The Plan: If there was a plan the extent of it was this, ride to Big Bend and camp along the way and then find a place to camp once we got there.
The Players: myself, Boots, Pelon, Shades, The Mule, Mike, NuNu, Steve H, SteveO, Robert C and Jason.
Since the group grew and there were several people that didn't know each other we decided to have a meet and greet a few days before we left on the trip. We met at Rudy's for some BBQ and good conversation. Only half of the people showed up so 2 days before the trip we still didn't know everyone before the trip started. Nevertheless the anticipation grew and we all started to get 
excited about leaving in a few days. I'm sure it was getting hard to sleep at night for some of us who were looking forward to this trip.The next day (Thursday) the packing started and lists were checked twice, and final checks of the iron horse were done.
Beep beep beep... 5:45 Friday the alarm goes off and I am up and dressed. SteveO and Nunu were up and ready to ride. We took off together to meet the rest of the group at our designated meeting spot here in town. Everyone showed up on time, so we had a quick drivers meeting to discuss some rules of the road and general introductions for the rest of the riders we were off.
The first stop for us on our long journey was in Marble Falls at the Super Taco. Earlier we
filled our gas tanks now it was time to fill our belly's, and believe me there were some large belly's that needed to be filled.
After breakfast we gathered our stuff and since there was no plan we decided the next stop was to run on down to Hunt Tx and see Stonehenge II. Then after that it was over to Vanderpool to see the motorcycle museum.
Stonehenge in Hunt is a pretty neat stop along the way, some guy built a replica of the actual Stonehenge, he also has two replica's of the easter island heads there. It is just one of those cheesy road side stops that are fun to see along the way.
After Stonehenge we headed down to Vanderpool to see the Morotcycle museum. The guy who runs the museum is from Australia and he has a bunch of old bikes from all around. If you ever get down to the hill country this is well worth a trip to.
Now the plan was to head over to Bracketville to see Alamo City. The 1st part of the trip down there was a BLAST. There were lots of twisty windy roads.
Then all of a sudden in the middle of nowhere there was a stop light that we had to stop at to wait for a pilot car to take us a couple of miles down a dirt road.
Needless to say this did not please us but, we waited anyway. After about 5 minutes the pilot car showed up and took us down a dusty road which is NOT fun on a bike. Especially since your the one in a big cloud of dust.
After we got through all of that we got to Leaky and saw a sign for a Biker Rally. What the heck! we have no plan or time line lets check it out. We drove up to the rally and there wasn't much happening since it was early on Friday so we turned around and got back on track. After Leaky it was a loooooong boring drive down to Bracketville. We got there for some gas and a snack and then headed up to Alamo City.
The Alamo City is where John Wayne fimed the move "Alamo". I thought it was gonna be pretty neat to check this place out. Then we got there and found out that the admission was $10.
Huh? What do you mean $10? I can see the real Alamo for free!!! We all agreed it wasn't that important to see so we headed back on the road and the next stop was Del Rio where I told everyone we would get some dinner and take a break.
We got to Del Rio and saw a sign for Rudy's BBQ. SAWEET! We decided that is where we would find dinner and decide our next move. After getting some food in our belly's people were a lot happier and they didn't look at me like they wanted to kill me for not having a plan anymore. ;)
It was decided that we would stop at the Seminole Canyon state park which was just out side of Del Rio. Lucky for us Wal Mart was right next to Rudy's so we went over to pick up some supplies for the night. When I say supplies that is code for beer and munchies.
While most of us were inside getting "supplies" Mike stayed out to watch over the bikes. When we were coming out there was a guy out there giving Mike a hard time begging for money. He then proceeded to ask all of us for some money. Since we all didn't have any he proceeded to tell us he is from El Paso where the "King" is and to watch out cause it was dangerous there.
I thought that was funny. What I didn't find funny was Mike then told me he talked to a local about the park we were suppose to camp at that night and he didn't know if there was camping available.
DOH!!!! Maybe it would be safer for me to go to El Paso then to stay with the group.
Lucky for me when we got to the park there was camping and there were spots available for us to use. :) I was told later that I was lucky, I told them I had a Leprechaun in my pocket. This place was beautiful off in the distance you could see the Mountains and it was quiet and peaceful.Once we found our sites and got our tents setup we hit the showers to clean the days road grime off. Well one of the guys didn't bring any camping shoes or flip-flops and so Boots McGee was born and he will never live down the name.
We all had a good laugh when we saw him walking up. I still laugh when I think about it.
Next morning we broke camp and headed on down the road.
It was only a couple of miles before I had the group pull over to take some pictures of the Peco's river. This spot along highway 90 was beautiful and it was worth the stop to take a few pictures.
After a few pictures we jumped back on the bikes and headed west. We only went about 7-8 miles down the road before we got to Langtry where we stopped in at a Texas travel stop and saw the old office of "Judge Roy Bean Law West of the Pecos".
