Ride To Eat - Bryan, Texas 1/29/2011

[Hemibee]

One of the other bike forums I frequent holds a monthly Pie Run somewhere in the State of Texas and riders from all over the state converge on that location for lunch, a piece of pie, tire kicking, tell lies and some true stories while getting a chance to meet folks face to face that we interact with on the forum.  This months destination was west southwest of the Dallas/Fort Worth area, a little over a 500 mile round trip from the north side of the Houston area.  The past 3 years the weather at this location on the day of the Pie Run has been cold & raining, cold, windy & icing or just flat out cold and miserable.  With this in mind several of us in the Houston area decided we would probably skip the Pie Run and find something to do a little closer to home which lead to us doing a Ride To Eat.  Our choice of locations was the Must Be Heaven cafe in downtown Bryan, Texas.

My normal riding partner, Tim and his beautiful Harley Davidson Ultra Classic Electra Glide decided we would head out from Montgomery, Texas at 10:00 giving us plenty of time to make the normal hour and a half ride to Bryan and the 1:00 meet time at the cafe.  Needless to say, we have never taken the short route anywhere we have gone and this one was no different, we (I) had mapped out a route just over two and a half hours long.  Even with the problems we (I) have had in getting the route correct in the GPS, Tim still says I'm leading and he will follow my route.  One of these days he is going to change his mind but for now I take the challenge and set up our rides.  The night before the ride, Ed (another regular on these rides) decides he is headed to the RTE also so we let him know where we are going to be.  I had invited some co-workers to ride with us but none showed up.  Dave would have showed up but the Navy decided he needed to ship out to Afghanistan the night before.  I just might have to send the Pentagon a letter telling them they screwed up Dave's plans to ride with us and the least they could have done was wait another couple days and then send him.  I was getting ready to leave the house and Debbie (another regular on these rides) texted me asking where we were meeting, she wanted to ride with us.  So we met at the Exxon Station on the corner of SH 105 and FM 149 and headed north toward Bryan.

I get the camera set shortly after the ride started...
 

Tim knows, if I plan a ride we will be stopping at a courthouse or two and Ed and Debbie were pretty sure I would stop at one but weren't positive, now they know for sure I will be doing it.

I've got a couple or three more videos from the ride to Bryan I will try to get edited and posted in a follow up tonight or tomorrow.  For now here is the report with the still photos.

Burleson County Courthouse, Caldwell, Texas

Left to right; Ed, Debbie and Tim


Tim, Ed & Debbie


For those who have fallen


Uh, Tim... The Tiger is on this side... why are you taking a picture of the Harley?

We are now only about 20 miles from the RTE location so off we go, sorry no photos or videos of this section but we do arrive at the cafe in downtown Bryan

Wait a minute, how did that Harley wind up in from of Black Betty? Oh yeah, something about I had the route home and I wasn't going to be able to sneak off with out him or Ed.  Debbie was going to head straight home with a couple other riders that near her.


Must Be Heaven.  You want a successful business in Texas?  There a couple ways to guarantee success: 1st you need an open sign and 2nd you need a Blue Bell Ice Cream sign or the other route is 1st an open sign and 2nd a beer sign.  Must Be Heaven went the Blue Bell route.  



Then I got the chance to meet Jerry, a local Bryan rider who made the long 2 mile ride to the cafe.  Said he had a hard time deciding how to get there; walk, ride the bicycle or his motorcycle.  Decided to ride his motorcycle.  Jerry was a character, 70 years old and just gave up his dirt bike after falling on a spirited ride.  Said he was all geared up to keep from getting hurt when he fell and the equipment worked, "the fall didn't hurt one bit, but that dagnabit gear don't protect worth a hoot for bouncing!"  


Another rider arrives.


Waiting to place my lunch order, didn't have to wait too long.  While I was waiting I was looking over the menu and noticed a section called "Out Of The Ordinary" so I figured they were talking to me.  I've never been accused of being "Ordinary" so what better place to look for something to eat.


