Day 6

9.18.2014
After breakfast, we decided to go scope out Dealey Plaza since we were about six block down the street from where J.F.K. was assassinated.  We found the J.F.K. Museum which is in the old Dallas Book Suppository (that by the way is a fantastic way to learn without actually reading the book) and inquired about the admission,  $16 a person!  http://www.oldred.org.

I have since read a little about it and discovered there is no more in the museum than you can find on the History Channel.  We decided to just look around in the area where there is access to the grassy knoll and other landmarks such as the white X and the yellow X which mark the first and second spots in the road where President Kennedy was traveling when he was shot.  On the structure pictured below in a photo from the day of the shooting, is now a display set up by a guy hawking a $20 video explaining the theory of the shooter on the grassy knoll which includes footage shot by a woman in what is now the Old Red Museum.

She was on the 4th floor of the building which is about 200 yards from the grassy knoll.  http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/headwnd.htm.

In her video, they circle what they say is a muzzle flash.  I'm not quite buying that whole angle.  In old amateur video, you can always flashes and other distortions.  Maybe it was a flash bulb from someones camera?  Also, the view from the grassy knoll only provides a view of the second X where Kennedy was shot but not a view of the first X whereas the the Book Depository affords a view of both X's.  And you can read all about the Ballistic Expert's testimony here

Any way, it was time to eat and as we sat looking at Yelp to find a spot, a Dallas P.D. Motorcycle Cop rolled up to a shady spot near where we were sitting.  So we asked him where a good eatery was.  He suggested Hoffbrau Steaks a few blocks away in the West End Historic District.  Good call! Marybeth had the Bacon Cream Cheese Chicken Sandwich and I had the Avocado Burger.  Both were delicious but the Chicken Sandwich was over the top delicious!

While we were eating, a guy walks in and orders a beer.  The guy is dripping wet and both Marybeth and I look outside to see how hard it's raining.  It's not!  This guy is dripping with sweat.  He's wearing a dark suit with a dark shirt and found out he tried to check into his hotel but he was early so he decided to go for a beer.  We started chatting with him and discover he was from Calgary Canada and probably wasn't used to the Texas heat.  He was quite a funny guy and we had a good time talking with him.  

We headed back to the room to relax and get cleaned up before meeting Don Brown for Happy Hour. We ended up at City Tavern for a couple adult beverages before Don had to leave for a Business dinner.  We went back to Hoffbrau Steaks for a couple steak dinners.

The evening was ended with a soak in the hotel pool and some cocktails.  Tomorrow, San Antonio!

Day 5

9.17.2014

Today we left Tulsa, enroute to Dallas.  It was our first day riding that we weren't wearing chaps, coat and full faced helmets.  It really felt good riding without all the gear.  The roads were a bit rough, as we took Route 75 south, which eventually turned into the Indian Nation Turnpike.  We passed by Eufaula, OK, where we stayed back in 2010, after riding through Oklahoma in 106º heat.  Today was much more comfortable, for the time being.  As we got closer to the Texas border, the temps were rising.  We had plans to stop in Frisco Texas and have lunch at Babe's Chicken Dinner House babeschicken.com with a friend, Kim, from High School.  We took the exit as directed by the Garmin, aka Moses!  We needed gas and every gas station we passed was either under construction, closed or on the other side of Hwy 350, a divided highway.  We finally crossed over and gassed up.  I texted Kim to let her know where we were.  We got back on the road and a couple miles further and Moses said to get on the North Dallas Tollway which was a toll road.  The next instructions said to exit at Cotton Gin Road.  We did.  And Moses then instructed us to continue straight, back on to the North Dallas Tollway.  Which we did.  A ways down the road, I notice the scenery change to city and I realize we are almost down town and Moses isn't taking us to Babe's, but the hotel.  By this time it is 95º and we are starving and overheated and had the low blood sugar shakes!  And I see I have a message from Kim, whose waiting for us back at Babe's.  I felt so bad standing her up for lunch, but we were not going to be able to get back on the bikes and head back up to Frisco for lunch in the condition we were in. We ended up eating a couple flat bread sandwiches from the food court next to the hotel.  Sorry Kim, I owe ya lunch.

We veg out for a couple hours and then get ready to go see our friend Don E Brown play at the Mercy Wine Bar in Addison.  We opt for a cab because it's rich hour and it's hot and were gonna be drinking.  We call Yellow cab and John picks us up.  He asks if we want to go by way of the North Dallas Tollway which is said to be faster.  Oh sure, it's $6 extra due to the toll.  I asked John how it works, since we didn't see any toll plaza's and a sign said it would bill us if we didn't have a sensor.  He said they take a picture of the license plate.  When I realized the cameras were above the lanes which left me to question if they could even photograph our license plates since the tourpak™ hangs out over the license plate.  I guess we'll need to watch the mail for a bill!

