Pj's Rides & Activities: Headed for Big Bend Day Two May 10th 2009

Headed for Big Bend Day Two May 10th 2009

I woke up in Abilene and looked out the window and it was quite cloudy but looked ok. By the time I got out of the shower it was misting outside. Philip called and said he was just outside of Fort Worth and could be here by 0930 so I got ready and the weather only got worse so I just waited for him. When he arrived we put the bike on the trailer along side his and hit the road to Alpine Texas.

Right around Roscoe the weather finally quit misting but it was still cloudy and cool. I took some shots along the way.

Some power generating windmills in the flat and I mean flat lands. Still a bit over cast.

I was kind of amazed at the red soil so I shot this one and it is starting to clear up now.

Now the sun is out and it is warming up. Here is our happy driver Philip his happy face on.

Here are some general shots as we drove along.

It was not long and we got into refinery land. In one of the shots above I tried to capture just how many pumps were all over the place and of course now we need to refine the stuff.

When we came into Big Spring Texas I noticed it had 3 water towers, one on the right the new and two on the left the middle age and then maybe the original water tower. Not sure if what I say is true but it sure did kind of look like they left the old ones up as they progressed in time.

We got to Monahans and turned south on 18. We found this rather interesting rest stop in the middle of now where. It is just north of Grand Falls Tx. To keep the vegetation alive they had a water generating wind mill that fed a tank used to feed the hoses wrapped around the different trees. The surrounding area did not have this much greenery as you will see on the last shot of the road.

Here is a shot of me in the mirror and the bike on the trailer as we head south. I just shot this for fun as I was getting bored caging it. Not to say it would have been much better on bike at this point. After awhile of desert it gets drab.

We took another stop in Grand Falls to get some ice and munchies. Philip took this shot.

Heading further south we are getting into Road Runner Country now. You will hear in the day 4 report more about road runners and how I should change my motorcycle handle to coyote.

We get into Alpine Texas and start to look for a hotel to stay in and as we drive through town we assess what accommodations and decide to first stop at this place called the Antelope Lodge. It was rated number four in the Big Bend area by Ride Texas magazine and I can see why. It was great and very inexpensive. The folks where all nice and we even had a fire at night to sit around.

Here are some shots of the lodge area.

After getting settled in we decided to head for town to check it out in more detail.

Here is town square.

Philip at the intersection.

The Ride Texas magazine also rated a place for dinner called Reata very highly so we went looking for it. It was closed on Sunday nights. We heard from others it is good as well.

So we went to another place called the Buffalo Rose. It was fantastic. Philip said it was the best white cream gravy he ever had. It was some type of 3 pepper gravy, I had a steak and it was also very good.

After eating we went back to the hotel to take a nap, clean up a bit, and put the doggie bag into the fridge. The rooms had a little kitchen area with a stove and fridge. It really was great. As I was finishing up Philip went out and shot some of these sun set shots and the Coke Distribution center logo.

Well it was now time for a little night life. We stopped at this nice little bar next door to Harry’s Tinaja (From the Castilian Spanish. Meaning vessel or tank) I found this definition on the internet now on the internet they had Castilian spelled with two L‘s and based on word spell check it should only have one. So take this for what ever it is worth. Anyway inside the place next to Harry’s had this cool sign inside.