck in my head. They were amazed that is was more then just Valks and Goldwings on the Darkside. I gave them the information to look us up and helped spread the love around my neck of the woods, it was my good deed for the day.

After that we headed up to the Texas Twister, an evil place if you love rustic furniture and trinkets. First time I have came across a 20 foot tall rocking chair before, but every thing’s bigger in Texas. We went inside to have a look around and boy do I wish I had the money. For only a mere $5,000 dollars I could have gotten an octagon table made out of oak with a rustic finish and a lazy Susan in the shape of a star. To bad I have to worry about that no income thing for the time being.

Then it was time to fuel up and head back home. When we got back onto the highway we were greeted with around 200+ bikes and support personal. At first I thought it was a PGR mission then I remembered what time of the year it was. We had came upon the middle of the Run for The Wall group on it’s way to D.C. for Memorial day.

I’ve ridden with them for a day, and they ride pretty hard given an open stretch of road. I looked down at my spedo as saw I was cruising around 90 to just barely pass them. We got about 5 miles in front of them and pulled over and brought the cameras out. I didn’t shoot any pics but I did get a grainy video of them as they passed. After watching it when I got home I found out that I was recorded while I tried to explain to my friend just who they were. I have the video of it for your enjoyment and try not to laugh too hard when ya hear me on it. Too bad I can’t edit out parts of it, so it does make it a little hazardous to play in an office/work environment, just to let you know.







Hopefully next time we can get some more peeps to enjoy the North Texas Hill Country and some great food.

Cerooth,

Nice vid...thanks for the write up and play by play! Let me know ahead of time next year and I would like to make it with you. Things are just tight now!


..........................bobby

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Great report....The VRCC ( Valkyrie Riders Cruiser Club ) is having a big BBQ get together in Tucumcari , NM this weekend. I really wanted to make this but I'm covered up at work and could'nt make the ride.Again great ride report

I'll be at Tucumcari this weekend. That was the DFW group of the Texas VRCC ya ran into. I'd have been there but ran instead up to Robber's Cave to see the Oklahoma VRCC gathering for barbeque.

The laws of physics only allow so many barbeque dinners in a single day. Sigh.

Daniel Meyer wrote:I'll be at Tucumcari this weekend. That was the DFW group of the Texas VRCC ya ran into. I'd have been there but ran instead up to Robber's Cave to see the Oklahoma VRCC gathering for barbeque.

The laws of physics only allow so many barbeque dinners in a single day. Sigh.

What's worse is when you're in a BBQ state that it is sometimes hard to choose which one to go to. Seems like theres almost as many BBQ joints around as Dairy Queens when you're riding around Texas.