Thanks for a Good Ride

This one got started off real well.. I got this Green Vulcan on the slab,
just after daylight, Wednesday AM.. Made that first gas stop at Beltline and
IH 30 in Mesquite, where I hooked up with Ed Hart, his son Dayton and two of
as fine a folks as anyone wants to know.. Louis Grey and his wife Gail..
After I gassed up the Green One, we headed east on the slab to run into
RedShad and his friend Brandon, in Sulphur Springs. Picking up all those
riders along the way, went without a hitch and we cruised on over to
Mt.Pleasant to run into Bjay.. Slight change in route plans there, and we
rode old hwy. 67 to connect with hwy 8 and then due north to New Boston..
Bjay got a call there, so he split to attend to some family committments
that he'd pre arranged..

Our little group rode hwy 8 on into Arkansas and north to Mena.. The number
of our little highway kept changing after we'd crossed the state line into
Arkansas..

In Mena, we checked into our motel, freshened up a bit and made the ride up
to Wilhemina Lodge, for dinner.. Beautiful place.. that scenery is to die
for and the restaurant is lovely.. with good food, as a bonus..

Morgan Kane arrived, just as the meal was being served.. I have just got to
say that I was thrilled to see my good Mexico traveling companion.. As well
as being a superb bike handler, Morgan Kane is also a fine man, with just
too many good qualities..

Over dinner, we all got caught up on the visiting and yarn spinning.. I
think everyone was more than ready to turn in, because RedShad had a full
day of mountain road running planned for the upcoming day..

And what a fine day it was.. We hit the ground running next morning..
Breakfast at the Lodge and then a full day of riding those mountains.. There
isn't words to describe the satisfaction of a challenging ride like this,
with so many great bikers to share it with..

Later, after another good meal at the Lodge and the good day of riding,
Brian arrived to join us at the motel.

Needless to say, Saturday morning .. the old man was pretty well used up and
some of us decided to start the long ride home.. That's always the worst
part of any ride.. Parting with those good friends is never easy .. Morgan
Kane had committments to meet his little wife in Lake Charles, La. and he
commenced his roundabout back to Houston.. RedShad and a couple of his
Missouri friends decided to stay in Mena for a while longer..

Ed Hart, Dayton, Brandon, Louie and Gail, myself and Brian .. crossed over
the ridge and came out in Oklahoma.. headed back to Texas.. Middle of the
day, the heat was miserable and I believe everyone was feeling it, me
especially.. But, we made frequent stops to counteract.. Ed, Dayton and
Brandon split off from us just south and east of Hugo to cross the river
just north of Clarksville.. Louie, Gail, Brian and I continued on to cross
the river just north of Paris..

Other than a lot of heat, the ride into Sherman was not eventful and we
picked up I-75 in Sherman .. Brian left us at 635 to go to Mesquite while
Louie, Gail and I hit I-35, then Loop 12..

Thanks to the concern and consideration towards the old man, those two saw
to it that I made the ride back to La Casa in Irving.. For the first time, I
was the weakest link in that chain of bikers, and their consideration and
concern for all the others in our group, made this ride possible for me..
I'm looking forward to many more rides with this group of fine brothers and
that sister.. Next ride, I expect to be in much better conditon and up for
the ride.. Thanks again, my friends.. Great ride..

Your friend in Irving
Bill Walker

 

Plan to do it again,with or without the "Dearslayer"





Ed Hart

 

hehehe... He's a "killer".. Better get real busy with that sunburn.. He
sure got a good dose of it, didn't he ?

 

Bill Walker wrote:
(snipped some of the good stuff, to comment on this last part)
''Thanks to the concern and consideration towards the old man, those two
saw to it that I made the ride back to La Casa in Irving.. For the first
time, I was the weakest link in that chain of bikers, and their
consideration and concern for all the others in our group, made this
ride possible for me.. I'm looking forward to many more rides with this
group of fine brothers and that sister.. Next ride, I expect to be in
much better conditon and up for the ride.. Thanks again, my friends..
Great ride..
Your friend in Irving
Bill Walker



Bill, I agree. The heat almost takes the fun out of riding, for me. When
we came back from Deep Louisana, a few weeks ago. I got so deHydrated,
that I could barely eat at El Chicos that evening. I kept drinking tea.
<g>
It was miserably hot, riding that 300 mile round trip. And I had Honey
aboard, She was pretty uncomfortable as well.
~~~(back to the Mean trip)~~Actually, other than a family thing to take
care of, I probably wouldnt have made the Mena run anyway, because of
the 100+ stuff.
I wanted to save the great Talimena mountain ride up there, to do it, in
cooler weather, in October.
~~We do it every year, about. There is a CMA rally sometime in the
middle of October, that we enjoy attending.
~~Bill,It was nice getting to ride with you atleast around 75 miles. I
was kidding you about, ‘‘I thought we were gonna cruise from Mt.
Pleasant to NewBoston, on hwy 67.’’ I meant about 60, maybe 65. But,
we rode man, following you.<g> heh'heh'heh' also,when passing a coupla
of local policios. They knew we were ''going'',I guess they thought oh
well-!!!!
~~~You kiddingly said, ‘‘bjay, I thought we were just
cruising’’. ''What do you call cruising,?'' <g>
~~Yes, those were some fun people to be with, and ride with. I enjoyed
finally meeting Red-Shad, and Louigee.~
regards, bjay~

 

lol... Everything's got an upside, don't it ? Even waiting around while you
got into all that "lingerie" .. made it worth watching..

hehehe.. He "smacked" the shit out of that one alright.. All I saw was a
flash of that thing when it darted across the road in front of him.. Then it
flew ass over tea kettle toward the bar ditch.. When it hit the ground, just
as I passed, I thought it was still alive, so I went back to make sure..

We lucked out on that one, alright.. hmmm.. Kinda reminds of one time when
someone hit a armadillo..

Bill Walker
Irving

 

That was a goooooood trip we had. I enjoyed every minute of it. It was good
to meet all of you and lets get together again soon and maybe we can get
some of these other folks out of there rocking chairs to go with us. Dont
forget we are going back to Mena on October 6-7-8. We will be staying up the
mountain at the lodge. I already have my reservations so if you tend on
going, you need to make your reservations ASAP as they will fill up fast.
That place looks totally different during the fall. Its amazing what you can
see when the leaves are off of the trees.

Great ride folks,
Redshad