Tom Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 (edited) Well we did our February ride dedicated to our great northern friends.This will now be an annual event to help out those who are snowbound and need to know that YES,we are riding on your behalf! It is the LEAST I can do for our friends. We had a FANTASTIC ride and to my surprise the first night I was on the street corner in Marathon,Texas looked up and here comes Ponch and Lil Bit riding in from Tomball,Texas 601 miles...He will update on his wild experience so I will not get into that any farther but it was a shocker to see that White RSV coming into town!Anyway our weather was great except one day we had a little West Texas sand storm but in tradition we put cloths over our faces and braved the elements. Here are a few pictures,enjoy and trust me,we raised a few margaritas for all of our VentureRider friends and shed quite a few tears for you guys....Tom Pics as follows Kerrville Texas and theier Texas Swimming pool On Top of a Sister Pecos River (4 Pics) Roy Beans cafe Texas Toilet Paper Lil Bit,Ponch and Me Santa Elena Canyon,Big Bend (2 pics) Top of river rd,Hwy 170 out of Bib Bend (5 Pics OH Yes, And for our Stratoliner/Roadliner friends and Owners a picture of my friends Roadliner with a Dragonfly fairing Installed on it..I think it looks great! Edited February 24, 2009 by Tom
Mariner Fan Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 Yea, it would be really nice to take a ride right now....
Marcarl Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 Thanks, I was starting to think that the only thing left in this recession was snow,snow and more snow. But, there maybe a light at the end of this tunnel. COM'ON April.
Gary N. Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 Thanks for that great tip report and pictures Tom. I ALMOST felt like I was there too. You're such a good friend to do this for us snow bound folks.
Tom Posted February 23, 2009 Author Posted February 23, 2009 Thanks for that great tip report and pictures Tom. I ALMOST felt like I was there too. You're such a good friend to do this for us snow bound folks. Gary,I have a BIG heart..Its the LEAST I can do for you guys!
Iowawegian Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 Excuse me while I go get a kleenex to wipe the drool from my chin......Glad you thought of us northerners while you were out!!! Thanks for posting the pix.....hopefully only a few more weeks!
gunboat Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 hi tom thanks for sharing those pictures. wish i could have made it. be safe, see ya on the road somewhere. glade to ponch & libit meet up with you all. best reguards don c.
Tom Posted February 23, 2009 Author Posted February 23, 2009 hi tom thanks for sharing those pictures. wish i could have made it. be safe, see ya on the road somewhere. glade to ponch & libit meet up with you all. best reguards don c. Don He has quite a story of things NOT to do on a 601 mile trip(one way)...That will be posted later by him if he does not call you beforehand! LOTS of Black Tail Deer at night..trust me.
Ponch Posted February 24, 2009 Posted February 24, 2009 Thanks Tom for letting us know about this trip. I'm glad we were able to attend and we had a great time. Great bunch of guys there. Two Harleys, two Kaws, two ventures and two Road Stars. Nice mix. Everyone made us feel welcome. LilBit let me know on the way home that this would be the last long distance winter event she ever attends. lol Saturday morning driving through Big Bend National Park, she had on her normal attire plus a Frog Tog rain suit, plus her CoreTech insulated jacket, plus my Frog Tog rain suit, plus heated gloves and she was still freezing. We had to cut the park trip in half, but did enjoy what we saw. (It was only in the low 40's). Sunday morning it was 18° when we got up and 22° when we went to breakfast (about a half mile bike trip). We hit the road about 9:00 and it was already 44°. Very nice trip home. The wind had died down and the Sun was full on and there was NO SNOW! We stayed overnight with Tom & Debbie and the triple threat (Dashunds). Thanks for putting up with us. Debbie and her pups are great! As Tom mentioned, we had a fun trip up. We left Tomball Texas at 7:00 am. It was rather uneventful until we hit far West TX. Did you know there's gas staions about every 80-90 miles out there? That should have been ok except we were running the 80 mile per hour speed limit into a pretty heavy headwind with a loaded trailer. I mis-judged my mileage and ran out right in front of the Sonora, TX off ramp. We dismounted and leaned ol' Wilderbeast over on the left guards to transfer as much gas as we could to the left side of the tank. That got us about one more mile. The gas station was about four miles. We started walking and a man picked us up and took us to get gas, brought us back and took the empty can back to the station. There are good folks among us! We bought a gas can for future use. Anyone that knows me knows I don't drive 80 even if it is the speed limit. I only did so I order to get to our destination before dark. Didn't make it. That 60 miles between Fort Stockton and Marathon took us almost two hours. You see there critters out there about the size of a small Moose they call Mule deer and THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!!! We have deer where I live and its devistating to hit one but these West Texas buggers are huge! Thats enough dribble from me on this trip. If you ever get the opportunity, check out West Texas and especially Big Bend Natrional Park. You won't regret it! Ponch Pics (sorry forgot the camera at home so I had to use the cel which sux)
Kregerdoodle Posted February 24, 2009 Posted February 24, 2009 Great Pics Ponch... LilBit looks like a snow man..LOL We want to make it out there some day, but it will have to warm up a bit for that... K
Tom Posted February 24, 2009 Author Posted February 24, 2009 Great Pics Ponch... LilBit looks like a snow man..LOL We want to make it out there some day, but it will have to warm up a bit for that... K Kbay,LilBit even resembles some of those ALIENS of folklure around Marathon,Tx..That one picture looks like a SPACE HELMET and Suit!..Seriously though its one heck of a good ride..Great to be in Texas in the Winters especially! Tom
gunboat Posted February 24, 2009 Posted February 24, 2009 hi ponch thanks for the update. begening to wander if something from area 51 had beamed you guys up. three years ago i did the POLAR BEAR RIDE ( first weekend of january) with rick buttler and friends to big bend. by the time i got to panther pass i was peeling clothes off. i stayed the night in terlingua. woke up at 1:00 am 'cause wind was howling around the door frame, had to turn on the heat ao the a/c. but the next morning it was great no wind and no clouds. we road the river road to presido. somewhere between shafter and marfa the temps droped to 32 degrees. the border petrol check point officers just shook thier heads and waved us on thru. got to fort davis had lunch the rest of rick's group turned around and headed back to big bend. i had promised sarah a new t-shirt from mcdanold obervatory (6,000 ft), so rick and a couple of his friends decided to come with me. now at that last big curve before turning into the driveway at the obervatory. i looked down into the canyon to my left i thought i saw snow. as we pulled in the parking area i think we all said S#$%# about the same time. there was sleet and a lite snow in the parking lot. need less to say we didn't stay long. but sarah got her t-shirt. so you guys got some colder temps than i did. glad everyone made it back safe and sound. never saw any, live deer all were road kill. best reguards don c.
mother Posted February 24, 2009 Posted February 24, 2009 ahhh , i needed that. thank you for the pics it looks like you had an awesome time.
Ole Posted February 24, 2009 Posted February 24, 2009 Awesome pictures guys. Glad you all had a good time. Hope to make a ride out to Big Bend sometime. Ken
BIG TOM Posted February 25, 2009 Posted February 25, 2009 All we can do up north is dream of the day we can finally go for a ride..thanks for sharing...and thinking of us poor northerners...
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