March & April 2000 Louisiana HSTA Newsletter Page 1
By Bob Chappuis, Editor
Sunday March 5 was just about perfect riding weather and several members and prospective members took advantage. Two different groups met and rendezvoused for lunch at the Dinner Bell in McComb, MS. State Director Bob Hennessey led a group of sportybikes starting in Covington while your humble editor, with Stacie riding passenger, led a group of four bikes out of the lovely village of Fred, Louisiana. (For those unfamiliar with Fred, he's just a few miles southwest of Ethel, LA and just a hop north of Baton Rouge).
Joe Levraea and Debra Reid were there on their twin PC 800's as well as New Guy Mark Galyean on his Kawasaki ZX900R Ninja. This group found some nice Mississippi back roads on the way to Liberty MS, where we kinda got separated. We managed to re-group however in the Dinner Bell parking lot where we discovered the Covington group had started without us. Not to worry, The Bell had plenty of their delicious county home cooking to go around. Best fried eggplant I ever ate! The crew from the New Orleans/Covington area included Bob Hennessey on his Kawasaki ZX11, J. C. Ledbetter on his Kawasaki ZRX1100, another New Guy, Neil Santolucito on a Honda F3 and two other riders on another ZRX1100 and an FJ1200 Yamaha (SORRY GUYS FOR NOT REMEMBERING YOUR NAMES).
The Baton Rouge area ride will be held the second
Sunday of April (4/8) since 3 riders are scheduled for MSF class 4/1. We will
meet again at Crossroads Shell corner of highways 64 and 67 at 9:00 am.
Check the website(http://www.demco.net/~chappuis/hsta)
for further info/updates. Also if you have an e-mail address send it to me so I
can send you ride info!
THERE WILL BE A RIDE TO SOMEWHERE WITH WHOEVER EVERY SUNDAY. INTERESTED PARTIES SHOULD CONTACT BOB HENNESSEY EARLY ENOUGH IN THE WEEK TO MAKE PLANS FOR SUNDAY.
By Paul W. Lefort Jr.
Big Bend National Park, TX. Feb. 10-14, 2000
Several months of anticipation have finally passed. Hours at the computer planning every detail of each day, my skills will now be tested. My CBR1100XX has new sprockets and chain, tires, oil and filter, and me, I’ve got a new head cold. The forecast calls for several days of dry, mild conditions, so let’s roll! Day 1. I depart Thibodaux at 7am on my solo journey heading west on Hwy 90 to Lafayette then connecting to I-10 west, which seems to have a problem with perpetual construction. After settling into a nice pace for several hours, I finally hop off of I-10 in Boerne, TX just west of San Antonio, anxious for some back road action in route to my destination for the night in Leakey. Hwy 46 west to Hwy 16 north to Hwy 337 west turned out to be great roads to end the day with snaking through the Texas hill country. Along Hwy 337, I was well into a nice groove
with Depeche Mode drowning out the wind noise when, HELLO! it’s "Bambi" in the middle of a right hand blind curve. Oh well. Back to reality. Arrived at "The Welcome Inn of Leakey" at 5:30pm after 640 miles, and ready for some real "Tex-Mex" favorites at "Frio Canyon Restaurant". Leakey is a very small hill country town with very limited services after sunset, but it is a refreshing departure from the Mega-Exit stops I usually frequent.
Day 2. I got a late start Friday at 8am in order to give the fog and the deer time to disappear into the brush. Hwy 337 lead me out of Leakey west, snaking over the hills to Campwood and providing me with some early burst of adrenaline to start my day. South along Hwy 55 to a great out of the way road Hwy 334 that joyfully delivered me to Hwy 90 in Brackettville to begin a long westward ride. Passing through Del Rio, I enjoy the sight of several military training jets practicing maneuvers, and wonder if I had missed my calling many years ago. Hwy 90 west of Del Rio is about as lonely a road as you could get, with vast distances between towns and services, so it was very important to keep a close eye on the gas gauge.
