Continued. . .
My photos from The Shed and the ride home
[video=vimeo;46888726]https://vimeo.com/46888726[/video]
Robin Washburn’s Video slideshow – large download, monitor size, 1024x768, 74Mb:
http://www.rwashburn.com/pie_run_july_2012/BIG_TWT-PieRun-July28-2012.wmv
or Small download, postage-stamp size, 320x240 - 16Mb:
http://www.rwashburn.com/pie_run_july_2012/SML_TWT-PieRun-July28-2012.wmv
Well we had told all the stories we had so it was time to head back south and get a few more stories for next month. . .
As I stated before, Dave left our group in Edom to head to Purtis Creek State Park located between Edom and Gun Barrel City
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/purtis-creek so our group was now five bikes headed south. With the temperatures a little on the warm side we decided we would make a few stops along the way to rehydrate, unhydrate and cool off a bit while catching up on what each other had been doing and what our plans are for the next pie run.
Our first stop was just a few miles down the road at the Henderson County Courthouse in Athens, Texas.
Since Athens was just a hop, skip and jump southwest of Edom we decided we would have our next break in another 30 or 40 miles which would be Palestine, Texas. We are starting to sound like world travelers with stops in Athens and Palestine (PAL UH STEEN).
As we were passing thru Palestine I noticed Mike and Debbie had moved over into the left turn lane and stopped, looking back over their shoulders. Well I thought I must have missed a café or something and Ed and Tony F had turned in there so I doubled back just as Mike was heading back up the road so I followed him and saw Tony F heading in the same direction turning into a parking lot where Ed was. Now I was curious because there was no business near where Ed was sitting and it looked by his actions like he didn’t have a flat tire or other mechanical issues. As I pulled up beside him he had just grabbed a Red Wasp that had flown up his jacket sleeve. Once the wasp was dispatched we continued on in our search for some place to stop for our break. A town the size of Palestine has got to have 4 or 3 Dairy Queens but I couldn’t locate one. Dairy Queens are great places to stop for a coke (in the South all soft drinks, sodas, pop’s or whatever they are called in your area, are called cokes), Dilly Bar
,
ice cream cone or sundae. I didn’t find a Dairy Queen but did see a Whataburger so I pointed our group there. As we were getting off the bikes I told the others I was looking for a Dairy Queen, there had to be several in Palestine but Whataburger would have to do.
While we were sitting there enjoying our cool drinks Dave texted Debbie, said he had decided to not campout. The night before his dog had scratched his good eye and it was starting to bother him. Dave said he had thought the scratch was external to the eye but now it was feeling like some of the eyeball had also been injured. A second text came in that he had called his wife and told her to be ready to take him to the urgent care clinic or the hospital’s emergency room when he made it home and was asking where we were. After informing him of our location we heard he was further down the road and didn’t feel it was in his best interest to turn around and join up with us or wait on us to catch up with him. I haven’t heard anything to the contrary so I hope he made it home ok and there was nothing seriously wrong with his eye.
As we hit the road and moved about half a block to the first stop light, Debbie pulled up beside me and pointed down the road. About a block from where we stopped at the Whataburger sat a Dairy Queen. Remember what I said earlier about Debbie not pointing out my mistakes? Well I take it back. Our route from Palestine will take us to the farm roads outside of Oakwood at Debbie’s suggestion. These are some fun roads and I’m looking forward to running them again, too bad the GoPro battery had died as we were loading up to leave Edom. Oh well, zoom in on the return map around Oakwood and follow our route in the road level view. Well somehow I missed the cut off to FM 1511 and my planned route south of Oakwood. I guess I was in the zone, yeah that’s it, I was in the zone and enjoying the road. Well to my defense, I’ve never run the road in this direction; I’ve always been head to Oakwood instead of leaving Oakwood on these roads. Well it wasn’t long before I realized something wasn’t right with the road, I was seeing some scenery I had not seen before but I knew where we were headed so I kept pushing ahead and would pick up my planned route to the east of Centerville. Remember I said there were roads we wouldn’t see if I didn’t make a wrong turn? Well there are roads we would never see if I did take a turn I was supposed to, so onward to our new adventure. So we head east of Centerville and pick up 1119 with the plans of hitting OSR (Old San Antonio Road) and taking a short break in Midway before heading down 247 to 980 in Huntsville where we had met up with Debbie and Dave.
