Sunday morning breakfast ride

August 26, 2018
Sunday
Texas

Wichita Falls, Texas plays host to a few thousand cyclists on this weekend every year. The bicycle race is aptly names the Hotter 'n Hell 100. And, it was - 100+. The roads, restaurants and so on have been congested since Friday. Now, Dad managed to log about 98 miles Saturday morning before donuts but only because once he got to the last north Texas turn around point at Burkburnett he discovered the exit was blocked so he had to ride into Oklahoma and turn around to get back to Red River Harley-Davidson.

So, this morning we were ready to ride north and east without interference or detours for breakfast at one of our favorite spots - JW's in Waurika OK.

It was a leisurely, almost cool morning ride through rural north Texas and Oklahoma.

103.6 s'miles

Part of the new river bridge is done

Tim's Jethro-size breakfast at JW's

Dad rolling out of JW's

Just a few shots along our way

Seeing Dad back to his door and a stop for a visit with Mom

Saturday morning

Saturday morning RRHD donut lineup - Bobby, Dad and US

So Tim grinned and said Road Trip!

August 17, 2018
Friday
Texas

So! Every Summer/Fall we have a loose list of new restaurants or diners we'd like to ride to and eat. Making the list is sometimes as easy as a recommendation from Dad or our friends or a picture that floats by our newsfeed on social media. This year one of those places is Kendall's in Noble Oklahoma. We have been talking about it since early summer. Just look at that chicken fried steak!

Kendall's has a Facebook page and periodically has a like and share to win a dinner for two contest. Well, we recently scored a dinner for two! You should have seen the grin on Tim's face when he said - road trip! The proof is in the pudding as they say or perhaps in this case in the gravy but I suspect the Good Eats page will have a new entry soon. So - stay tuned!

Out taunting Mother Nature Again

August 12, 2018
Sunday
Texas

After a great breakfast at American Legion Post 202 we roll out for a Sunday morning ride taunting Mother Nature again. It's still cool and cloudy. The skies are a bit troubled but they have been for days so we ride out anyway taking a route south around Lake Arrowhead, then north on rural roads, just taking in the scenery and keeping an eye on the horizon.

The prickly pear cactus have put on quite a show this summer

A rare sight - Lake Arrowhead as smooth as glass this morning.

Riding under troubled skies

The payoff! About half a mile in rain!

Today's ride = 90.9 s'miles and a little rain - we'll take it!

Riding with The Man and a Car Show

August 11, 2018
Saturday
Texas

We are sitting on the patio being lazy and sipping coffee when Dad (aka the Man) calls and says he's about to roll out so yeah we hustle and roll out too for a before donuts at Red River Harley-Davidson ride. It was cool and cloudy and perfect. We've been daring Mother Nature every time we ride out to rain on us but all we're getting out of the old gal is just enough drops to mess up the shine on our rides. This morning was no exception. In case you haven't been paying attention - it is HOT and DRY in our neck of the woods. We cruise with Dad speculating which way he'll go next when we roll up on a stop sign or a junction because there's just no telling which way he will go. He's going to Waurika. He's going for ice cream. Whoa! Wasn't expecting that turn. It doesn't matter to us - we love the ride. I do think it would be fun to put a digital tracker on him for a day just to see what we've done... ha! That way he can stop accusing us of piddle-farting our way around. Tee-Hee!

We rolled in to the dealership feeling a bit spunky and ready for coffee and donuts. We visit for a while but the three of us were antsy so we roll out for a few more miles. Did I mention it is cool and cloudy? In August? In Texas?

Dad peels off a short while later but we head for gas. We consider the possibilities of the afternoon. East is out - we know it's raining in that direction. North? Nah South - Nah. Finally I say there's the car show in Vernon - West it is then, taking the slow easy, way down back roads in that general direction.

We have a vague idea of where the car show park is and we find it after one quick turnaround. We drive in stop and go traffic for a couple miles I guess and finally find the show and eventually a good spot to park the ride that isn't in a bar ditch or a sand pit. We get off and roam around through some spectacular vehicles. As we're roaming around and generally enjoying ourselves, we notice the clouds building on the horizon and we're getting HOT so we decide it's time to get on out of there before there's a mass exodus of show cars trying to avoid what looks like a storm coming in. We ride back out in the stop and go traffic looking for a burger place Dad has mentioned several times and we find it. Bevo's was packed but we scored a table pretty quick and settled in to wait 40 minutes for a burger. The burgers were everything Dad said they were! Hand-made, and tasty! Yep! Bevo's has made the ride-to-eat list. We'll be posting again soon from that location.