We meet up with Don at Mercy and drink a bit of wine while listening to the tunes by Don and his Partner Sam E who call themselves the E Avenue Boys.

 My cousin Diana and her husband Fletcher came out to see us there.  I hadn't seen Diana since I was in 6th grade!  We had some catching up to do!

 It was great seeing her and meeting Fletcher, a real live West Texan!  It was good to see Don too and hear him play.  So after a good time, good eats and too much good wine, we called it a night and cabbed it back to the Homewood Suites.

Day 4

9.16.2014

Heading out of St Louis was easier than I anticipated. As screwed up as traffic was coming in to town, it went really smooth heading out. As we headed west on Rt 44, it looked like we were heading into some fog. We soon realized it was a light drizzle, like the evening before. It went on like this for a while but never rained hard enough to put on the rain gear. It was only about 56° when we left so thankfully it didn't rain hard. 

We stopped for lunch in Springfield at the Drunken Monkey, a biker bar I found on Google. They were said to have good burgers so that's what we ordered. The cook, the barmaid and the lone patron were very friendly and talkative. The lone patron did his own version of "Shock and Awe" dropping F bombs every other word. WOW!  Like carpet F bombing!  But my Bacon Cheese Burger was very good!

We rolled into Tulsa around 3:30 and cleaned up for dinner. The choices were slim as far as eateries within walking distance from the hotel. We opted for a Chili's and even though we would like to avoid the chain restaurants, the food was pretty good. I had the Beef Short Rib Enchiladas. Very tasty! 

Tomorrow we head for Dallas and warmer weather!

Day 3

9.15.2014

Left Indianapolis after another Bob Evans breakfast. We took the 465 bypas around Indy so traffic wasn't too bad. Pretty much an uneventful ride until we got to our exit in St Louis. It was closed!  And the alternative exit was also closed!  The third option was open and we just had to back track a bit through downtown St Louis traffic. Luckily we had stopped a little earlier to take off sweat shirts and chaps. We found our hotel and the bellhop, Ronnie, insisted on helping us with getting out luggage to our room. Nice guy but we know how to push a luggage cart. But thanks. 

We got cleaned up and headed out to grab some sushi for a late lunch. We found Sushi Ai a few blocks away on yelp. Excellent sushi if you're ever in St Louis. 

After lunch we headed to the Arch to check it out. It drizzled the entire walk there. Apparently there's a Arch museum and gift shop under the arch but there was high security to get into the visitors center and I was packin'. I didn't feel like going through the hassle so Marybeth went in to use the restroom. She had to put everything through the X-ray machine and take off all jewelry before walking through the metal detector. Hey, if the terrier wanted to do damage, they could do it from the outside! I walked over to check out the Mississippi River and it was quite muddy with a lot of debris floating down river. 

Must have been some heavy rains up to the north. We took some pictures of the arch but didn't opt for the ride to the top. 

We headed back towards our hotel to an Irish Pub we spotted on our way to the Arch to have a pint of Guinness and a shot of Red Breast. 

We had a dinner date with Maria Sinito from Solon and her friend Bill, so we headed the 10 blocks To Rosalita's. We had a good visit and headed back to the room as we had an early wake up to head to Tulsa in the morning. 

Day 2

9.14.2014
We spent the day in Indianapolis to watch the Brown vs Saints game with the Central Indiana Browns Backers at George's Neighborhood Grill.  The first stop was Bob Evans for breakfast since the Best Western breakfast consisted of frozen breakfast sandwiches and the breakfast was a bit crowded.  I noticed a lot of vertically challenged folks at the Bob Evans and noted that must be why our sink counter at the hotel was rather low as was the cashier's counter at Bob Evans.  This must be where all the jockeys come from!

After some Bacon, Eggs and Hash Browns, we were off to George's.  The weather was beautiful but still on the cool side.

 They had a good turnout of Browns fans and the Browns dominated the Saints in the first half, especially the defense.  We met some former Ohioans, Mike and Dave who sat with us.  The second half was touch and go with the defense giving up 3 touchdowns by the Saints.  In the final seconds, it came down to a Billy Cundiff field goal with 3 seconds left to win the game.  Go Browns!

