TX - Ride Home Report
What a great time, although my a$$ is sore!
The ride home was a great! Taking Hwy 62 for a different route was a great idea and it was a beautiful, Smoky Mountain ride (except, we were in the Ozarks.. lol) with just enough fog to make everything beautiful! (Thanks Paul for the idea!) I kept looking for a scenic overlook to get a picture of the bikes up there, but there never was one.
We rode on West on Hwy 62 to Hwy 71 (I-549) and decided to stay on 549 to make up some time. I got used to always looking for 3 bikes in my mirror, when all of a sudden, there were about 10 bikes running behind me! We were moving along at about 75 MPH, with the other bikes staying in formation with us. Pretty neat to see all those bikes running down the Interstate! They were with us until we had to pull over for a potty break just North of Fort Smith. We fueled up there as well and headed on down, picking up Hwy 71.
On Hwy 71, we're kept up the pace, running about 15 MPH above the speed limit (the rebels that we are!
) When, just a little while down the road, we pick up another bike. He even, starts to pull out like he's going to try to get one of us to do a roll-on, but decides to get back in line and ride with us. At some point we did end up passing a cop hiding behind a road sign!
, but he apparently just let us go.
We pull over at a gas station in Waldron to fuel up, only to discover that the couple riding with us, was the same couple we met, at this same gas station!! on our way up to E.S. They were the couple that pulled up on the Harley Dyna to check out our bikes during the photo shoot. I'll tell you what, we knock Harleys around here, but that guy, with his wife on back, could really ride that Pig's Trail!
The Harley couple ( dang it I can't remember their names!) split off from us there and we tooled along to Texarkana, slowing down to about 5 MPH above posted speed and just enjoying the ride.
We got to Texarkana and I had to take Heather's seat back, and we all decided to get a bite to eat at Pizza Hut and do some visiting before we went our seperate ways. Paul, Heather, Greg, and Veronica are great people, as was everyone we met on this trip. I guess Honda's old add applies here.. You Meet the Nicest People on a Rocket III!.
Paul, Heather, Greg and Veronica headed on down Hwy 59 to Nacodoches, while Mark and I headed to Shreveport to visit meet up with a couple of good friends of mine. They picked us up at our hotel and took us out to have some margaritas, as well as a shot of tequila! Which is sort of a tradition, with me and James, and was a GREAT way to cap off a long trip!!
Next morning, we headed out, pretty uneventful, just enjoying the ride and made our way down to Texas Hwy 7 to take to Crockett, TX. We made it all the way to Nacodoches without hitting the Love Bugs and thought we had gotten off lucky! NOT!!!!! From Nacodogches to Crockett, the air was filled with the ba$tard$!!! Mark had his windshield, and I was laying on my tank to keep them from cloggin my face shield!! Our bikes looked just like Paul's and Greg's a couple of days before!
We made it Crockett alive, and had lunch there at Texas Burger, before parting ways.
I decided to step it up a bit, and was running a good 90 MPH from here on out. At one point, I hit a shower, which was just enough to break loose most of the Love Bugs! However, I then found the Hog Nose Butterflies!
I got a Police escort from San Marcos to Seguin, TX, riding the 20 something miles in 10 MINUTES!
Well, I was just tailing him from about 100 yards back, but we were moving!
Got home safe... and all is well at home! Was glad to see Greg post that he made it, was a little concerned about him at our Pizza stop, but it appears everyone made it home safe!
Thank you all.. It was a great ride!