The Wacky Adventures of Patrick

[Patrick]

Ride 022408

The weather guys were way off their mark today. It was supposed to be balmy today with temps in the upper 60’s lower 70’s and guess what, I am not sure what it got up to but if it even got near 65 I would say that was high. As usual we got started later then planned but that is ok since who watches time anyway on a ride. We met a few new riders today, we met 96 softail who hails from the Rally Up Texas web site and Stan and “The Crazy German” from Kelly and his bunch. Paul (CLG) was adjusting his valves today and just could not get them done in time for us to wait. The plan was to meet at the American Legion Post 379 at 1230 PM, and because of Val we did not get there until about 1245. When Val and I showed up we met a guy named Steve who is with another post riders group so we asked if he wanted to join us. He had other things to do today so he declined. He seemed like a great guy. Well when the bar tender asked if we wanted to start a tab I went for my wallet and I did not have it. So a lady we know named Pat bought our round and I took off for home to get my wallet. Sure enough on the way home I passed John and Anna headed for the post. I signaled I would be back in a minute and headed home to get my wallet and money. I got back to the post finished my beer and we started getting ready to ride. Here is Val, Jim, John, and Anna ready to ride.



We started off late and 96 softail and I had exchanged some email where I told him we would be at Little Pete’s between 145 and 2PM. I at this point know we are running late and though I wanted to stop and take some pictures along the way I decide to keep heading directly towards Little Pete’s on Lake Grapevine. When we get to Little Pete’s I pull up next to this guy and ask if I can share his parking spot, he says yes, and when I shut off my bike I look at his seat and it says Softail so I look up at him taking my helmet off and ask “are you softail” he says yes so we do the hand shake and introductions. He has a sweet bike. Here is a picture with Anna, Val, and softail (Bobby) and his bike.



Outside of Little Pete’s is Anna, John, and Jim.



After the meet and greet we all head in for some lunch. Man it was like ole home day, we ran across a lot of folks we know from the lake. It was great seeing them all. Here we are at the table. Around the horse shoe left to right is, Val, Bobby, Jim, Anna, John.



After some fairly good food, my burger was great, just the way I ordered it (medium rare) and big we decide to head towards Lake Lewisville Sneaky Pete’s. Here we are in the parking lot of Sneaky Pete’s. Left to right is Bobby, Jim, John, Val, and Anna.



Here is just a shot of the Marina from the parking lot.



We head inside and first of all find that the bike parking is right in front of the door. Had we known that we would have parked there, but we would have taken most of the open spots anyway and I would not have been able to get the last shot so all things happen for a reason. Next time I will park there however if there is any spots left as it is not very large.

As we walk in Val and Anna notice someplace to go shopping so off they go, I notice a bunch of mini TV’s with Direct TV boxes and start looking at all the cool electronics. One of the guys who works there shows up and I ask about the race and he tells me no problem and would I like it on the big screen. I say heck yes and walla he sets it up but to my dismay it is raining at the track. We then decide to get a table near the TV and have a beer and shoot the s**t. Val grabs the camera and takes a shot of me, Bobby,
Anna, Jim, and John.



Now in retrospect should have shot more pictures inside the place as it has several fish tanks and a gas fire place with a fire going. In one of the tanks is a large fish that I and Bobby thought might be some kind of off breed Oscar but when we ask one of the guys working there he goes and finds out that is what he calls a “Red Devil” which apparently changes colors. I have not heard of such a fish and someday I may look that up.

Anyway I decide to walk outside on the patio with the camera and take some shots.

Here is a shot of the pools they have and what looks like an outside bar in the back ground.



Here is another shot of a boat and some other scenic stuff.



Val grabs the camera and her and Anna take off for the patio as well. Here is a shot Val took of Anna next to some other out door bar.



Anna then takes a shot of Val at the same place.



We, John, Anna, Jim, Val, and myself decide it is time to head back home and Bobby says he wanted to ride around the North side of the lake for awhile, he lives fairly close to this area, so we all say good by to Bobby and 5 of us head south while Bobby heads North.

Jim leaves us at Airport Way and Glade and then John and Anna leave us at Harwood and 157 so Val and I decide to head to Dukes as Philip called earlier and said he and Paul would be there. Well much to my surprise as Val and I are getting off our bike up pulls Kelly and his bunch. Here is a shot of them parking there bikes.



I ask Kelly, Melanie, and Val to turn around and smile and this is what I get.



We meet Stan and “Crazy German” and they both a great guys. Anyway here is a shot of all of us inside of Dukes. Left to right is Val, Steve (Hoffie), The Crazy German , Stan, Melanie, and Kelly.