Well like they say, “Plans are made to be broken.†As we are tooling down 1119 we begin seeing deer and horses along the side of the road and most of them move away from the road as we approach so all is good so far. Topping a hill about a mile south of the “B†marker on the return map I notice I only see Debbie and Ed in my mirror so I pull over and look for Mike and Tony F for a little while but I don’t see them. A few moments later a couple semi’s and a pick up pass by us with no indication there was trouble back down the road. Ed commented that we were getting close to the range limit on Mike’s bike so maybe he ran out of gas. I told them I would go back down the road and check on them and would relay the information back to them, there was no need for all of us to head back just to have to turn around again when Mike and Tony came pass, but that didn’t happen either. A mile down the road I saw Mike and Tony at an intersection looking at Mike’s bike. As I arrived they said the throttle cable appears to have broken. We were pretty sure there were three possible causes, one we could fix and two that were beyond road side repairs with what we had available. So we checked for the fixable, the throttle tube had separated in the housing and just needed to be reset. Guess what, that wasn’t it. We didn’t take the whole throttle assembly apart because we were 99.99% sure either the tips on both cables had broken off at the same time (unlikely) or the throttle tube had broken at the cable connections, both of which we did not have the tools or parts to repair. I had texted Debbie and Ed what I found. . . both Mike and Tony were ok and Debbie they replied they were heading to the gas station and would then double back to our location. When they arrived they brought ice cold bottles of water with them, man was that water ever good! (That’s Southern for pretty dern good)
Well the whole time the three of us were sitting on the side of the road, 24 or 8 cars passed and not a one of them so much as slowed down to see if we needed any help. I mean, here we are in the middle of NOWHERE, Texas where folks are supposed to be friendly and no one so much as turned their head to look our direction. Well a few minutes later our other two riders show up and now we have more folks stopping to see if they can lend a hand or offer suggested repairs. What changed? Did taking my jacket off have this effect on everyone to now cause them to want to stop? That must be what happened, it couldn’t be because Debbie and Ed showed up, could it? Oh well, we may never know the answer to that question.
Multiple attempts were made to make contact by phone with very limited results. We could get text messages from time to time but trying to call one of the tow services that Mike had a plan with were almost impossible. We were finally able to get in touch with the preferred provider and they were working to find a tow truck that would come out our way. The local services they contacted were willing to come out but would not deliver the bike and Mike to his house as the service was supposed to cover. They all reportedly said they would come out but would not deliver the bike to his house without a loaded return trip. The service finally contacted a tow truck company in the Conroe area that would come out but it would be another two to three hours before they made it. We had already been trying to get a tow for the bike for a little over 2 and a half hour. In the meantime Debbie had located a friend or ours (he happens to own the TWT website) and he was headed our way with a truck and trailer to carry Mike home. Ed and Tony had already headed for home; there was no need in all of us waiting on a tow to show up. Shortly after they left was when Debbie got in touch with Scott. A few minutes before Scott showed up Debbie noticed I had a dark visor on my helmet and asked if I had a clear one. I had to admit I had taken the clear out of the trunk a week or so earlier and I guess I had forgotten to put it back. After a few minutes she again asked about the visor and how I expected to see on the ride home. So against my plans, I left the scene too to try and make it home before it got too dark to see with the visor down. I had gotten about 9 miles down the road to the gas station when Scott would have passed, I never saw him on my route home which was the same as he was taking to come to our rescue.
I arrived home just as it was getting too dark to see out of my visor, good thing LEO wasn’t on Interstate 45, Black Betty was screaming down the road, not quite to making light poles look like a picket fence but they would have looked like the spacing for a barb wire fence. She sure does like to be allowed to air it out every now and then.
I spoke with Debbie on Sunday afternoon, Scott showed up about 10 minutes after I left (he must have passed the gas station while I was filling up), they loaded both bikes on his trailer and trailered them both home.
That was one long day.
Next month’s Pie Run scheduled for Marble Falls, Texas.
*** Update on Mike’s bike. ***
Both throttle cables broke approximately 1 inch (2.54cm) below the end of the cable cover(?) so there was no road side repairs short of a new set of cables. Mike did say it appears the idle cable had been broken or near a complete break for a period of time.
