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My Ladies at Maverick Harley Davidson We finally made it! We flew to Dallas, Texas on March 19, 2018 , early enough to pick up the motorcycle at Mavericks Harley Davidson. Eighteen months had past since we saw each other. My Ladie came out mumblin’ srcumblin’ like Nutella, my little frenchie dog says hello everyday when I get home.
We prepared the bike right away. All my riding gear was stored in the motorcycle. My cigar case, and 2 sets of riding gloves were gone. So much for trusting people with your stuff!!!!
We jumped in to the motorcycle and headed for our first stop, downtown Dallas. Dallas didn’t appear like a city you want to see on a motorcycle. There was a lot of traffic and construction, but Dealey Plaza was a site I needed to see.
We rode around the plaza for a couple of time before making a quick stop at the grassy knoll. Standing at the site of the JFK Assassination and looking up at the Book Depository gave me the chills.
We left the plaza to do a “fly by” the AT&T Stadium, Home of the Dallas Cowboys and make a stop at the Fort Worth Stockyards. It was Monday afternoon and the place was dead. It looked very appealing for a weekend stop, but the only thing we could do was to grab something to eat start looking for a place to stay.
We found a Motel 6 near the Stockyards that looked pretty clean. We approached the “lobby” there were three police officer asking questions about a fugitive. They say that “first impressions are the one that counts”. Well it’s true. We should gotten the hell out of there with that welcome committee.
We went to bed early, around 10:00 pm. At 1 o’clock a party started in the room next door. At 2 o’clock, when I was dead asleep, some truck driver sounded his horns to wake all of Dallas up. For a second I though I was in the movie My Cousin Vinnie!!!!! At 3 o’clock the party next door got louder…… oh, brother. The only good thing about the Motel 6 was the price, $50 bucks.
We got out of Fort Worth via I35W and 43 degrees of chilling temperature. Thank God there was a Cracker Barrell Restaurant 20 minutes away. Our Favorite breakfast restaurant on the road.
We took a detour thru Hwy 171 to stop in the town of Hillsboro. Nice little town with a couple of things to see. They have a Roadside America Museum that looked very nice, but they were closed. Strike 2.
We retook I 35W to Waco. My wife noted a sign of the Collins Street Bakery. We knew the bakery since our grandmothers bought fruitcakes every year from that place. We made a quick stop to stretch our legs, for some cakes and Diet Coke.
I wanted to make Waco a stop. We started to see the signs of Baylor University and in a blink of an eye, we missed the exit.
We stayed most of time in I35W to make good time. Interstate are filled with trucks and commercial traffic. The reason I try to avoid them as much as I can.
We got to Austin and took a detour on Hwy 1 to get to the 360 bridge. Finally, a nice motorcycle road!! We drove thru the Austin Country Club and occasionally they were hosting the World Golf Championship Tournament. We rode the Cliff of Ghost Canyon, a hilly place with spectacular views of the city of Austin. We got on to Barton Spring Road, cut into Ziker Metropolitan Park. A nice road with a lot of restaurants and places to hang out.
Austin is a very nice city. The Capital City and home of the University of Texas. We rode around to see The Capitol Building. We stayed south of the city though. There was a lot going on. We wanted to see the University of Texas but the Mexican food at Chuy’s Restaurant won the case.
Texas weather in March is like a rollocoaster. We started with 43 degrees and ended up close to 80 degrees. All day long it felt like a stripping contest taking layer of clothing off.
After Interstate riding most of the day, we decided to call the day and find a place to stay in a nearby small town off Austin. We headed to Dripping Springs.
We found a brand new Holiday Inn Express to stay the night. What an upgrade from the Motel 6! The crew was very friendly. The manager herself made us quite welcome. She even got us a VIP parking spot right at the Hotel entrance.
Dripping Springs is a very cozy town. Its called the Capital of Weddings. It has a small village that has a couple of things going, on Mercer Street, but not on a Tuesday night. They have a lot of local breweries, wineries and distilleries. Once again, having a long road ahead of us, it was time to hit the road, not before we visited the signature place of town, the Hamilton Pool.
