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Sunday, July 29, 2018

Riding 103 at 103

July 29, 2018
Sunday
Texas

We got a late start on our ride today but ride we did. We decided to roll out a bit west and ride part of the Waggoner Ranch. This is a ride through rugged wide open territory that some might call the stereotypical Texas scape - oil tanks, pump jacks, open range cattle, sagebrush, prickly pear cactus, mesquite groves, cracked red clay ground, brown water where there is water and deep red and mostly dry creek beds and gullies.

Starting out was warm but tolerable as we had some cloud cover. About the time we committed to a long loop (Hwy 1811 West) through the ranch the day turned HOT in a hurry. So we rode in half past baked happy to have a/c and beer already in the fridge.

Somewhere out on the Waggoner Ranch or thereabouts

There's a lake out there if you squint you can see it

Not cool, clear water - hot, brown water

Looking a bit parched in these parts

Bolton's Crown Quality Wheat Express locomotive near Harrold TX

103.9 scorching s'miles at 103 degrees

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Short ride after the rain and donuts

July 28, 2018
Saturday
Texas

Just a short ride after donuts at Red River Harley-Davidson this morning. We got much needed rain in the wee hours of the morning. The air was fresh and clean on our quick tour through the countryside... but we had stuff that needed doing today so home we came.

Burkburnett is home to many interesting old buildings

Old gas station still in service

Crepe Myrtles

Wichita Falls TX

We logged 54.7 s'miles

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Wrapping up Road Trip #1 2018 Day 4

August 17, 2018
Tuesday
Texas

We were rolling out of Paris TX by about 8:30 this morning. It was already hot and it was time to get on home. We took business 82 through the town and got a ride-by look at some impressive architecture which will bear further inspection later on. Paris is an easy day ride from the home-front.


A few miles out of Paris is the small community of Honey Grove which I didn't take photos of and the place bears no significance to me except Dad tells a story about going there back in the early 1950s. It seems a riding buddy of his back in their Kickapoo Kowboy MC days repeatedly disappeared especially on the weekends. As it turns out Charlie had a new honey in Honey Grove. So, one weekend Dad and several riding buddies made it their business to "surprise" Charlie at his new honey's place. It's just an amusing bit of motorcycle mischief among many Dad shares from time-to-time.

We stopped for gas In Lindsay just outside of Gainesville Texas (Medal of Honor Host City) but did not tarry long. The day was heating up quick.

Next stop was a major distraction that compels one to stop in Muenster, TX. Muenster is a small German community that hosts a wonderful Germanfest every year. The must stop is Bayer's Bakery located in a small convenience store on the south side of Hwy 82 not far from downtown. I could go on and on about it but just trust me - it's good food whether you're looking for breakfast or lunch or pastry. Today we had coffee and fried peach pies. YUM!

Fried Peach Pies - Bayer's Bakery - Muenster TX

Muenster TX

We passed a few cyclists powering up a hill near Nocona in what was triple digit heat... we smiled (okay laughed) and waved as we rode by.

Historic Nocona Boot Factory

This is the Wichita Falls TX Skyline as we rode into town. We made it to our drive just before noon and temps were already at 111!

Today's ride = 179.6 sizzling s'miles!

Total for Road Trip #1 = 1255.3 s'miles

This quick trip was a venture into mostly unfamiliar territory. East Texas and West Louisiana for the most part is a step away from urban living and urban thinking. Our impression of rural Louisiana and Texas is this: it's a laid-back country of corn fields and cotton fields and churches - lots of churches. It's friendliness and hospitality. People who work - work hard. It's history on every corner and lurking in every decrepit building- the kind of history politicians and revisionist weirdos cannot erase. It's green and lush and mysterious... and I suspect just a wee bit dangerous. We loved it and we will go back for more.

Monday, July 16, 2018

Road Trip #1 Day 3 Natchitoches and a Long Hot Ride

July 16, 2018
Monday
Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas

Today we woke up in lovely Natchitoches (nack-a-dish) Louisiana which, I didn't know until today is the name of an Indian tribe. And today, we played tourist for a while before riding out on what turned out to be a longer ride than we planned. That happens sometimes. No big deal. Road trips are about the ride. Right?

I don't know what time it was that we cleared out of our motel. We are not very good clock watchers I guess. We rolled into downtown Natchitoches looking for breakfast or at least a morning snack. It looked like most of the gotcha shops would not open until 10 am if at all. Again, no big deal as I'm not much a doo-dad shopper. We were looking at architecture a bit off the main drag when we spotted a tiny café specializing in meat pies we had read about with a Veterans Park tucked in beside it. We visited the Veterans Park first which was beautiful with a fountain (not operating at the time we were there) and plaques bearing veterans names and scattered throughout the cozy area were personalized memorial benches bearing the name, rank, conflict and branch of service for the veteran. Very nice!

