Glass chapels, full dams and a broken pig trail

Gorgeous scenery outside Eureka Springs, AK

Day 3 on the road to Kansas City turned out to be sunny and dry.  Though my head cold rages on, my crackling voice is now at least at a discernable decibel.  I know I'm not too sick to ride since I still want to ride.  For today's adventure, we used Eureka Springs as our jump off point for some scenic back roads routes and sites.  There seemed to be no end to the motorcycle friendly lodges and eating establishments in this little town. The twisting and steep road found in the town itself served as a preview for the backcountry routes we were to encounter later in the day.

Beaver Dam

Our first stop of the day was Beaver Dam.  From the water spilling over the 220 foot high flood gates, all the rain that has been pounding the central states has apparently replenished Beaver Lake/Reservoir to capacity.  Throughout TX and now in AR, we've ridden past numerous rivers, lakes and just flooded fields that show evidence of massive, powerful movements of water recently.  From tree tops peeking out above water levels and piles of brush and trees still rammed against bridge supports, it's obvious that the storms and rains we have been experiencing in San Antonio passed through our current route as well.

Inside Thorncrown Chapel

Next on the list was Thorncrown Chapel.  Sightseeing in Europe for me  almost always includes magnificent, hundreds of years old cathedrals, but there hasn't been many religious buildings in the U.S. that have the architectural ability to draw me in.  This small, wooden structure sporting 6000 square feet of glass however, proved to be an exception.  Opened in 1980, it's serene location makes it a nice respite from the constant concentration required for riding safely in the Ozarks.

Deciding on plan B for Pig Trail route closure

After a lunch stop in the historic downtown area of Eureka Springs, we attempted to once again ride one of the most famous rides in this area- the Pig Trail. I say "again" because our attempt at riding this 19 mile stretch of AR Hwy 23 from the southern entrance was thwarted by a road closure.  It seems that all that flooding has taken a toll on the low-lying areas of this famous ride.  After riding nearly 50 miles south on AR Hwy 23 from the northern approach before passing the sign for the famous ride, we were feeling confident the road might have been open (especially since the Dept. of Transportation recording was reporting no road closures).  Only a couple of miles after the sign though, we ran into these barricades once again.  Oh well, this just means another trip to this area will be in order to finish the ride!

Gunny, Hooker, Princess, Body Slam, Freebird, Kickstand, Barbi and Sunshine

Although disappointed with the route closure, the nearly 300 miles we covered today certainly didn't leave us disappointed.  This area of the Ozark Mountains provided lots of overviews of lush, green valleys.  There were some simple, yet beautiful houses with wrap around porches and meticulously manicured lawns sprinkled amongst mobile homes and a few places that would've been heaven for folks who watch shows like American Pickers. This area actually reminded me quite a bit of North Carolina. 

Stretching our legs along Hwy 16

The day ended with a chocolate shake to try to sooth my increasingly sore throat.  We shall see what tomorrow brings...             

Rolling down the highway

Moving day!

Once again, a motorcycle trip has prompted me to pick up my blog again.  It's so much easier to throw some photos up on this site and do a little story-telling than to create a mass email and hope that I haven't left anyone out.  Plus, my travel partners usually get a kick out of my version of the journey :-)

In the never-ending relocation cycle of my life, a couple of years have passed, so it is once again time for me to purge my belongings and turn what's left over to movers.  I hate clutter, so I don't actually accumulate a whole lot of stuff.  The movers walked through my place and decided that it was going to be an easy day...until they saw the garage!  I may not have a whole lot of possessions, but what I do have is very heavy gym equipment. 

Early morning route and safety brief.

Even with weights and ergometers, all my worldly possessions weighed in at around 6000 pounds.  Although considered light by moving standards, I still find it a bit embarrassing that one person requires that much "stuff" to live.  And that wasn't counting my bike or car! 

Only once since I've been riding have I not had enough time to ride my bike to my new residence and had to allow movers to transport it for me.  Even though they did a decent job with the move, I much prefer to ride to my new home.  So, after all my household goods were on the move and I spent a few days tying up loose ends, I rallied with some of my CVMA family for the trek north.

Freebird and Body Slam at the end of Day 1.

Now, I'd love to say that 7 bikes of folks decided to escort me to my new home state of KS just because I was moving, but the truth is that our annual CVMA National meeting just happens to coincide with the same time and location as my relocation, so I lucked out and got to extend my time with them a bit longer.

The first leg of our journey was a bee-line straight for Texarkana.  I left my friend's house in San Antonio in a heavy drizzle before sunrise, but ended in Texarkana about 400 miles later with a slight sunburn.  It was a long day, but miles turned out under two wheels with people whose company you enjoy always seems to be worth it in the end.