Later Philip showed up followed by Anna. Then all but Anna, Val, and I left so we finished up our drinks and also headed home. It was a great day, great riding, great folks, and a lot of fun.

[Patrick]

Lunch Ride 022508

I had to go out to pick a couple of things up today so since working from I decided to wait until lunch to do it. I went to COSCO and then back towards my home. On the way back I was going down Mid Cities BLVD and saw this road that had a sign “no dumping”. Now I do not know about you but that usually means a dead end or some type of out in the middle of no where kind of road even if they are within City Limits. So as I pass it I get to thinking and decide to turn back to see where it goes. As it turns out it is a park where the road kind of goes like a horse shoe in that you go in at one point and get back to Mid Cities BLVD at another point. So I stop to take a look and a few pictures. The parking kind of sucks as the only real place to park is on a gravel area that might support 4 or 5 cars and the little spot on the side of the road I found.

So I grab the camera and head off to see what I find. I notice a walk way bridge so I head over to it and take a shot.



As I get closer I notice it is over a creek so before I get to the bridge I take a shot of the creek. As I am about to post this picture I notice the red cord of some type. I did not see it out there. Wonder what this is.



I am now on the bridge and decide to shoot through the guard rail at the bike.



I then decide to zoom in on the bike from the same place.


Here is a shot of the creek from the bridge.


Here is a shot of the bridge from the other side.


Here is the view from the other side of the bridge. Looks like a party pavilion.



Well I decide I need to start heading back so I cross the bridge again and get a wide shot of the road side of the park.


A very nice lunch time experience. See you all later.

[Patrick]

Cruise Day 1 Feb 27th 2008

Did you ever have a plan in place for a no later then X time we will leave and you blow right by it. Well today was just like that. We woke up late, I at 745AM and Val at 845AM and we have a boat load of stuff to do to get ready. I realized my Van inspection was going to expire at the end of February and we would not get off the boat until March 2nd so I had to get that done. I then noticed that I needed to get the oil changed, so I had to go to two different places, (the first could not due the oil change right there and then) the second place found my air filter was filthy so I had another delay while they got one. So to keep a long story short we did not hit the road to Galveston until 2:06 PM.

The weather was fantastic for driving and traffic was not too bad starting off, we will get to the end of the drive later. We too John’s advise and took 360 south to 287 west to 45 south. I believe it worked out better and faster then taking 183 or 20 or 30 to 45 South. 287 has some stop lights and stuff to deal with but over all it is an easier ride. Since we left so late we did not diddle daddle much, stopped only twice and only took pictures at one stop. We plan to stop at the second stop (Centerville – Woody’s) on the way back home since they have jams, jerky, and other cool snacks and such. I will have pictures on the return trip.

Anyway the first stop was Alma. It was a rustic area and looks like it is kind of falling apart. Here is a shot of the gas station across the street. Notice no sign, must have got blown out and they never fixed it.



I walked around to the back of the gas station and found suburbia USA. Quiet place with a train track running through the neighborhood.



Here is a shot of Val in the Van, notice the old building in the back ground.



The gas station we decided to use did have a sign so to remember the stop I shot the sign. Notice the gas price, ouch.



So off we go headed to Galveston. Like I mentioned above we did stop at place called Woody’s in Centerville TX. This is where Val decided she was done driving so I took over. All was going fairly good until we got near Houston and the traffic went belly up. I mean I have been in that town before and I knew the traffic would be bad and I am I glad I was prepared for it. We did that the 610 loop which though may have helped it was still bad. The last 37 miles were the biggest pain. I mean stop and go and very slow. I did go 180 miles in 2 hours and 56 minutes which means I made great time before hitting Houston.

All in all the trip was 328 miles and it took 5 hours 38 minutes.

Here is Val looking for something in the Van.


Here she is with that something, sure enough it just had to be shoes.


The Comfort Inn at 102 Seawall Blvd was ok. We paid about $93 bucks including tax and the water was hot, no hot tub, the ceiling had some damage, but it was clean and no bugs. We have learned via TV to check for bed bugs. I will see how the breakfeast is tomorrow and post that later. Well it is now 9:53 PM and I am tired so time to hit the hey. Good night.

[Patrick]

Galveston February 27 2008 from the street

This is part of our Cruise vacation to Cozumel but I wanted to keep this separate from any posting I might do of the actual Cruise as my intent is to make this more biker specific. First of all we stayed at the Comfort INN and Suites on Seawall Street.