The view of the wide open countryside is spectacular, like passing through Amistad National Recreational Area. Reaching Alpine at 1:00pm, I stopped for gas before connecting onto Hwy 118 for my last long leg to my final destination of Lajitas. Hwy 118 turned out to be rather fun with fast sweepers, elevation changes, beautiful scenery, and very little traffic. As I approached Big Bend National Park from the north, I began to see the impressive mountains and rock formations that make up this magnificent stretch of land. My early arrival into Lajitas at 2:30pm, gave me time to clean up and take a look around the unique resort. The Lajitas Resort, home to RTR, is most of the town and made up of several separate room units spread across Hwy 170. Nestled along the cliffs of the Rio Grande River, the view is spectacular and you get that feeling that you are a million miles from civilization. The only problem is this place is a dust bowl and there is no paved parking anywhere. Not conducive to a clean "Black" bird.
Friday night at RTR there was registration, great brisket sandwiches, and lots of tire kickin. I met another Thibodaux rider Mark Spears, who had left a day earlier to meet his brother Robert, "Bob", in San Antonio to make the event. It was nice to see a familiar face so far from home, and we enjoyed the brisket while planing our ride into the park on Saturday. Saturday was awesome! Mark, Bob, Bob’s girlfriend and I decided to spend the day seeing the main attractions of Big Bend. Although you could spend several days exploring this park, one day of riding provided us with many sites and photo opportunities. This place is HUGE, and it seems to take forever to get from place to place, especially with the posted 45mph speed limit that is radar enforced.
Chisos Mountain Village was by far the nicest stop of the day. The road winds up into a mountain valley nestled in a huge formation of rocks that rises substantially above the park floor. You can feel the temperature change as you see brush turn into alpine trees. There is a Park Lodge and restaurant, which provided us with lunch and a few souvenirs. After leaving the park, we stopped by Terlingua "Ghost Town" for some cold drinks and tire
kickin’ before making our way to Lajitas. The general store had one of the largest selections of souvenirs and unique items I’d ever seen, and was worth browsing through.
We returned to Lajitas about 3:30pm, early enough for me to break away from the others to explore one of the most spectacular roads in the country, Hwy 170 from Lajitas to Presidio. This magnificent road begins at the resort and follows the giant cliffs and mountains that follow the Rio Grande River almost 60 deserted miles. It can only be described as a lot of everything you could want and more. It’s like a roller coaster with drastic elevation changes, blind hilltop curves that have you holding your breath, fast sweepers, straights and whoops that DID get me airborne! I ran hard and stayed totally focused as I flew low through enemy territory. This one road made the whole long trip worth it and ranks in my top 10 of the many roads around the country I have experienced. Saturday evening was the RTR 8 banquet with great authentic Mexican food and a ton of door prizes. The experience of meeting new people is always great in HSTA, and this event was no different. The staff did a wonderful job with the 112 registered riders and others that showed up in Lajitas. After almost 300 miles of great roads and beautiful weather, it was time to get some rest for my long journey home. After a great breakfast, I met up with Mark and Bob to ride the first couple of hours together. We decided to ride through the park on Hwy 385 up to Marathon
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for one more look at the spectacular mountain scenery. In Marathon, I separated from the others to "pick up the pace", (no, not the piquante sauce made in San Antonio). They were riding cruisers and weren’t suited to the cruise missile like pace of the Blackbird along the wide open Texas roads. Hwy 385 continued north to Fort Stockton, where I hopped on I-10 heading east. This is where I really enjoy riding; little traffic, safe smooth roads, great scenery and my favorite tunes. 719 miles and 10 and a half hours after leaving Lajitas, I stop for the night east of Houston at the Baytown exit of I-10. Monday after a short 300 miles, I was home by 1pm and found myself stopping by the office to sort through the mail and messages from my brief absence. Then it was home to see the family I was really beginning to miss. All in all this was a great trip and one that will hopefully become my annual winter ride.
Thanks for the story Paul! Sounds like a great trip. As I finish this up I am just back from Daytona International Speedway where I enjoyed another GREAT Daytona 200!. It would have been just a little bit greater if 1st time 200 racer Nicky Hayden (all of 18 years old!) had waited another half second or so to pull his Honda RC51 out of the slipstream of 99 AMA Suberbike champ Mark Mladin's Suzuki. As it was, his slingshot move was a little too early and the Suzuki edged back by at the finish line to take the win. Hayden looks to have a big future in racing and us fans are in for an exciting Superbike Season! Doug Chandler was 3rd on the Kawasaki. The race day weather was perfect and I enjoyed the company of several other HSTA members in the grandstands.
That's it for now folks. To steal a line from a friend: KEEP RIDING AND SMILING!