Mongrels sign off in Dallas

Well its finally come down to this. Four Aussie blokes sitting in a motel room waiting for the flight time of two of us today, and two more tomorrow morning.

We made it into Dallas, returned the rental bikes. Not one of these bikes were dropped or scratched after doing 5 weeks, 13 states, and 5,738 miles. As much as we enjoyed it, it is always some what of a relief to hand over the keys and know we are all safe. The ride into Dallas was the usual mad scramble on busy freeways at speeds that seem like a little too fast but being passed by all and sundry. The fwy sysem here has to be seen to be believed. Spagetti is one word I can think of to describe it. Yet it works, fast and furiouis but it works. However with out a GPS it would be impossible and is difficult enough with one. And the way they are building more fwys around it, you would need to updagte your GPS each time you come.
Ken has done a magificant job of driving the van and lead navigator. He has taught us some new rules or reinterpreted old rules, like the "Wrong Way go Back" sign does not apply for the first 120 meters.But all in all Ken has done a great job and we would not have been able to achieve our trip with otut him.

Thanks to Gerald for igniting the idea and inviting us along. Gerald managed to engage each and every person we dealt with in some form of conversation, and usually they both came away laughing together. He also negotiated most of the motel prices and managed to get a discount most of the time. Probably most amazing was his ability to find a Starbucks on his GPS whilst riding and still get us to a Starbucks coffee even if it was maybe 12 miles off our route.However he did not manage to get a good soda, lime and bitters once, despited language problems, he persisted for five weeks.Well done.

Hugh has been the treasurer for this trip. He updated the ledger each evening and gave us a weekly report on how our individual contributions were progressing. Well done Hugh.

All in all it has been a great trip, not as scenic as the 2010 trip, mainly due to the topography being mainly flat. We would like to have seen more agriculture, although we got to see a variety, from fields near Kansas City ready to be planted, to citrus trees in Florida, to cotton fields being planted in Texas along side a winter wheat crop being harvested, and oil jack pumps rocking up and down. We probably saw more road side mowers cutting the verge than tractors in fields. Most of the country we passed through was covered by trees. I did report on rain occasionally but it really was not a big issue.

Coming from a large country of 24 million to one of almost 400 million, we were constantly overwhelmed by the heavy traffic between cities on interstate freeways. The number of trucks is simply amazing. This country is not too depressed or hurt by the GFC. Sure there were dying towns out in the boondocks but plenty of new shops in the larger centers. Banks with 2 acres of car parks, 20 acre car yards, truck yards of 80 trucks in the one orange color.We are left with our memories and experiences ans we take them with us back home to our families.

Probably the most outstanding thing in my mind was the courtesy shown to us by the drivers. We tested them time and again, and they would hold back, wait and if necessary go around us with out so much as a gesture. They are extremely polite people.  And they don't have all the speed and red light cameras driving them nuts.
What a trip! What an experience!

Gerald on the new victory. I am sure he will be terrorizing the residences of Colville and St Andrews Terrace by Christmas.

The final night in Dallas. Where were we? At the Outback Steak House of course.

Texas oil country

Today we left Midland (West of Dallas) and headed north then east. We chose to avoid fwy's and continued to see plenty of oil country. Yesterday there were lots of oil jack pumps in undeveloped land. today the jack pumps were in farming land where the farmers were preparing to plant cotton. The oil industry has had a boost recently as they found more oil and judging by the size of the drilling derricks the new oil is much deeper. The existing oil pumps, pump to a central point on each farm where the oil is collected in large silo like tanks. These are emptied by one or more of the numerous tanker trucks we see on the roads and trucked to the refinery. Gerald spoke to a farmer who he stopped even though he was in a big John Deere tractor. The farmer said they were planting dry grown cotton and hoping for more rain. The rain fall is about 12 inches here but they have had drought in the last year. We saw a new header harvesting wheat near the road. One thing stood out was all the new farm tractors and implements even though they have had a tough year. Also lots of old implements parked around the farm sheds. Makes us wonder if the older implements don't have a trade in value?

It has been about 95 degrees f today. Really is a bit hot to be comfortable riding. We stopped a little short of our goal, about and hour or less west of Dallas. We ventured out to a homely BBQ restaurant for a $9.95 (plus tip) buffet. Very tasty smokey bbq meat and three courses if you wanted it. I don't think we will get that sort of value in Dallas.

Ken checking out the stock in Texas. Ray, Ken asks if you can get the Angus to grow like this?

Yours truly (Paul) on the rented Harley Davidson Road King. Five weeks of fun on the wrong side!