Eventually we wandered into Lasyone's Meat Pie Kitchen. We pronounce it Lazy Ones. We had read about this establishment in a tourist magazine somewhere so we thought it was lucky we found it with so little effort. Tim ordered up a meat pie, grits and eggs. I was happy with French toast and eggs. The coffee was excellent. It's a cozy establishment and the service was fast and friendly. We had to get out of there quick or start paying rent because they were bringing out pies and pastries that looked tasty!

Strolling the streets of Natchitoches - amazing architecture

Veterans Memorial Park

Tucked away in between buildings downtown Natchitoches

The park was lovely

Personalized memorial benches were awesome pieces of work

Lasyone's Meat Pie Kitchen

Tim is a happy camper - meat pie, grits and eggs

After breakfast we strolled the streets and along the waters edge of Cane River Lake which is directly across from the stores and shops that line the main drag. Across the way are homes and boat houses built along the waterway. Actually the lake/river runs throughout the town in about a 32 mile stretch. It began as the Red River itself. Early navigation above Natchitoches, was impeded by a 160-mile log jam known as the Great Raft. In the 1830s Henry Miller Shreve created the first snag boats to clear the Raft. Soon after the raft was cleared, the fickle river began to change the course of it’s main channel. Dams were built which separated the new channel from the Red River. The delightful result is Cane River Lake.

The Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

First Mass in Natchitoches 1716

The walk along the street or the lake in this area is amazing. We strolled from one end to the other remarking at the lush foiliage and the gigantic trees and bright flowers. A creole house was dismantled and rebuilt here. It is called Roque House circa 1797. We stopped at the Visitor's Center and inquired about the Creole Plantations in the area. Part of the loop to the plantations was under construction but we rode out for a glimpse of one of them a bit later. Like I said, the architecture and wealth of historical buildings and places in Natchitoches alone is amazing. We realized what we could see in what was left of the morning would be minimal. So we will return with more time for certain.

Just one of many oak trees in the area

Roque House circa 1790s

Roque House Historical Marker

The Steel Magnolia House - the family upon which the story/movie is based are from Natchitoches. The movie, Steel Magnolias is based upon a stage play by American writer Robert Harling, based on his experience with his sister's death.

We rode out eventually to see at least one of the plantations. The one we happened upon is Oakland Plantation on the Cane River National Heritage Trail. It was built by J.P.E. Prudhomme on a tract of land granted to him by the Spanish government in 1789. It is still owned by the Prudhomme family and part of it is still farmed today. Considering it was a ride-by, we got a pretty good look at the main house and 20 some odd out buildings including the plantation store. Cotton and corn fields and huge trees lined our route and knowing the river's proximity it's easy to get a feel or at least imagine how it all might have looked back when plantations flourished throughout the south.

Oakland Plantation House (stock photo)

It was time to ride out after we circled back to Natchitoches from the plantation loop. We passed lush cotton fields and corn fields and met a good many logging trucks. We rode a bit further east on Hwy 84 through the Kisatchie National Forest to the town of Winnfield where we picked up Hwy 167 and started travelling north. The day was warming up quickly and the heat wave we knew was coming felt like it had officially arrived. We rode by small villages, logging operations, rivers, bayous and lakes. As with most of the roads in Louisiana and for that matter southern Arkansas, the road was nice enough but rough. A trucker friend of ours told us about the roads, saying they are rough because they are built on unstable ground. He was right.

Logging

Gigantic sawmill

We continued north across the Arkansas border on Hwy 167/83 to the town of El Dorado, Arkansas. We thought this might be our home for the night but Tim did not like the town at all. Too much traffic. Too many people. Too hot. We did not make it to downtown but it was not the best time of day for ride-by tourism. Okay says I - roll on. We did stop for a cold soft drink before leaving El Dorado.

The best Magnolia, Arkansas (the next town west) had to offer was a downtown full of murals and few motels so we rolled on toward Texarkana. We arrived in Texarkana at rush hour or thereabouts. We found ourselves traveling in heavy traffic on I30 heading toward Dallas. Yikes! A few miles out of town we maneuvered our way north again on a country road to Hwy 82 near New Boston and started traveling west. We stopped for gas in Clarkesville with a thunderstorm threatening but other than a hot wind we got nothing out of it. The last pic of the day was taken in little ol' Blossom TX. We knew it was a longshot to find a place to stay in the small east Texas towns along Highway 82 so it was no surprise to us that we were in Paris TX before we found decent accommodations. Paris was our home for the night and a ho-hum steakhouse next to our motel was where we found sustenance.