Hamilton Pool Preserve is located 20 minutes north of Dripping Springs. It is a beautiful ride going up on Hwy 12 on to Dripping Springs Rd. It’s managed by Travis County Parks. You need to make reservations prior attending the park thru the internet. You pay a small fee on line and a small fee to get in per vehicle at the park. All together is not more than $25 – $30 bucks. This time of year, there is not much problem of the park filling up due to cooler weather. I bet summer time this place get much more crowded. It is a beautiful place to come and relax for a couple of hours and even take a dip in the pool. Next stop, San Antonio.
Finally, we got another break from the Interstate. We stayed on Hamilton Pool Rd North to 281 South. Another nice Texas Country road. We started noticing the wineries that people were talking about. Route 281 South takes you all the way to the city of San Antonio. You know you are close to the city when traffic, all of the sudden starts to rise. Road lanes grew from one to four. Getting to the city was a bit hectic, again.
We arrived to The Embassy Suites Riverwalk early afternoon after a 200 miles ride. There is very convenient public parking lot in front of the hotel. This hotel did not offer self parking and valet parking was a bit expensive.
The suit was very comfy, very nice. After dropping our stuff, we walked thru town. The Alamo was our first stop. There’s a movie inside one of the rooms that gives you a very good summary of the history of the place.
We went back to the hotel via The Riverwalk. We stoped in a couple of restaurant for some “food tasting.” There was no need to pay $5.00 beers when we had free beer happy hour back at the hotel.
We hung out all night at the Riverwalk. A spectacular, very romantic place to spend an evening, or more. We took the Go Rio River Tour, a must to get a good feel of the city, even better if you take it at night.
There was a lot to do in San Antonio. You could catch a Spurs game, go to Six Flags, Sea World, The Aquarium or The Museum. For us, it was time to hit the road. As we left town, we noticed that traffic in the city was way lighter than traffic on those “circle:” interstates around the city.
We took Bandera Road to the small city of Bandera, Texas. A very nice small frontier town. We were told there was a bike rally for the weekend. It was only Thursday and we noticed some bikers were starting to arrive. Western saloons were abundant. I could see a nice biker weekend coming along. For us, it was time to start riding west.
We took Hwy 173 north out of Bandera to catch Interstate 10 to Segovia. At the junction we headed north thru Menard on Hwy 83. At Eden, TX, we took Hwy 87 west to San Angelo, our next stop. We were planing to stay the night in San Angelo. After a couple of spin thru town we decided to get a quick bit at Bueno, Taco Bueno…… Que Bueno we left!!!! San Angelo was a “Walmart town.” You put a Walmart store in the middle of nowhere and you kill the small businesses of the town, it’s identity and it’s culture. Nothing to see but Walmart. We stayed on Hwy 87 west, then Hwy 158 to our final destination for the day, Midland, TX
We rode for 350 miles. After leaving the town of Bandera and encountered buffalos at a farm, there was nothing interesting to see. Miles and miles of road, dust and sky.
We stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn, another good choice of stay. Again, staff were very welcoming. Pricy beers but there was a supermarket right next door to grab a six pack and some sushi.
Friday morning we left to our next destination, El Paso Texas. There weren’t a lot of road options, so we took Interstate 20 West. We made it to Pecos, Texas and stop at the West of Pecos Museum. My wife was skeptical to go in and pay the $7.00 cover charge, but at the end, it was worth it. Once you enter the old hotel, it’s like a trip to the past, to the Twilight Zone!
We jumped back on the Interstate and saw a sign: Visit Scenic Van Horn. I though, finally a nice picturesque little town to take a break. We made it to town to find the only picturesque thing, a small indian teepee
The only good thing about Varn Horn was that we were closer to our final destination in Texas. We took a break from Interstate 10 by taking Road 20 in Fort Hancock Texas, “where Andy Dufresne crossed the border….. ” For our luck there were a truck hauling a huge bucket that covered both lanes. Oh brother, Texas did not want to end!
