King Ranch Visit

Saturday November 21, we made our annual ride to the King Ranch, for the Ranch Hand Breakfast. As usual, we had a great time! The weather was great!
This is the only day of the year, that the ranch is open to visitors. We also found out that this is the only day motorcycles are allowed on the ranch.
Below is our group of riders. Decah is in the center of the photo.



Below, is a photo of the Dutch oven cookers. They prepare many pastries in the dutch oven. This is always a favorite stop.

Our group, enjoying the ranch hand breakfast! This is really a great breakfast!

It's amazing how many, and how fast they serve everyone!

There are many activities going on at the ranch: roping in the arena, a ferrier, shoeing horses, dogs working cattle, and sheep, a live western band playing good ol cowboy music, a branding station, and a display of all the old weapons found on the ranch.

After leaving the King Ranch, we rode into Kingsville, and visited the king Ranch Store, quite a unique store!

We then started our journey back home, stopping in Raymondville, for lunch at one of our favorite bar & grilles, the Boot Factory!

Another great day of riding, and terrific times with friends!

Off To Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia!

We were hoping for a great ride out east, but the weather didn't co-operate! We ended up driving the truck, since it rained "buckets"!
We still managed to have a great trip! We called several dances, and took a few days to enjoy the trip. We journeyed to our riding buddy, Roy, in Virginia, where we based there, for several days! It let up on the rain, so we were able to enjoy the area! As we returned to Dallas, we spent a couple of days in Nashville, playing tourist!

This is a really neat waterfalls, that we found while in North Carolina.

We were very fortunate to make a show of The Grand Ol Opry, while in Nashville! Many great performers! Little Jimmie Dickens, John Connelly, Jeanne Sealy, Charlie Daniels, and several others!

John Connelly

Little Jimmy Dickens

Charlie Daniels

We took a buss, or riding tour of Nashville, that was really great! This pic was taken through the park, leading to the Capitol building.

While in Nashville, we took a walking tour, that included the RymanAuditorium, Ernest Tubb Record Shop (the home of the Midnight Jamboree), The Hatch Print Shop

Inside the Ryman, is this bronze sculptor of Roy Acuff, and Minnie Pearl

No trip to Nashville is complete, without a visit to "Tootsies"!!!!!!! You can feel the history, and legends!

While in "Tootsies", we couldn't pass up the oppertunity to have our photo made in the exact corner where Willie wrote "Crazy", for Patsy Cline!

Our trip, east, was great, even though we had to take 4 wheels, our pick-up

Heading Back To The Barn!

While in Dallas, we rode on one of the few days it didn't rain, to see a Buddy, that I went through school with, Johnny Myers. These are a couple of pix, of his bike! A real beauty!

Saturday, October 24 we made a ride to Waxahachie, for the Texas Country Reporter Festival. We rode to the festiaval with my cousin Randy, and his wife Nessa, Larry, Steve, and a couple of other friends, on our bikes! This is a unique festival, as it revolves around the TV news show, "Texas Country Reporter"! All the craftsmen visited during the year, by the show, are invited to display their crafts, and wears!

The festival is set up on the town square, in Waxahachie, a really neat, and quaint town! Luckily for us, it let up raining, for the day, so it was a great ride!

Decah, in front of the Old Courthouse, on the square, in Waxahachie. The statue is in memory of the Daughters of The Confederacy.

What a neat, old courthouse!

While at the festival, we found a display of old Cushman Scooters. What a classic!

While in Waxahachie, we met up with an Ol' high school buddy, Carl Copeland, and his girl friend Amy! I guess you could call this the Mesquite Connection!

Decah, Darryl, Carl, Amy, Randy, and Nessa.

The last week of October found us making our last ride, of the season! We trailered the bikes from Dallas to Oklahoma, since it was raining, again!

When we arrived in Oklahoma City, we were finally out of the rain! On Thursday morning, we mounted our trusty, steeds, and rode 500 miles to St Louis. The riding was really good! A little cool, but spectacular! We rode through the wine country, along Rte 50, and rte 64. The trees were exploding, in yellows, reds, orange, and greens! We arrived in St Louis, early Wednesday evening, and left for Kings Island, in Ohio, Thursday morning. We called a festival there, through the weekend, and left for St Louis, on Sunday. We hopped on our mounts, and rode back to Oklahoma City, on Monday. Again, a beautiful ride!

Tuesday morning, we loaded the bikes, and started our journey back home.

We stopped off at Turner Falls, in Oklahoma, to take in some more of the fall colors!

Beautiful fall colors, at Turner Falls, in Oklahoma!

D, atop overlook, at Turner Falls.
What a beautiful day to travel!

Well, what a great summer, but, we are really ready to get back home, with all our winter friends!

A Couple of Relaxing Weeks!