My Sausage & Kraut Sandwich.  That sucker had dang near a pound of sausage on it.  All I can say for the way it tasted...  :D  :D


Since this was supposed to be the Pie Run day, Ed ordered a German Chocolate Pecan Pie.  That thing was huge.  He was saying he was going to need help eating it but I didn't see him having any problem with it once he took that first bite.

The reason we are here... Eating and greeting.  The lies are told outside during the tire kicking session...













Manfred had offered up a free helmet speaker system a couple weeks ago and he delivered it to me at the RTE.  Now I've got to get out and give them a try, I didn't install them until I got home.  Kind of looks like he doesn't want his picture taken.


That's Ed on the left working on his piece of pie and Debbie is talking with Jack, the organizer of this little get together.  Jack has a beautiful new to him "Roadie" but he chose to ride his KLR?


We even had entertainment lined up for the get together.   :y24:  But being as cheap as we were, no one paid the band so we didn't get treated to any tunes while eating.

So out we go for the tire kicking and lies. Our trusty steeds await us...


Downtown Bryan on an overcast winter day


Let the lies begin...

Jack's KLR








Is he trying to moon us?  Glad he wasn't successful.






I was told he even has a kitchen sink in there somewhere but I believe that might have been one of the lies but I'm not sure.






I think she was upset with me taking the picture... of course I said I didn't realize she was bent over by the bike.


Debbie as she is getting ready to head out.


Another shot of downtown


Jack didn't ride his "Roadie" but I found another one.  


Saw my first Honda NT700V.  Heck just two weeks ago I didn't know they even existed now I done saw one.

Well I'd already told all the lies I could for one day so it was time to head south but first we had to ride two blocks over from the cafe to grab another courthouse.

Brazos County Courthouse, Bryan, Texas

My video camera had run out of juice and I forgot to bring the charger with me so the ride home received no documentation.  We did stop at a biker bar on the way home and got some Dr Peppers but didn't have any other excitement that warranted getting the still camera out.  Well that's a lie, the girls working in the bar could have been good for a few pictures but I didn't run back out to the bike to get the camera so you will just have to take my word for the scenery in the bar.  Another rider I know but haven't had the chance to ride with says I need to stop by the bar early one Sunday morning for the church service.  He said it's the oddest congregation he has ever seen, the bikers in the back of the church are smoking and drinking while the preacher is a preaching and then the "early morning drunks" (the bikers in the back) start singing the hymns with the rest of the church.  Mark said it was the hardest thing he has ever done while in church... "not laugh at a bunch of big mean, wild and wooly bikers trying to sing Amazing Grace.  

Pulled back into the garage after a 222.8 mile round trip.  Not bad for a 60 or so mile one way mileage to Bryan from my house.

[KuzzinKenny]

Hey Hemibee !! Looks like a grrreat day out  

yer video is the nearest i've been to ridin a Tigger this year   :(

so thanx for sharin !!

 :)

KK

[Bixxer Bob]

Good write-up as always H!

[Hemibee]

Hey Hemibee !! Looks like a grrreat day out  

yer video is the nearest i've been to ridin a Tigger this year   :(

so thanx for sharin !!

 :)

KK

Kenny heres some more videos.  My sons have been after me to get these for them so I had to stop the Ride To Eat videos for now, will get back on those later.

The boys playing in the dirt 1/1/11 ride at Crooked Creek Cycle Park outside Waco, Texas.  I had just put a TerraFlex on the rear of my bike and we wanted to test it out.  My oldest takes my bike for a ride in the first video and then I let him have his bike back in the second.  My oldest has the helmet cam attached to his chest protector in the first 4 videos and I've got it attached to my jacket in the last two.  I now know I'm going to have to mount the cam to my chest protector also, it jerks around too much on the jacket.

My oldest on my bike


And again


My youngest