We stayed on Road 20, merged onto I 10 again all the way to the Barnett Harley Davidson of El Paso, Texas. After another boring 350 miles of Interstate riding, we finally got there!! We took a well deserved break at the Harley dealer. Found a La Quinta Inn Hotel to crash for the night. As we were leaving to the hotel, we met a fellow biker that noticed my license tag from Florida. He was coming back from Bike Week in Daytona, Florida. “How long have you been on the road?”, I asked, I was curious. He asked me if I knew what Iron Butt was. “I left Daytona 3 days ago. I will make it to Phoenix tonight”, he reacted. Shit, I am wining about riding 350 miles on the Interstate and this guy rides 750 miles per day on a freaking Interstate!!! He was no biker, no Iron Butt. He was either a rocket or a damn liar!!!!
We got to the hotel to drop our stuff and stretch our legs a bit. I went out for a walk to find a gas station to buy some bruskies. I noticed a supermarket across the street from the gas station I had googled, so I went in. I got a sixpack of Coors Light bottled for $5.49!!!!!! “I’m starting to like this town”, was my reaction. Luckly the hotel was near a Mexican Restaurant, Andale, so we made it our date for the night, and we scored!! The restaurant was phenomenal.
Hit the cursor here to see the Andale Movie
La Quinta Inn was a pretty good stay. No Holiday Inn Express, nor Hilton Garden Inn, but it did the trick. It had a pretty good view at of Ciudad Juarez., Mexico.
We bounced around the city streets to get onto Hwy 375. It is a loop highway that travels right next to the border wall. We rode around the city for a short while. It was early Saturday mourning so stores weren’t open yet. El Paso seemed like a very metropolitan city with a very Mexican flavor. We drove by the Pancho Villa Stash House and made a stop at the Scenic Drive Overlook, a must see in El Paso. It is a rest area on the top of a mountain north of the city. There is some spectacular views where The United States and Mexico meet.
We headed East on Interestate 10 to Hwy 54 North. We wanted to take the 375 Hwy loop north to cross the Franklin Mountain. A Spectacular short ride. We merged onto Interestate 10 north to continue our path to Las Cruces, NM.
After 5 days of riding and 1,000 miles….. Welcome to New Mexico. As we left Texas, my wife said:”We were in Texas for 5 days and we didn’t see any cows.” One minute into the state line, we started to see the cows, and smell them… “Well honey, steers live in Texas and cows live New Mexico, I guess” , I joked.
We made a quick stop a the Harley dealer in Las Cruces. NM to get some needed gear. After a couple of spins in the college small town, we were off west again, on Interstate 10.
We rode for a good 150 miles of desert and tumbleweeds. All of the sudden wind conditions started to change for the worst. We were arriving at the state line of New Mexico-Arizona and road 80 near Roadforks, NM was the route I wanted to take. It would had taken us to Bisbee, Arizona.
As we made our turn, the sky started to get darker and darker. It was only 4:00 pm and I thought, “what the heck, we are in the dessert. It never rains here”. Well, think again!!
The weather deteriorated in a hurry. As we started to take Hwy 80, we saw a bunch of abandoned building that gave us the mood of the road ahead. As we “bravely” continued ahead, the wind picked up to 30 – 40 miles. By now, we are riding sideways, fighting the wind to stay on two wheels. A minute into the road, my wife started to scream: “Turn around, turn around, turn around”. “RELAX, COÑO(damned)”, was my reaction. I was getting more fear from her yelling than the surrounding themselves.
We fought a good fight for 30 miles. We got the Chiricahua Desert Museum and rain started to drop. With the wind blowing 40 miles per hour, rain falling from the sky and a wife near a nervous breakdown, I had no choice but to turn around. We were just 15 miles off the Jeronimo Surrender Statue, AZ. It was like Jeronimo didn’t want us in Arizona that day. I felt like the end of the movie Truman Show, with Chief Jeronimo in charge of controlling the bad weather.