The past couple of weeks have been fairly relaxing! We spent a week in Oklahoma City, where we were able to spend some time with family. We called several dances, while there. The weather didn't co-operate, as it rained most of the week. We were still able to do a little site seeing. We rode over to Arcadia, OK, which is on Rte 66, just east of Edmond. Arcadia is a really neat little town! We visited a little Bike Shack that had quite a selection of biker gear.

Arcadia's claim to fame is it's round barn, that was constructed in 1898.

As you can see from the photo, it was getting a new roof, while we were there.

The barn has a loft that has been made into a dance hall. Really great hardwood floor! The lower level is a museum, and gift shop. Really worth a side trip, anytime you're in the area!

This is a photo of an old Inn, in Arcadia.

Not sure if it was ever an Inn, or not, but it made a great photo!

The following week, we spent in Dallas, resting, and re-loading for the next segment of our trip. While in Dallas, we visited more family. The photo is of our next generation "Harley Rider", Mark, Darryl's gandson.

Notice on the luggage rack a blanket, that was made as a wedding gift, for our marriage, last summer. We made a side trip to Tyler, TX to pick it up, while in town. The blanket was completed last spring, but this was the first chance we had to pick it up.

No trip to Dallas would be complete, without Decah visiting her grand-daughter Lane! While in Dallas, we were able to meet with Decah's family, so we could celebrate her Mom's birthday!

Well, it's off to another destination! Headed for the Tennessee, and North Carolina mountains. Looking to see the fall colors!

More Catching Up

This is a photo of us at Kirkwood Lodge, in Osage Beach, Missouri. We spend quite a bit of time here during the summer, since we call several weeks, and weekends, as well as passing through the area, regularly. It's like our home, away from home!
The staff, and owners make us feel like family











A view of the lake, from the Kirkwood patio. We are in the planning stages, of putting together a re-union weekend, here, next year, for all of our friends!








This photo was taken on a ferry, as we crossed the Mississippi River.







This was taken at the Dirty Bird Bar, in Tightwad, MO. It is owned by some friends of ours, who winter in the Valley, Wino, and Judy. We spent a couple days with them, in western MO. We really had a great time, there! Again, we are blessed with so many great friends!

Catching up

Our summer has been so exciting, and busy, we have fallen behind on our blog site, so we're going to try to catch up, as we continue to keep you abreast on our current travels.

Recently, as we were passing through Iowa, we stopped off at one of our favorite places to visit, PB Choppers, in Moravia, IA. We wanted to get a few photos of the Dale Earnhardt Commemorative bike. Wow, what a site! The bike is awesome! It brings chills up your back, if you were an Earnhardt fan!

As you can see, this is a beautiful bike! This is Jim's personal bike. He built it for his personal collection. Jim (Wubben) is the owner of PB Choppers. They specialize in "old school" choppers, however, as you can see, nothing is out of line, for them!

While we were in Iowa, we visited with our friend, Steve, who lives in Bloomfield, IA. We enjoyed the sites, riding with Steve!

While in the area, we made a trip to Chicago, for weekend of Square dancing.Did a little site seeing, but didn't take many photo's. I guess we were overwhelmed with the size, and magnitude of the city!

When we left Iowa, we worked our way to the west coast, for several weeks of calling. While we were in McCloud, CA, we were able to do a lot of riding and sight-seeing, as well as calling. One of our side trips was with our Friend John Rickard, who not only owns, and manages "Dance Country", a square dance destination, in McCloud, but is also a third generation bee keeper. We went one afternoon, for a chance to meet the bees, first hand!

Both, Decah, and I really enjoyed the BEES!!!!!!!!!

This get's us a little closer to the events of our summer. We are so fortunate to have so many friends, throughout the country! We were able to spend some great times with Jim and Chris, and Jim and Jill, in Iowa, Tom and Jutta, and Bob and Karen, in Illinois. We also enjoyed visiting Bob and Nancy, in Illinois, along the Wabash River, and spending some time with our great friends Dr Bill and Sheri, in Reno! We would be remiss,if we didn't thank Glenn, in Oklahoma, for letting us use his RV, while we made his home a base camp for a lot of the summer! We hope to visit many other friends, along our travels! We have really enjoyed making and meeting new friends, along the way, too!

We are looking forward to spending a bit of down time, in the Dallas, and Oklahoma City area, where we will be able to visit with family, kids, and grand kids!

Days 4,5, and 6 Of The "Loneliest Highway" Ride

Day 4 saw us ride from Green River, Ut to Pueblo, CO. Another day of spectacular scenery!





D&D, atop Monarch pass, in Colorado (elevation 11,300 ft)


















D, at The Royal Gorge


















The bridge, across Royal Gorge


















Day 5 took us from Pueblo, CO to El Dorado, KS. More great scenery!