Iron horse corral.

After a breakfast-dinner at IHOP, a shower and a decent night's sleep, we awoke to an overcast, but dry morning.  It's always amusing to watch other folks in the hotels in which we stay, wake up to find us packing our bikes in the morning.  Although we can sometimes get a bit loud with our story-telling at the end of ride days, we're not exactly the hell-raising biker types most folks expect when they see this cluster of bikes parked out front of a hotel.

Saying for the day.

The other tidbit to this story is that I started getting a sore throat a couple of days before we pulled out on the bikes.  Although I'm not running a fever or anything, I wasn't feeling 100% as we pulled out of San Antonio and I felt progressively worse towards the end of the ride.  By the time I woke up this morning, I was feeling much better but had completely lost my voice.  Of course it became great fun for my travel partners to banter with me and watch me struggle to rasp out sassy remarks.  I figured I might as well just roll with the fun and wore one of my favorite shirts to help me feel better.  Although I wasn't feeling great for a multi-day motorcycle trip, this saying reminds me that I've been through crappy before, and this certainly ain't it! And just like most other unpleasant things in life, this too shall pass, so just focus on the positive and roll with it.

Tin Man meets tin man :-)

Sure enough, by lunch time and a new town, I was feeling much better and my voice started to crackle back to life, much to the chagrin of my friends :-)  We all have road names, so I try to live up to mine of "Sunshine" even when I'm not at 100%.  My CVMA brother Carlos' road name is Tin Man, because he's had so many surgeries, that he's full of hard ware. As luck would have it, the BBQ joint where we had lunch had a tin man hanging from the ceiling just a couple of tables over from where we were sitting.  So, Tin Man met tin man :-)

Taking lead.

After all was said and done, we've ridden approximately 750 miles since leaving San Antonio yesterday morning.  I have lots of friends who do "Iron Butt" rides and can easily do that kind of mileage in a day.  But for me, I prefer to slow things down a bit and enjoy the scenery and company along the way.  It's a bit cliche, but it really is about the journey, and not the destination.

Enjoy the day and I'll post again from the road soon.

  

2014 Through My Lens

I had been doing a Christmas newsletter/yearly recap for almost a decade, but the last couple of years I just haven't been motivated to do one.  I think that I just have so much going on that the thought of summarizing seems like too much work!  This year, I've decided to do a pseudo-recap of 2014 through photographs that I've taken during my adventures.  No recognizable people in them, just a few of my favorite photo compositions throughout the months.  Click on the first pic to click through as a slide show.  Here's to a happy and prosperous 2015!  Enjoy!! 


Historic Saenger Theater,  New Orleans, LA (Dec)

 

Holiday lighting on the Riverwalk, San Antonio, TX (Dec)

 

Day of the Dead Festival sugar skulls and marigolds, San Antonio, TX (Nov)
 

CVMA State Meeting flags, Gruene, TX (Oct)

Jacob's Well, Wemberly, TX (Oct)

 



San Juan Mission, San Antonio, TX (Sep)

Chili peppers on the grounds of the Alhambra, Grenada Spain (Jul)

Red bird of paradise flowers, San Antonio, TX (Jul)
 



Retreat, San Antonio, TX (Sep)

 

Bikes and bridges, Fredericksberg, TX (Aug)

Roasted garlic, goat cheese and crostini, Alamo Springs Cafe, Fredericksberg, TX (Aug)
 

Fountain art, Granada Spain (Jul)
 

Boiled seafood bayou-style, Houma, LA (Jun)

Riders, Deals Gap, NC (Jun)



Ever-present vultures over the battlefields, Gettysburg, PA (Jun)

Bird eggs in cannon, Gettysburg, PA (Jun)

Bridge over canal, Missouri or Arkansas (Jun)



City scenes, Amsterdam Netherlands (Apr)



Tulip fields, Keukenhof Netherlands (Apr)



Lausanne Cathedral, Lausanne Switzerland (Apr)



Lake Geneva, Morges Switzerland (Apr)



Canola flowers in countryside from 200 mph train window, western  France (Apr)



Antique glass, Cameron, NC (Apr)



Lunar eclipse over Alamo Cenotaph, San Antonio, TX  (Mar)



Bluebonnets, boot fence and CVMA riders, Willow City, TX (Mar)



Riders in front of capital building, Austin, TX (Mar)

 



TX Bucket List

One of the San Antonio Missions- The Alamo

With a break in my teaching schedule, I've  been able to devote more free time to enjoying Texas.  Like every place I've lived in the last couple of decades, my time here in TX has an expiration date (and no, I don't know that date yet!).  Early in my military career, I was too young and homesick to really appreciate the ridiculously unique locations I was fortunate enough to find myself.  Unfortunately, I was too busy comparing each place to where I was raised or the location I had just left.  There's a saying in the military that no place is as good as the place you just came from, and no place is worse than the one in which you are currently stationed.  It's sad, but unfortunately an accurate perception.