Look at this beauty! Our first vehicle was a red 57 Chevy just like this one.

And Dad lost a vehicle similar to this one in a 1960s tornado.

We've done a few car shows in the past. The Folks had a 64 Chevy pickup and a 1967 Chevelle that picked up a few trophies back in the 80s and 90s. More car photos in the slide show posted below.

This one has Harley-Davidson exhaust. Ha!

After burgers, we get the heck outta there and rolled in just in time for the guys to hook up and make the HOG meeting. The HOG club decided to ride to Vernon after the meeting on a supper run. They encountered the storm we left behind. But, at least they found rain!

Riding with the man = 115.4 s'miles.
Riding to the car show = 150.7 s'miles
Logging 266.1 s'miles in Texas, in August without breaking out the sunblock - awesome!
Here's a slide show of the morning ride and the car show - enjoy

Tempting rain out of Mother Nature

August 8, 2018
Wednesday
Texas

We rolled out with Dad this morning for a short tour through the countryside tempting Mother Nature to rain. Yesterday we reached the 29th day of 100+ temps. Needless to say it's a bit toasty in these parts. What we got out of the ol' gal was a few healthy spits over about a 3 mile stretch out in the country northeast of town - not even enough to do more than sizzle on the pavement. It was cooler riding under the clouds when the winds turned out of the north. We'll take near 90 instead of 105 on the thermometer anytime. Otherwise, we shared a cup of coffee with Dad in Burkburnett and wolfed down a couple of sausage biscuits.

So, reporting 49.6 s'miles under cloudy, spittin' skies.

Looking east as we rolled out.

Looking northwest at Red River Harley-Davidson

Riding north Hwy 369

Troubled skies

Just a country morning ride on roads the man has travelled more times than we can count...

Cloudy and rain-cooled - time to ride

August 2, 2018
Thursday
Texas

We had a light shower in the wee hours of the morning and a break in the temps the last couple of days. It was cloudy and cool and spitting when we rolled out to hook up with Dad who had an early appointment. It wasn't long before we were riding west. We really didn't have an agenda but Dad is leading because he knows about an interesting sight out in the boonies and how to get there. Otherwise it's just ride and enjoy with us... we're easily entertained by a flock of geese, old buildings, trucks the shadow riders and clouds.

Just US hanging loose until Dad could get loose

Geese

Just US and the Shadow Riders following him

So... the interesting sight Is something we had no idea was located anywhere near this area. The pictures aren't great but it is pretty amazing.

Lake Kickapoo Space Surveillance Station Archer City, Texas

The Lake Kickapoo Field Station, located on 180 acres of government owned land approximately thirty miles southwest of Wichita Falls, TX in Archer County is the primary Naval Space Command transmitter. It creates a fan of energy, "the fence", that is narrow in the north-south direction and extends from coast to coast over the southern United States. The Station is aligned on a great circle path inclined to the equator at approximately 33 degrees inclination. In conjunction with eight other field stations it forms the NAVSPACECOM satellite sensor system. Two small transmitters supplement the Lake Kickapoo generated "fence" and six receiver stations collect energy reflected from satellites crossing the beam. Lake Kickapoo is the largest continuous wave (CW) transmitter in the world with an average radiated power of 766.8 KW and operates at a frequency of 216.98 MHz.

The antenna is a single two mile long linear dipole array. The Station was built in two phases that resulted in halves once known as the North Site and South Site. Each had 9 antenna bays that were aligned end to end to form the full antenna array. Now the 18 bays have central control from the original South Site and 2556 dipole elements form the total antenna array.

A new phase reference system using infrared fiber optics replaced the aged RF coaxial system in May 1993. This reference system monitors and maintains phase integrity for the 2 mile long Kickapoo antenna.

Lake Kickapoo Space Surveillance Station Archer City, Texas

We are near Olney - DQ stop right around the corner

And here we are - ice cream all around!

I love old trucks

What a great ride. Cool and comfortable and interesting. We turned the rides toward home after the DQ stop. The clouds went away a few miles outside of Wichita Falls. We rode in just on the edge of HOT which is very good timing.

94.6 s'miles with Dad