Cost $93

Pros:
On the Bay
Looks like a safe location
Clean Rooms
Friendly Staff
AC/Heat worked well (did not need to get up in the middle of the night to make adjustments)
Has WFI
Work out room
Possible beach in walking distance (It looked like a beach from the hotel)
Seawall Street looks like it would be a cool ride.

Cons:
Room a bit in dis-repair (ceiling in corner needed new plaster board) – (bathroom Ceramic floor cracked (could be because of hurricane a short time ago)
Continental Breakfast smaller then most Comfort Inn’s
No Hot tub that we could find

I know there are better hotels for less money as my wife and I stayed at a Red Roof Inn once that was cheap but very good. I would in the future look for another hotel walking distance from more eateries if I could find it. When I was searching for rooms on the internet I found a lot of the hotels near capacity so I bet in a prime time season they are booked.

From a bikers point of view however, the road that one would have to cross to get to the water might be a nice ride.

Here are some shots of the hotel.

This shot is an area you could use as a work area and still see the TV, I am sitting on a hide a bed if you have a third person. The work table is small and you could not view the TV.


Here is one of the pool.


Here is a couple of a large fish tank they had separating the check in counter from the breakfast area.



Here are some early morning shots across the street from the hotel. This one before the sun came up shot from across the street.


I went ahead and crossed the street and shot these next few.




This one from the hotel room window.


In “Old Galveston” this is the Henry Rosenberg monument.

A shot of the plaque on the monument.

I think based on this, the monument of Henry and a few more pictures I am about to upload are all part of what they call “Monument Square”.

Here is a house on the square, which is now a conference center. We were told that there were many such houses all through this area but in the name of modernizing they tore a great deal of them down.


Here is the dedication plaque for the conference center.

Down the street a short while is the Ashton Villa where they have a vistor’s center. We went in and got an ear full. If we would have been here on bike and did not have a boat to catch we could have spent a great deal of time going to all of the historical sites.

Here is a garden area right next to the villa.


Now as far as biking in “Old Galveston” goes two major points of caution.

1. Through many of the streets are rail road tracks that run parallel in the middle of the street which could be very hazardous.
2. They tend to run stop signs down there and they often almost pulled out in front of us and we had a mini van. I would be worried if we had a small car or where on our quiet bike.
3. AVOID Houston at ALL COSTS!! It is a nut race down there.

The above points would not stop me from going back there which I plan to do but just be careful.

[Patrick]

Yes and yet more snow

Well we had a great day yesterday and now once again the snow returns. I hope this holds true to the in like a Lion out like a Lamb. Anyway here are some shots I took, and BTW, why does my wife have issue with the first picture.



She would have had to hang the snow flag.







Here is what he had the day we returned from out trip on Monday and then Wednesday it was mid 60’s again. The pictures above are today Thursday.







Now the white on the tree is buds but the white on the ground is snow. Only in Texas.

[Patrick]

Galveston From on top of the boat


Here are some shots of Galveston from the boat. Check out the sail boat.





Shots of Galveston from way on top of boat.





From side of the boat to the aft.



Back of the boat.



This is the Oil Rig Museum.

[Patrick]

Little Ride March 9th

Black Wolf from Rally Up Texas had mentioned this morning to meet at Little Pete’s for lunch. Well by the time I got my happy butt up and going it was nearly 130PM and Paul had a problem with his Oil Cooler and needed to work on it. So I pointed north and headed for Grapevine. I was supposed to call him, but when I ride a lone I often just stray and end up who knows where. But in this case I made it up to Little Pete’s and had a beer. I called BW (BlackWolf) and got no answer so I figured he was either on his way up or on his way back.

Here is a shot of the back deck area where you can be outside but covered.



After my beer and decided to take a shot of the front of Little Pete’s as we plan a meet and greet up there from RUP (Rally Up Texas).



On the way out of the park I decided to take a right instead a left at the entry shack. (like I said when I ride alone I often detour) So I found a little shore line. Here are some shots.

To the left.



To the left wider angle



Then I saw a little sail boat.



Now to the right.



Now to the rear back to the bike. Got da have a shot of the bike.


I figured since the first time I pulled up and found this entry shack to get to Little Pete’s I kind of wondered if I had to pay to go to Little Pete’s but if you even need to talk to someone just tell them where your headed and they will open the gate. Lately most of the time they just open it, at least for bikers anyway. So here is a shot of the entry shack with the bike. It is at this point that BW calls and lets me know we missed each other, “I should have called since it was not by much” I think it was by minutes that we missed each other. I even think I might have seen him on 2499 heading south.



Here is one without the bike.



