Quite a Run

Buddy Helscel called me about noon on Sunday from Casa Grande, Arizona.. He
was getting ready to hit the road to come to Texas for the ROT rally .. We
decided to meet halfway in Van Horn.. I finally managed to get on the
highway about 2:30 PM .. The traffic was truly nightmarish on I-20 and by
the time I got through Weatherford, I was running into a pretty hard
headwind.. DPS officers were out in full force, so even without the strong
winds, I was keeping the Green Vulcan close to the speed limit.. After three
visits with those officers, (no tickets involved) I managed to pull into Van
Horn around 10:30 PM.. My old friend was already there and we went in search
of a good steak.. Since the town had closed down, we settled for a hamburger
at MacDonalds and caught up with our visiting for a couple of hours before
turning in for the night.. Monday morning we ate a real good breakfast and
started the haul back to the metroplex.. Instead of I-20 we ran down I-10 to
Junction and swept out 377 through Brady.. Meantime, we had just sort of
meandered along the road, taking our time, stopping often and finally found
that steak, we'd both been looking for.. Leaving Junction about 8:00 in the
evening, we began to see herd after herd of deet, moving and feeding near
the highways.. The numbers of them grazing and moving about after dark was
unbelievable.. Must have been the heat, keeping them still during the day
and making them more active after dark..We wound up in Brownwood about 11:00
and checked into the Best Western.. I think we had pretty well agreed that
the risk wasn't worth it and Buddy is too far from home to take the chance
of doing a close up and personal encounter with a damn buck or doe..
Tuesday morning we left Brownwood and just drifted on into the Metroplex
about 1:30 PM.. We sure made a nice and relaxed run all the way back from
Van Horn.. No rush, no hurry, plenty of rest stops with cold water, even
changed the oil in that Harley .. Motorcycles from all over Texas were at
each stop and on the roads.. I had forgotten somewhat about riding with an
experienced and easy bike handler like my old friend.. Seemed as though we
could read each others mind as we navigated those highways and the different
traffic situations we encountered..The contrasting motorcycles we ride
caused a lot of comments from other bikers and from the general public at
each one of our stops.. My cruiser looks pretty good, but people were
certainly fascinated with the showboat that my friend rides.. That Harley
has all the bells and whistles and chrome out the yazoo.. After dark, he can
put on a light show with that thing... Now .. we are getting the bikes ready
for the ROT rally down in Austin this weekend .. Sheesh, these west Texas
bugs are tough puppies and both motorcycles are covered.. LOL.. Ah well..
with the past couple of days on the road, again.. with this old friend, it
has well been worth it.. See all of you in Austin.. looking forward to it..

Your friend in Irving
Bill Walker

 

Did you all eat in Brady? There's a place there called "The Hard Eight"
that's damn good.
It's kinda like Cooper's in Llano, with many pits fired up and cooking and
meat just dropped on your tray, but it's a bit "nicer".