With no other choice, we escaped the rain of road 80 to get back into a windy Interstate 10 West. As we merged onto the highway, the wind was blowing so hard that the bike wasn’t responding . I gave it all it got, but, with the luggage, ourselves and the 40 mph wind in our faces, the bike didn’t want to go faster than 60 mph!! We rode for 15 miles until we got to a Holiday Inn Express in Willcox, AZ. Another day of riding in the books. Another 300 miles of road, dust and sky.
After a goodnight sleep thanks again to the good people of Holiday Inn Express, we are off to see Arizona. We took Hwy 86 to S Kansas Settlement Rd., to road 191 all the way to Douglas, AZ. The ride was what I was expecting from the trip since day 1. Nice desert, solitaire, riding with no commercial vehicles. We got to Douglas, another Walmart town. We just wanted to see how border crossing was all about. We stepped into the gate and ask the border patrol officer, “Qué tan fácil es entrar a los E.U. para atrás? Fácil, hoy es domingo y el tráfico es suave”. Yep, all border patrol officers were fluent in Spanish. Heck, his name was Mr. Rodríguez.
We did not plan this, but in no time we where in Agua Prieta, Mexico. We rode for a couple of blocks to feel the ambiance of the Mexican border town. We stopped at the entrance of town to take some pictures. We started with the Custom Building and we heard a scream, NO PICTURES, NO PICTURES!!!
As we were taking pictures of the Arco de Agua Prieta, we saw a bum walking at us with a crooked butter knife. My wife got a bit scared. “Relax honey, this guy can’t even hold himself up”
Sunday morning in the town of Agua Prieta: deserted. Not a lot people on the street, not even in church. Stores were closed. We did not feel unsafe at any time. Just nothing to do. It was time to go back to the US.
We followed Route 80 to Lowell, AZ. A nice old “street” town to make a pit stop. We kept on Route 80 and, in five minutes, we were in our next stop, Bisbee, AZ.
As we approached town, we did not know where to start. We must have ridden the entire place three times. What a beautiful town. We walked around the streets to get acquainted with the atmosphere. We drank coffee, eat lunch, smoked a cigar. This was the town we were supposed to stay the night before before”Jeronimo shut the door on us.” Oh well, after a few hours of relaxing and “brushing” the place, off to the next stop, the home of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday, Tumbstone Arizona.
We took Tombstone Canyon Rd to exit beautiful Bisbee. The road was a small hilly scenic drive right outside town. It merged with Road 80 north. I was feeling the excitement of the upcoming town already. The road was preamble of things to come. A pretty plane road, with a couple of cattle ranches. A true western atmosphere.
As we arrived town, we detour on Ellen St. and the first thing we see is the O.K. Corral. We went around town a couple of times to find a good spot to park. We got off the bike and Oh My God!!! I felt more like Clint Eastwood in Back to the Future than Wyatt Earp in the Movie Tombstone itself! It was like being in a movie set, or the Wild West!
We walked around town. We made reservations to the O.K. Corral gun fight. A gunfight show that run every hour that re-creates the infamous shooting that took place back in the day. A must see. After the show, even the bad guys are willing to take pictures with the croud.
There were a couple of western gadgets to play around.
They have different gun shows and a lot of small shop to spend the entire day wondering around. A lot of locals dress up giving the town a true western atmosphere. They have horse carriages that offer tours.
At night, they even have paranormal tours…… Everybody has a limit, that was mine!
We entered the Big Nose Kate’s Saloon to grab something to eat. A Very nice western saloon with live music. We stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, since we decided to stay the night at the Old Western Place.