So anyway I am trying to decide whether I head west or south. I look at the sky and decide to head south near home and it turns out that I really did not need to but I am glad I didn’t. I pull into Dukes to find a whole bunch of bikers and as it turns out they are from a bar called Mr Bs in Mansfield. They turn out to be one great bunch. Very friendly and they do not care what your ride though I noticed that about 90 plus percent where Harleys. But they had a bunch that was very diversified in Race, and biker types and groups. They had Booze Fighters and American Legion Riders. They all were very friendly. I met Mrs Bs and she gave me their web site which I will post someplace on TMW and RUP once I make sure it is content cool. Anyway here are a couple shots of them leaving.



Here is two cool bikes I hope the picture does them justice.



While at Dukes I decide to call Philip and he says he would be over soon, but just as I am leaving Paul and him pull up. I tell them I wanted to go to Marina’s to finish watching the Nascar Race on the big screen TV they have. They agree so off we go and here is a shot of the front, notice the sign states Nascar.



Here is one a little closer of just Philip and Paul. We watched the rest of the boring race and I will not even mention who won, but I will say Tony Stewart and Dale Jr. came in 2nd and 3rd.

[Patrick]

Ride Friday March 14th 2008

Wow what a fantastic day for a ride. Jim took today off while Courtney and I took a half day off to do today’s ride. It was Val’s idea several days ago, as she said, “gee dear the weather looks like it is going to be great Friday so why don’t we go for a ride”. Well hell ya, I am up for that! So I set up a ride plan on RUT (Rally Up Texas) to meet at Duke’s in Bedford and sure enough a few folks along with a new user to RUT shows up.

Left to right is Jim, John (Mr Rock & Roll), Willy (Two Bulls), Val, Anna, and Courtney. Willy introduced himself and said he saw our plan on RUT so we all sat down for a short lunch until it was time for the bill. It took the waitress 15 minutes just to get the paying the tab part done.



We decide as stated in the ride plan posted on RUT to stop at Chilies in Roanoke. On the way there Courtney pulls along side of me and tells me she needs to stop at the house and she will meet us at Chilies. I tell her ok and we split up for a short time. We take Central which turns into a couple of different names all the way up to 114 then 114 into Roanoke to Chilies. The plan was to decide where to go from here, north of Lake Grapevine or Eagle Mountain lake. We pull the maps out and decide Eagle Mountain Lake.

We get there and it is clear that Val is talking with someone about something.



Ah it turns out Val is asking questions about Willy’s Yamaha. The pipes on that thing are great sounding and the bike is just a beauty.



Here is a shot of the ladies foreground to back ground is Courtney, Anna, and Val.



Here is a shot of the gents left to right, Willy, John, and Jim still at Chilies.


Well as the picture above shows Courtney did show back up and we took off down 114 West headed down 156 South to Avondale-Haslet Road and I was looking at my fuel gage and my miles and I saw a Shell station at the 287 Avondale-Haslet road intersection and decided to top her off. I am glad I did as the whole ride was about 110 miles for the day which would have pushed me to the close limits. No one else had to fill up. We talked about (I thought) about taking 287 south to E. Peden Road. Well I turn off to head south on 287 with Anna following but Willy and everyone else keeps going to the service road. Well after Anna and I turn around we meet back up with the group and carry on. We come to the end of E. Peden Road and we can either turn south or north. Willy states that if we head south we would be headed back to town (northern Fort Worth – Lake Worth), we decide to head north. He knows of a few watering holes on the West side of the lake and none of us are sure what we will find on the East or North side of the lake. I believe the road we are on now is 1220. As we go along Willy notices a sign for a Marina and slows down but not slow enough to make the turn so we pull over and he asks if we want to check it out. We say why not and turn around. The road getting there was pretty cool and we pull up and park.



We noticed a building that says Hamburgers and such open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So Willy, Jim, and Val head down that way just to find out it is closed and from the looks in side it has been that way all Winter at least.



I walk down a little past the building and take a shot of the small boat ramp. Not a whole lot going on. In fact these two girls in Swim suits were looking for something to drink and eat also but nothing was open or going on.


Willy notices a map of the lake on a poster board by another building so we decide to see if it can tell us anything. As it turns out it was a picture of the lake but no geographical markings at all.

I take another shot of left to right, Jim, Val, Anna, and Willy next to the poster board.