Rio Grande

Today after B/F at "Whataburger" we met a guy who guided us to a part of Del Rio where we could see the Rio Grande river. This of course is the boarder between the US and Mexico. We were being observed by Border security at every movement. The guide told us about the security and how the Mexicans cross into the US often carrying drugs for dealers. The Border Security have an enormous amount of equipment and staff at their call to try to prevent illegal immigration. Throughout the morning we witnessed many pickups parked or moving about trying to observe vast stretches of desert bush land, looking for possible incursions. A truly mammoth task. We had to get our passports out at one check point.  We were lucky again to run into a security staff member at the Amistad dam on the Rio Grande. He escorted us onto the middle of the dam wall where he took our photos at the point where the border between the two country's is displayed in the middle of the dam wall. We were able to chat about border security and dam operations. Very interesting occasion for us.

We rode on west for a while but apart from running into the historic museum of Judge Roy Bean, "the hanging judge" who died in 1903, we did not see much country or town ships that were worth reporting on, in fact it was pretty desserted country. We then headed north and passed through oil country. On one section of road of about 45 miles with almost no bends, we passed oil jack pump after pump. Not all working, but enough were to create cartage of oil by trucks a big task. Tonight we are in Midland where apparently there is a bit of an oil boom going on at the moment.

 Judge Roy Beans historic court house

TThe Mexicans (left) meet the locals in the middle of Amistad Dam.

Texas backcountry

We finally leave San Antonio at about 11.15am after the rain lifts and the roads dry out. The rainfall was between 7.4 and 12 inches. Second highest daily rain fall on record! We head further west and get off interstate 10 at Comfort, to find some real country. Stopped off at what we thought was a county fair only to find an art crafty show in Kerville with maybe 60 stalls, Had a light lunch while listening to the local talent singing and a band playing, nice. Thats the culture done for the day.
We travel through to Rock Springs where we met two lads with a pick up and a 40 foot trailer hooked up. They had just carted some freight on it that weighed 18 ton. Thats a semi load of stuff on a trailer hooked to a pick up!! We rode past some uninspiring country running goats and deer. We think the deer is for hunting, by paying customers. The fencing alone would make it a difficult enterprise to break even on. Most gates were fancy ranch type units but the locks on the gate tell us that they may not be fully habitat-ed. We stop for the night at Del Rio on the Mexican border. Dinner that night cost $45.00 at the Sirloin Steak house. Thats $45.00 for the four of us! It was a Warren Buffett, and no one went home hungry and more particularly no one woke up with salmonella.

The Alamo

Since writing the last blog and hour ago I checked the TV weather. San Antonio has received 7.4 to 12.4 inches since early this morning. Lots of localised flooding, and recommendations to stay off the hwy's.

Three Gringos with the law at The Alamo.

San Antonio

Well I said in the last  blog that the temps were going to remain high. Well it has rained and dropped the temps significantly. We made it into San Antonio. Found the historic site of the Alamo, and spent some time touring the old buildings and watching a short history film. Seems before Texas was part of the union, it was considered by the Mexicans to be theirs. Well long story short the Mexicans didn't give it up without a fight, and fought a tough but uneven battle at Alamo and the local soldiers and farmers were wiped out. About nine years later the US took over Texas and made it part of the union. We couldn't find where John Wayne was buried but Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett were actually there and part of the fight. 

We also did a river side walk in a beautiful area with stacks of resuarants and tourist places of interest. The the rain settled in, we had a coffee at Starbucks and decided to get our rain gear on and ride west. We only made it a few miles and dicided the rain was too heavy and pulled into a cheap motel. Overnight the rain got heavier and the thunder did its best to keep us awake. Here I sit writting the blog and waiting for the rian to lift. It has been heavy rain and the TV guys are asking people to saty off the hwy's for a while.

The three cock roaches in the bath room are friendly and we might have their company for a couple more hours yet.

Hugh wants to ride further west to see the real cowboy country and maybe the Rio Grand before we turn north east and head back to Dallas.

Bastrop Texas

Why Bastrop Texas? Because we didn't make it to San Antonio. We stopped off at lunch and decided to have a look at a motorcycle shop, which led us to look at another shop. A number of items of safety gear were upgraded.

What has it meant to be in Texas? well we now have hills, not mountains, just hills which we haven't seen for several sates. We can see for, well meters rather than being down in the swamp and surrounded by trees, we can actually see paddocks, some cattle, a lot of hobby size farms and some serious farms with fences, and a couple of rodeo grounds, even some paddocks of rice. Doesn't seem like much but it is a change. We even saw some grass that wasn't green any more. The temp was around 93 deg f, 35 deg c and not likely to get much cooler. We have not seen any tornadoes yet and lets hope it stays that way.

Towns, well there was Saratogo, and the the pick of the day was Shoot n Cut. I am serious!

It wouldn't be Texas with out an oil jack pump.