We left George's and headed to the Steer-In, a Triple D spot.  The Steer-In opened in 1960 and I don't think it has ever been remodeled.  

The music soundtrack was all 70's music which was a good thing.  We split some Chicken Livers and the Twin Steer Burger.  Good food!

 We headed back to the hotel and found a smoke shop.  We picked up a couple cigars and here we sit by the pool, blogging away.  

Tomorrow, we're off to St. Louis and hopefully we beat the rain.

Day 1

09.13.2014

Heading to Texas for our yearly bike trip. Three weeks with stops in Indiana, St. Louis, Tulsa, Dallas, San Antonio, Uvalde, Austin, Baytown, New Orleans, Memphis and Nashville.

We decided to leave now so we are not roasting our butts off in Texas. I'm hoping now it doesn't freeze our tails off on the return ride, October 6th. Starting out this morning at around 10 am was cool with the temps in the high 50's and a light drizzle. The drizzle stopped befor we got to I-271 but it was cool all day. We stopped for gas in South Vienna, Ohio and decided to head up the road a bit more before stopping for lunch. I spotted an exit for Englewood, Ohio which listed Skyline Chili, Waffle House, Chipotle and several other restaurants. We opted for the Skyline which was right at the end of the exit ramp. 

After a 4-way with beans and Coney Dog we were ready to hit the road again.

Only now the Garmin was acting wonky and not booting up. Well, I know how to get to Indianapolis, just head west!  And I remembered we needed to exit at I-465. But I wasn't quite sure if the hotel was north or south!  I was also anticipating writing out directions everyday. About 50 miles to go, I got the Garmin to boot up and we found our way. 

Marybeth unloaded the bikes while I checked in. I noted that the desk clerk told the people ahead of me to take the stairs to the second floor to find their rooms. Oh-oh, Marybeth is loading the luggage cart and she's going to have a helluva time pushing that cart up the stairs!  I asked if there was an elevator and the lady says no, since they're only two floors, they're not required to have one. I hope my room is on the 1st floor!  She doesn't think there are any king beds available on the first floor!  Oh shit!  Here's one she says, and I see her write 156 on the key envelope!  Whew!

Now we sit here by the pool drinking whiskey and tequila, blogging!  

Plans call for ordering a pizza and hanging at the hotel for the evening. Tomorrow, we head to the Browns Backers Bar for the Browns game. We'll see how that goes!

The Shining

We met Bill, Sue and Ron for breakfast at the hotel restaurant. They had been sitting there for a few when we arrived and the waitress brought us some coffe and called Ron by the name Brian. We didn't know why but just figured Ron was using an alias in case he hooked up with her later and didn't want a paternity suit.

We decided to head up to Estes Park and see the Stanley Hotel from The Shining.

We got there after an awesome ride through the mountains. Except for the douches that decided he needed to pass us and the car in front of us shortly before the passing zone ended. The first car nearly runs the car in front of us off the road and the second car ends up beside Marybeth and in front of Bill and Ron. We ride the remaining 11 miles into Estes Park with the 4 wheeler in the middle of our group. Anyway, we get into town and its teaming with tourists. We find a parking area and strolled the coue blocks of down town checking out the Outdoor Store. We buy some Power Bars and a Heath Bar and a knife sharpener that they have displayed by the register. I tried it on my knife and I was sold. The cashier asks if we're going hiking we reply, yeh right!  This is just snacks to get us through to our 5 pm dinner with Kelly and Jay Beliveau.  We eat a power bar and check out a couple of the stores and then head back to the bikes. We can see the Stanley Hotel from where we parked and get some pictures. We decide we really don't need to get closer and fight the crowd. Then we spotted 2 Elk grazing down in the gully next to the street where we parked.

As we're taking pictures, a family is walking down the path that passes about 10 feet from where they are grazing on the hillside. The family comes to a stop as they round the bend and see the elk.  After several minutes of contemplation, they decide to walk past the elk. The elk closest spots them and stares them down as they stop to decide if they should chance it. The elk decided to move up the hill a bit and away from the path. We get on the bikes and head back to the hotel. The ride was uneventful. We cleaned up and headed to a place called The Hornet, suggested by the Beliveaus.

                  

The food was great and we had a nice visit. We ordered the Papusa and Calamari appetizers and Lobster Mac n Cheese and the Cubana Sandwich for entrees. 

Marybeth and I now sit by the pool at the hotel blogging as we wait for our laundry to finish. Tomorrow we head to Moab Utah so we figured we better get some laundry done while we could.