It does not take us long to figure it is time to hit the road and head further north. Well as we are going I see this cool looking bridge area with a guy fishing from the bridge and then I see the building with a sign out front saying Motor Cycle Friendly. Willy also saw it and he was up in front with Jim and asked Jim if he was thirsty and Jim said yes but not sure about the rest of the group so one of them gave the U-turn signal (we got that one down) so I turned around and Val did not see what was going on so she was like “what the heck are you doing” as we were in the rear and the rest of the group was still riding north but at a much slower speed which she could not see at first. So we pull into the parking lot of the Motor Cycle Friendly place and start looking around.

Here is Anna and John getting off their bikes, they took a bit longer to get turned around. You can barely see the guy fishing from the bridge I mentioned above. Do not start playing Deliverance.



Here is one with all of the bikes. Oh, and notice Courtney is not with us. Well her birthday is Saint Patrick’s day so her kids call her and tell her they plan to take her to dinner so she decides to leave us at the little vacant marina I mentioned above.


We all go inside and what a cool place and nice surprise. Am I glad we stopped. The couple of folks including the bar tender were very nice, the beer was cold and cheap and they had home made free pulled pork BBQ sandwiches. We mentioned that one of the reasons we stopped was the Biker Friendly sign and she said she put it up yesterday and was now glad she did. Here is shot of John and Anna out front. Notice the name of the place as I highly recommend you stop there (Indian Creek Camp).


After my beer I decide to take a walk around to take some pictures. Here is one from the front of the place. If you can read the sign you might get a kick out of it.



I walk across the road and take a shot from the other side of the bridge.


While across the road I think the guy fishing from the bridge is talking to me so I say what and he says Croppy or Sandy and I am a bit confused so I walk back over the road and look down to see that he was really talking to a women who just caught a fairly good sized Croppy. Anyway while there I shoot another shot.



I then decide to take a wider angle shot of the front of the place.


Well we really have a good time at the place but it is time to head down the road. So we take off north again go through Newark and head West on 114 to 730 South. We are now on the West side of the lake and headed south. Once again Willie finds another watering hole to stop at and man was this place friendly. The older cliental were extremely friendly. Here is a couple of shots from the outside. We are all dressed a little lighter now.



Here is one with Val in front with the name of the place. “Out on a Limb”



Well after a short beer it is time to go. We ask the folks inside for directions to some place Anna once was and after a whole lot of discussion with that patrons and a call to Debbie a friend of all of ours we head south which very little additional information. We do see the real fancy place that Anna was talking about but decide to keep riding for a place more our financial desires. So we run across this quant little place on the lake that Bob and Tina took me and Val to once before. Me and Willie decide to park in front of the place what looks like the walk way to the entrance and someone walks out so I ask if it is ok to park here, and he says heck yes they “bikers” do it all the time. Just about a foot or so from the end of our bikes it a boat ramp, I would not recommend parking there in the summer when folks are trying to get their boats out of the water after a long day in the sun on the boat.



Everyone else parks up in the gravel type parking lot.



We go inside and get some refreshments and decide to sit outside on the patio over looking the water. Here is Val and Willie. Notice the boats in the back ground with mini grandstand like sitting or I guess reversed picnic tables.



Once again I walk around and take a few shots. Here is one looking at the actual dam out takes.



Here is one of a little, I am not sure what to call it. It was confusing in person as well. It kind of looks like a yard that was converted into a mini bar.



Here is a shot pointed in the other direction.



Here is one of the gas dock.



Well once again it is getting later in the day and the sun is going down so now these three are facing right into the sun.



Well here is the last one for today. You notice Willy missing he had to leave and here’s to you Willy, we all really enjoyed meeting and riding with you. Thanks for the great time.



The rest of us pay up and hit the road. I led us home and we ended up going down a different path and had to go into a do not enter zone to get on the south bound side of 199 but everyone followed. We did not want to take 199 to 820 but we just kept on riding and as it turned out for the first time since I lived in this area 820 was not that big of a mess. Jim turned off as we got closer to the Mid Cities area then Val and I got off at Central and I think so did Anna and John but they head north. Val and I stopped a Dukes and we ran across some guys I met last summer and they invited us over. So we have one with them and decided after 8.5 hours of riding and fun it was time to go home. It was really a nice day and we had a great time. I took a little nap when I got home so that is why I am writing this at 1 o’clock in the morning. Have a good day folks.


PJ

[Patrick]

Oh, and I just had to throw this one in. Here is Paul riding "b...h' on the back of Philip's bike.



The reason, well I just bought a 1993 1400 Intruder for 1K and Paul and Philip helped out. So this really is not very fair of me to expose them lke this but what the heck.

Pj

[Patrick]

Here is a shot of the bike I bought for Val and she does not like it so Paul bought if off of me.


Pj