Day 6 had us traveling from El Dorado, KS, to Kirkwood lodge, in Osage Beach, MO. Most of this ride, was like a roller coaster ride. That is, up, down, and around! Great scenery through the Ozark mountains! Upon arriving at Kirkwood, we picked up our truck, and drove to Aurora, Mo for a dance, and returned to Kirkwood, after the dance. Needless to say, we were ready for a day of rest!


What a great way to end a long journey! After completing our Route 50 ride, we took Sunday, off, as a "Chill Out" day. We started the day out by visiting the church, of the pastor who married us, last year. We really enjoy Brother Jim! He is such a lively, and spirited minister! After church, we decided to have a cook-out at Kirkwood Lodge, with our many friends, there! Thanks to Decah, Eddie, and Lorna, we had a terrific fajita dinner! The photo below, is of the Kirkwood gang. We always feel like family, when we visit Kirkwood! After dinner, we just chilled out, and had a great time listening to Eddie, and Chris jamming, with their guitars!

Our Route 50 ride, was awsome! To this date, it is, by far, the best ride yet, of this summer! We have a few more rides coming up, but they will have a hard time topping this one! I guess you could say Decah really earned her stripes!

Day 3 of the "Lonliest Highway" Ride

Today's ride started out uneventful, but took a turn! Just before we crossed into Utah, from Nevada, we met a fellow rider with a flat tire. We helped him plug the tire, but it still had a small leak. Our plan was to ride together to Delta, UT to see if we could find someone, who could fix him up. We stopped several times, to check the air pressure, and all seemed to be working according to plan. Between 45, and 50 miles from Delta, the tire, totally blew! We loaded his luggage onto Decah's bike, and he rode her bike to Delta, as Decah rode with me. We found a bike shop in Delta, so he was able to make arrangements to have his bike picked up, and a new tire installed, tomorrow. By the time all of this was done, we lost 2 hours. Anyway, we made it to Green River, Ut, for the night, only 100 miles short of our destination. Not really a problem, because we've been in his position, before. Us bikers, have to look out for one another!
The above photo is the Confussion Mountain Range, in the background.




This photo is the San Raphael Swell.
This entire area was beutiful, with one canyon, after another!









Another photo of a canyon










Yet another from the canyon. This is Table Rock, in the fore-ground.





Our day was very interesting, and full of more spectacular scenery!

Day 2 On The "Loneliest Highway" Route 50

We didn't get away from Reno, as early as we had hoped to, but we made our Day 2 destination, Ely, NV.

The photo is the "Shoe Tree", along Route 50. As you can see, it is loaded with shoes! The interesting fact, is that this is the only tree between Fallon, NV, and Ely, Nv, about 250 miles!

Another photo of the "Shoe Tree"

Here is Decah, at the top of Austin Summit, 7500 feet. The view is spectacular! We crossed many such summits varying between 4500 to 7700 feet. Between the mountain ranges, the road was as straight as an arrow, for as for as you could see. Just below this point, is the city of Austin, NV.

This is a photo of Downtown, Austin, NV. This entire area is a mining region. Various minerals, as well as gold. There was no less than 4 churches along the roadside. Route 50 goes straight through the community.

We thought this was a cool photo, taken in Austin, NV!

This is a photo of the Monitor Mountain Range, between Austin, NV and Eureka, NV. Not bad for having been taken from the bike, at 75mph!


This is the opera house, in Eureka, NV.

Again, Route 50 goes straight through the middle of town. This, again, is a mining community, as well as several gambling casinos

Ely, NV is another 75 miles east.

Utah is another 65 miles east, on Route 50. Will spend the majority of the day, tomorrow, riding through Utah. Our destination for Day 3 is Grand Junction, CO.

Heading East On The "Loneliest Hihway" in America

After several weeks in Northern California, and a great weekend in the San Francisco Bay area, we are making our way, east. We are traveling Route 50 across country. We made a very interesting ride, today, from San Ramon, Ca., where we stayed with our friends, John, and Dee, to Reno, Nv. we rode route 160, from San Ramon to Sacramento, CA. It was through the Sacramento River delta. What a ride! The waterway is an inter-coastal shipping route. We rode on the levee, for approximately 60 miles. Some of the most lush farm lands, you'll ever see! The above photo is one of many draw bridges, along the ride.

This photo, is another draw bridge, along the ride. We crossed five such bridges, as we went from one side of the river, to the other.

Upon reaching Sacramento, we decided to detour along IH 80, so we could ride across Donner Pass. The pass is at 7,500

feet.Beautiful riding, and chilly, too! There was a lot of road construction, so we couldn't stop, and take any pictures.

We rode on into Reno, and met up with our good friends, Dr Bill, and Sheri Avery, where we crashed out at their lake cabin. We will pick up route 50, in the morning, and head east, on the "Loneliest Highway" in America! This is one of my favorite rides, as I did it a couple of years ago, with a group of firemen, making a coast to coast ride.