At the bar, we met a couple from Mankato, Minnesota. Very nice people, They were stunt that this Puertorrican couple were in the middle of nowhere of Arizona, ON A MOTORCYCLE. More impressed they were when I told them I had been to their hometown. Mankato is the home of Katolight Power Generators that my uncle used to distribute in Puerto Rico back in 1990. In one of his trips, I jumped into the plane with him to visit the plant. “What am I doing here?, shit you are from Manfuckinkato!!!!!!” We hit it right away. This couple was the first people we’ve met in the trip that we could talk, make jokes and have a good time.
We started to tell the story that, in this town, they even had a paranormal tours. As I said that, a Curly “look alike” from City Slickers entered the saloon. He sat right beside the couple from Mankato. I could not hold myself up. He really look like the ghost of Curly! I was cracking up!!!!
We found a nice motel right around the block to crash for the night. It looked like they were remodeling because we were the only guests in the property.
Thank God we found The Adobe Lodge Motel. This stay wasn’t the Hilton, which we were supposed to stay in Tucson, but it topped all of the small towns we had been on the trip. It was the climax of our journey.
We completed road 80 north until we met with Interstate 10, again. We stayed on I 10 until we got to Tucson. We rode thru University of Arizona, a beautiful campus. Rolled around for a while to see a bit of the city and continued to the Saguaro National Park, an excellent riding place. We took a couple of pictures. We were amazed by the size of the cactus.
I found out that the movie Tombstone was film mostly at the Old Tucson Studio. They had converted that studio into a Theme Park. We were close by, but, after experienced the real deal, I was not going to pay a cover charge of $20.00 each. to see another “Tombstone like” place. We connected once again I 10 to lead us to our final destination, Phoenix, Arizona.
Coming into the city we were welcomed by a few Dust Devils. We rode to the Fashion Square, at the request of the wife. Ate at a Mexican Restaurant, again, and headed to Old Scottsdale for a short walk. We were worn up so we went to, where else?, The Holiday Inn Express near the Airport. Our home for the last 2 nights of the trip.
In our last day, we first visit the shopping mall in Scottsdale. I went to the food court while my wife stretched her legs, and my wallet!!! She needed to get some clothing for an upcoming JR Prom of my daughter. As we got out of the stores, I received a message from a local guy to ask for permission to park his “crappy” car besides my beautiful motorcycle.
Jaja, just kidding. But this image sums up what Scottsdale is all about. Home of the good-looking places and the good-looking people. After, we went to Old Scottsdale for a while for some window shopping. Another nice cozy place.
Phoenix is a beautiful city. A lot of things to do, a lot of places to go. A very clean city. This time of year is very comfortable. Trafic is heavy, though. We rode thru Papago Park on N Galvin Parkway. We visited the Hole in the Rock Mountain. Pretty nice view of the city from up there. We went to Hwy 101 thru E McDowell Rd. We looped around the Camelback Mountain to make our final stop, The Arizona Towing and Motorcycle Storage. Michelle and her husband were waiting for us to take in My Ladie to her home for the next couple of months.
After 9 days of riding and 2,000 miles, the adventure had come to an end. It had been a great experience. We learned that Texas is a big state! No shit, we discovered America! It had its moments, Austin, San Antonio, Dripping Springs, El Paso. Getting from point A to point B was brutal. Once we got to a “smaller” state like Arizona, we could enjoy more the riding by taking alternative routes, and making more stops in shorter riding times. Budget wise we did very good. All the Holiday Inn Express stays and the Hiltons’ we paid with honor points. Membership is easy to get. We are Hilton Honors members, IHG members (Holiday Inn Hotels) and have a credit card for each account. You start accumulating points by each stay or charges made to their credit cards and before you know it, you have some reward points to enjoy! Food was very affordable. Since we had breakfast included in most of our stays, lunch was replaced with early dinner.
Our goal has always been getting to The Pacific Costal Highway. It could be 6 months or a year away. The good thing is that we crossed the biggest hurdle of them all, the Long (not the Lone) Star State of Texas. We are almost there!!!
Google Maps route by day:
(hit on each day on top to see google maps routes)