IMHO, I thought this was one cool place to visit. I am a big fan of the old west, and I can't help but feel like a cowboy or desperado when I'm out there on the open road riding my iron horse. Some will think I am crazy, but those that ride know what I'm talking about. There is a certain feeling of freedom and excitement when your riding with the wind in your face and no deadlines or time table to keep. I guess that is what I enjoy the most about taking these trips.
After some photo's and a quick tour around the town we got back on the road and headed west to our next stop which was Sanderson. At this town we stopped in for some gas and some grub.
We got to this restaurant and told the lady how many and she had a panicked look on her face. I think when we pulled into town we actually doubled the population. She had to call in extra help to get us all fed. The food was great, fresh home cooked food!
After breakfast we were on our last leg of the trip before we got to Fort Davis up in the Davis Mtns. We made a quick stop for fuel and headed up 118 to the Davis Mtn and Indian lodge state park. Again I lucked out cause they had plenty of room for all of us. This park is located in a valley between two peaks of the mountain. It was beautiful!! You can't plan stuff like this, you just can't!
We had plenty of day light left so we decided to head up 118 which is an AWESOME road to take the scoots on. It is nice and twisty. Plenty of turns to lean into. I also should mention that Dennis (The Mule) was able to disconnect his trailer and do some serious riding and enjoy the twisties.
The McDonalds Observatory is on 118 and we decided to stop and check out the view from the top. We stopped in at the visitor center and picked up patches and t-shirts. It was about dinner time and we were all getting hungry so we headed into town and ate some dinner and then picked up some supplies for the night.
After we got back to camp we decided to explore some of the camp grounds and Mark found a road that takes us to the top of one of the peaks in the park and so we lined the bikes up for a photo.
After the sun went down, it got COLD! We are not sure how cold but the water we had was frozen. I have to say on a personal note. Any time me and my Dad would go on camping trips when I was younger we would go in the fall or spring and every time without fail. It would FREEZE.
In the middle of the night we were visited by a heard of Havalina pigs. We saw them earlier in the evening and we made sure we put all the food and water up so they wouldn't get into it. However, that still didn't stop them. One of the guys left a bag of trail mix open in one of his bags and those pigs tore it up. They were up in the middle of the night trying to chase them off. Another guy had eaten some chips in his tent and there were some crumbs on the floor and the pigs tried to get the crumbs. He ended up punching one of the pigs but it didn't phase them at all. They finally gave up and left.
We were all up early trying to get warm, Jason was up earlier than everyone sitting in the bathroom cause that was the warmest spot in the camp ground.
Once we were up we headed up to the lodge to eat some breakfast and then we bundled up and headed to big bend.
After we got on the road and down out of the Mountains a little it warmed up fast. It is unbelievable how much the temperature changed from our campsite where my temp guage read 20 to just south of Alpine where it was 60.
We stopped in Study Butte for Gas and continued on to the Park Entrance, and of course we had to stop for the traditional photo op at the park entrance.
We drove around big bend the rest of the day, we went to the Chisos Mtns. and Santa Elena Canyon. It was really beautiful.
We headed back to Fort Davis, to eat dinner and then back to camp. I gotta tell this story cause everyone thought it was funny at the time.
We pulled into this restaurant there in Ft. Davis and we were all pretty hungry from the ride and walking around we did, plus we only ate meals twice a day we would snack for lunch. ANY WAYS we were all pretty hungry and the waiter brings salad and bread and takes the drink orders then finally on to the meal orders. Kevin (Pelon) decides that he wants meatloaf and a couple other guys order the same. Well when the meatloaf came out it was like a tiny sliver of meatloaf. I mean SMALL!!! The look on his face was priceless. In fact the waiter told him sorry dude, I'll get you some more when he saw the look on his face. He was expecting a fairly large piece of meatloaf but instead got a small tiny sliver of it. Needless to say we will not be going back to this particular restaurant.
After din din we headed to camp and finished off our supplies and sat around talking about different things we saw and about bikes and different guy stuff. It was male bonding at it's finest. We all headed to bed and this night we didn't get attacked by pigs, instead we heard fox's howling and barking.
Next morning it was time to pack up camp and head home. We got breakfast and got on the road. The trip home was uneventful just the way I like it.
We made a quick stop over in Fort Stockton to see Paisano Pete and then back on the road. One last stop in Llano for some BBQ at Coopers and then we headed home We left Fort Davis about 10am and reached Austin around 6pm.
All in all This was an awesome trip and I wouldn't change anything. Our Road Capitan and Tail gunner did an excellent job keeping the group together and making sure no one got left behind.
There was minimal damages, we lost one camera lens cover, one pair of shades were shattered on the road, one air bed punctured, and one bag was destroyed by pigs.
We all started out as mere acquaintances and we ended the trip as friends. I am looking forward to my next motorcycle adventure.
To view more pictures of the this trip check out our photo album. http://picasaweb.google.com/pjtj2k/BigBend2008
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