The best laid plans…..Day 1 – Friday

It’s said that no plan survives contact with the enemy. This is mostly true and in this case the enemy was fate, karma or whatever you call the twisted series of circumstances that undermine and subvert plans.

In this particular instance the plan was simple. Ride to Colorado and take on a “bucket list” ride for my own satisfaction. Simple, yes? Take off a Friday and Monday and just GO. Then Weather happened.

Pre-trip woes

They say the beginning sets the tone, and my Friday wasn’t starting off great. Even though it was a vacation day, I’m a good professional guy so I checked in and dealt with a couple of minor problems whilst I sipped my morning coffee. Then I had to decide if this trip was a GO/NO-GO for launch. As a matter of fact, I almost scrubbed the trip altogether. It was looking like heavy thunderstorms and flashfloods in the mountains around the “Million Dollar Highway” Spur 550 from Montrose, CO to Durango, CO. That road has a lot of hairpin turns, steep drop offs and no guardrail for significant portions of it. At least that’s what I had read and seen YouTube. Maybe it’s just me but flash floods and mudslides doesn’t sound like much fun on a road like that in any vehicle much less a motorcycle!

After a consultation with my Red Haired Girl (#wife), I decided to proceed with a “modified plan”. The forecast looked like the storms in Colorado were quickly moving isolated pockets. So I gave myself permission to not be on a schedule and just go for a 4 day ride. We called it “permission to meander along the way”. I would ride toward Colorado and play the details by ear with a small detour to start.

Sissy bars and side trips

Let me take a narrative detour as well – My motorcycle is an Indian Roadmaster – a full dresser with the tour-pack trunk on the back. It has a ton of storage, but that trunk weighs over 40 lbs. empty! It’s a quick release set up so it pops off easy, but that leaves my passenger with no backrest. So I decided to get a 12″ sissy bar with a leather pad matching my seat and a luggage rack in the back. This would be great for running around town or trips where a great deal of luggage wasn’t needed. Makes sense right?

Unfortunately due to COVID shortages in part distribution, my Indian dealership couldn’t get these parts for 3 or 4 weeks! So I get the bright idea to check around dealerships that were either on the way or not too far out of the way to see who had my parts in stock. I thought I hit the jackpot with Boerne. Three hours west and not a huge detour, so I gave them a call. Christina at Mission City Indian agreed to hold the parts for me and so I was on my way!

All said, I didn’t get on the road until after 11am. No worries – Headed to Boerne to get my sissy bar!

Boerne to Eden

It was a hot, boring run down I-10 to Boerne but once I got there, Christina let me bend their rule about working on bikes in the parking lot to install my new sissy bar and pad! Unfortunately they didn’t have the luggage rack , but there are more dealerships on the way, so the quest continues.

If I have the choice and it’s not crazy far out of the way, I avoid Interstate Highways on my motorcycle trips. They tend to be faster, but boring and packed with 18-wheelers and other folks in a hurry. So setting my sights on Lubbock from Boerne via smaller roads means US87 right through the middle of Fredericksburg which is a just a few scant miles from Luckenbach.

Why is that important? Well if you live in Texas and are on a pleasure trip on your motorcycle within a 25 mile radius of Luckenbach, it’s a rule that you have to stop off for a beer and maybe some BBQ. Anyway, I took an hour break to listen to a cool acoustic set by The Jakes, enjoy a cold beer and a BBQ sandwich. Even though it was nice relaxing in the shade, I had many miles to go, so back on the road!

Let me just pause to say that late July and early August in West Texas are BRUTALLY hot. The temperature on the bike dashboard showed 100+ and I was roasting  in my sleeveless shirt. Roasting to the point where I stopped to put on sunscreen (SPF 50). I tan like a native, and rarely bother with sunscreen after March, but on this particular occasion…..

By the time I got to Eden around 7pm, I was hot, tired, and hungry.  Eden doesn’t have a lot going for it in the way of restaurants up that late on a Friday evening, but that DQ sure was appealing! Time for a 30 minutes meal and cool down break.

On to Big Spring

Back on the road, it’s starting to cool off a little and I catch my second wind tooling through San Angelo. I was way behind the loose schedule I had set for myself, but I planned to ride into the night.

That is, until I saw the deer. A good sized buck that stood about 5’ tall with a nice rack on him. The problem I had with Sir Buck was that he was standing half on and half off the road nibbling at some grass. When his head popped up at the sound of me coming, I thought “Oh crap which way is he going to run?” He didn’t. He just stood there and watched me ride by… Ok that was not so bad… People always talk about how bad the deer are in West Texas after dark, but that’s not bad. 

Down the road a few miles, there was something laying in the road. It was Sir Buck’s neighbor that had been VERY recently hit by someone.  So recently the smell was of offal, not decomposition. So now my eyes are watching the sides of the road as much as the road itself. By the time I got to Big Springs, I had counted 5-6 deer between the road and the fence line and 3 more dead on or near the road.

This is nerve wracking and not so much fun. I’m pretty tired and being hyper vigilant on the deer watch is wearing me thin fast. Looks like we’re calling it a night in Big Spring.

Calling it a night

I had stopped in Big Spring on a previous trip home from Las Vegas, so I know where I’m going. Easy check in at the hotel, no problem and call my Red Haired Girl to relate the story of the day.

While we are talking I walked next door to the Stripes to pick up a snack and a cold beer. They are “temporarily closed” according to the handwritten sign on the door.

What?

It’s 10 pm Friday night in an oil boom town and you CLOSE your store to stock the cooler?!? Apparently, this happens a lot at this store. Two different cars of people that pulled up to cuss and complain before driving across the street to the competition. Red Haired Girl and I talk about how those stores have gone from shining stars of good c-stores to a slow slide to the mediocrity of corporate convenience.  I gave up and walk across the street to spend my $15 on beer and snacks.

Stay Tuned!

The rest of the trip is coming soon!