Today's ride was 406.3 s'miles.

Slide show of Natchitoches Stroll and Ride-By of Oakland Plantation


Slide show of ride from Natchitoches LA to Paris TX by way of AR


Sunday, July 15, 2018

Road Trip #1 Day 2 The Road to Natchitoches LA

July 15, 2018
Sunday
Texas/Louisiana

After a restful overnight stay and a small continental breakfast at our motel we rode out of Nacogdoches before 9 am.

We were in no hurry. Our objective for the day was to ride the east side of Toledo Bend Lake and ramble our way to Natchitoches (nack-a-dish) Louisiana. We calculated that to be an easy couple hundred miles give or take a few. We took a swing through downtown Nacogdoches before hitting the road.

Downtown Nacogdoches

Fredonia Hotel - Downtown Nacogdoches

Our route was Hwy 59 to Logansport, Louisiana which sits at the north end of Toledo Bend Lake. This was a nice ride through a couple small east Texas towns. When we arrived in Logansport we circled around looking for a mid-morning snack and we found a DQ aka Dairy Queen so this was our first stop of the day. This was a very clean DQ, the manager was friendly, the service quick and the music (1950s-1960s pop) fun. We heard songs we haven't heard in ages.

Mid-morning DQ snack (making Dad proud) or if we were Hobbits and sometimes we are - second breakfast.


Alright. Let's ride Toledo Bend. This was one of the objectives of riding east. Tim camped here with family as a child but does not remember much about the experience except that a couple of old Cajuns (a child's impression) approached the people in their campground by boat and asked them all to a huge fish fry and the only requirement was to bring a dish of something. He said it was the highlight of the trip.

Toledo Bend, conceived in the 1940s by Texas and Louisiana river authorities was completed in the 1960s. It is the largest man-made body of water in the South, and the fifth largest in surface acres in the United States. From the dam site, the reservoir extends 65 miles and covers an area up to 185,000 acres. We began our journey on what we will call scenic Hwy 191. This lake road was lined with trees with only a glimpse now and then of the lake itself. We went in North Toledo Bend State Park thinking we would see more but while the drive in and out was great it afforded little more view of the lake than the road.

Our first good glimpse of Toledo Bend from Hwy 191

The Ride - North Toledo Bend State Park

Just US - North Toledo Bend State Park

A view of the lake from a dock - North Toledo Bend State Park

As we traveled on we went through the community of Zwolle (Zoe-la or Zole). We happened upon a couple of other spots with a better view of the enormous lake and of cypress trees both in and out of the water.



We rode past a Veterans Memorial before we realized it so we turned around and went back. This Veterans Memorial was located right on the road in front of a DAV Post. Plaques bore the names of local Veterans. Situated side-by-side were a tank and a helicopter (Bell AH-1 Huey Cobra).

Tim checking out the Huey.

The plaque with the Huey - Service date 1965-1967

The road rambled on giving intermittent views of the lake, bayous and landscapes we haven't seen the like of before. We reached the dam and made a short jaunt into Texas on roads that looped back into Leesville, LA. By that time we were ready to make our home for the night so we hustled up scenic highway #171 to Many and carried Hwy 6 (part of the original El Camino Real or in this neck of the woods the Old San Antonio Road) into Natchitoches. Part of Hwy 171 near Leesville I believe is designated as Purple Heart Highway and was lined with American Fags for a good long ways. Salute!

Flags along Purple Heart Hwy 171 Louisiana

Bridge over the Sabine River

We saw several signs on this trip indicating a new Interstate I69 is coming.

Finally arriving in Natchitoches (pronounced nack-a-dish) we found our hotel. Once again, just as we parked the ride we had a rain shower. The restaurant touted as one of the town's best sitting on the edge of Sibley Lake and within walking distance of our motel closes at 3 pm on Sunday evenings. Oh well! We cleaned up and let the ride take us to lovely downtown Natchitoches where we found Maglieaux's River Front Restaurant. We had a table on the deck overlooking Cane Lake. Eggplant Parmesan was on the menu and it was delicious! We enjoyed the setting at our leisure and then moseyed back to our home for the night. Tomorrow we play tourist for a while I think and then find our way home in a day or two.

Maglieaux's River Front Restaurant

Sometimes we almost look normal - ha!

Today's Ride = 234.5 s'miles

Two slide shows with music follow. The first is the ride out of Nacogdoches TX and Hwy 191 travelling the length of Toledo Bend on the east side in Louisiana. The second is the road (scenic Hwy 171 and Hwy 6) to Natchitoches LA. Enjoy!