For The First Time

[Hemibee]

For the first time since mid-November I had a day off when the weather was  weather.  The Weather Guessers on TV were saying Tuesday would be a near perfect day so I decided to delay the work I was going to do on Jessica and head out on the highway.  The day turned out as predicted . . . BEAUTIFUL Riding weather.  So I pulled Jessica out of the garage,

mounted the top box and headed out to see where I was going.  All I knew was that I needed to fill the gas (petrol) tank so I headed that way.  From there, this is where Jessica took me.

http://goo.gl/maps/eSjPg (http://goo.gl/maps/eSjPg)

I was thinking to head north but went southwest and west to Montgomery where I turned north and head toward the forest.  As I got on up the road a ways I decided to head over toward the property our old Hare Scramble Club leases.  Got to  Forest Service Road 209 and headed thru the woods but decided not to turn off of 209 to go down to the property due to some deep sand I did not feel like dealing with.  Popped back out on the highway I was on earlier so decided to run up to Richards.  Once I rolled into Richards I decided to head over to Shiro to grab a quick bite to eat.  Everyone talks about the burgers they serve at the Citgo Station so I decided that was my destination.  Well the rumors of good burgers turns out to be correct, I will stop in there again.

I've been told the owner of this property is a little on the CRAZY side so I took a photo for another forum's Abandoned Gas Station thread from across the street at the Shiro Post Office.  Heck, just about the whole town has been abandoned.  The only real signs of life around the place was the Citgo which has a pretty good amount of business.





Picture taken so I head back toward the forest.  Once I got down to the cut-off to the old club I decided to run by a exotic game ranch so I turned west to run deeper into and thru the western end of Sam Houston National Forest.  As I was motoring down the road I realized I had not stopped for any photos other than the gas station.   

I decided I had to stop and get some quick.  So here are a couple from the forest road.





I got back aboard and headed out again for the exotic game ranches.  Well one of them is not really an exotic game ranch, they just have 3 or 4 gorillas in the front pasture.  As I roll up to the pasture I can see the gorillas but the sun is almost directly behind them and wouldn't make for a good photo.  Maybe next time I'm in the area the sun will cooperate and I can get a photo of them. . . I know they will be in the same spot, they are always in the same spot since they are plastic or some other such material.  Like I said, the ranch isn't really an exotic game ranch. 

The next ranch really is what we call an exotic game ranch.  He raises non-native deer such as Axis and Sika and possibly a few others.  I once saw what might have been Pronghorn Sheep but I didn't get a good look at them.  Today, there was no livestock anywhere on the property that I could see, they must have been in one of the back pastures.  Heck I didn't even see any of his cattle herd other than one young heifer they had in a squeeze chute for meds or weighing.

So with not getting the photos I really wanted I decided to head on toward the house but first thought I would get another photo of Jessica at the boat ramp down the road from my house. 



While I was there I grabbed some photos of a Yellow Lab that was enjoying the water and the weather.









Well the Lab had a few more leaps and I talked to his owner for a little while before heading on to the house.  I've got some video of the ride that I will see about getting edited and posted.

The ride was just what the doctor ordered. 

[nickjtc]

LUCKY YOU to be riding at this time of the year!

[Hemibee]

Yeah, the weather had been terrible.  We went a whole week and the temp didn't get above 42 DegF.  Sorry, I couldn't resist that. 

[Spud]

great shot's of the dog, and a stolen day out is the best kind 

cheers Spud 

[Hemibee]

A couple videos from the ride.

https://vimeo.com/118221569 (https://vimeo.com/118221569)

https://vimeo.com/118281858 (https://vimeo.com/118281858)