Day of the Dead Festival

At the beginning of my three month internship at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs back in 2003, I made a mental list as soon as I got there of all the places in Colorado I wanted to see before my summer internship was over.  With my aversion to cold climates and northern locales, I figured I may never go there again, so I should see all that I could in those three months. 

Blue Bonnets in bloom

Each weekend, I ticked off an experience or location on my list.  There wasn't a single day off that I didn't go out and experience all that Colorado had to offer.  I ended up staying to live and work in Colorado Springs for another 4 years after that summer internship.  Until I had bought my motorcycle though, I had seen and done more in Colorado in those three months of my internship than I had in my whole four years afterwards. 

Jacob's Well

I've continued to made  a mental list at each new place I live and then make a conscious effort to do and see as much as I can while I live there.  I didn't realize how much I had been slacking on my list here in TX until I it dawned on me that I hadn't really seen anything new in a while.  So, I've been revisiting my bucket list.



Luckenbach, TX

So far:

Stock Show and Rodeo
Hill Country wineries
San Antonio Missions
Spoetzl Brewery (Shiner)
Luckenbach and Gruene Dance Halls
Bluebonnets blooming
BBQ at just about every well-known BBQ joint
Jacob's Well
Day of the Dead festival
Zip-lining in Wimberly
Ride Three Twisted Sisters
Natural Bridge Caverns



BBQ pit at the Salt Lick

Still left to experience:

Big Bend National Park
McDonald Observatory
Blue Bell Ice Cream factory
Cadillac Ranch
Battle of the Flowers Parade

I'm sure I'm missing a ton of great locations and experiences, so I'm open to suggestions!

3 Nov update:  Since my friends all prefer to comment on Facebook, here's three more to add to the "still left to experience" list:

Marfa lights
Fort Davis
Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Thanks team!



Wind Therapy

Jumpmaster, Bugsy, L.F. and Big Bird at Hanger Hotel and Diner

I've been working too much lately.  There, I said it!  The last several weeks have been the heaviest workload for me this semester.  It's the end of the semester for our students and all their projects and writing assignments have been coming due that require lots of feedback and grading.  I really enjoy teaching, so I'm not complaining, but it sure is time consuming and mentally exhausting.  So after 24-hour staff duty Friday night, I decided that the remainder of my weekend would consist of sleeping and riding; that's it!

Inside the Hanger Hotel Diner

When I finally got up this morning, I rallied up with a few friends for some much needed wind therapy and lunch.  I love that I can send a text that just says I need lunch and a ride, and I am provided a rally point and showtime!  No thinking required on my part...perfect :-)

The day started off a bit hazy, so the sun wasn't blazing down on us which made for a very enjoyable ride.  Not that I would be able to retrace the route anyway because I'm so directionally-challenged, but I absolutely let my mind zone out for the ride to clear my mind.  Don't worry, I'm paying attention to the road and my riding.  To be honest, that's all my mind was focused on, which is why many of us consider riding to be a kind of therapy.  I've never been able to calm my mind enough to "meditate", but I suspect this is what it would be like.  To be in the moment (or the ride), so intensely that every other thought is crowded out.

Ice cream in downtown Fredericksburg

We rode out to Fredericksburg and had lunch at the airport at the Hanger Hotel and Diner.  Click on the link to find out more about it, but it's right on the runway of the regional airport and was built to resemble  a 1940's style aircraft hanger.  All the polished fixtures and hard wood finishes exude an air of a bygone era of classy travel.  The place really did feel like a step back in time, or an old Hollywood movie.  We sat out on the porch and watched a couple of planes take off and told  aviation stories from our past travels.  Although the sound and smell of turning engines always make my stomach knot up just a bit as memories of aircrew or skydiving/parachuting experiences come flooding back, it truly was a relaxing scene.  We followed that up with a roll and stroll through downtown Fredericksburg culminating into the hot fudge sundae you see me enjoying here :-)

All in all, a great day of riding and camaraderie...just what I needed to remind me that it's OK to work hard as long as I remember to take a little time for myself too!

Granada, Spain

I swear, it's feast or famine with me.  Until  my deployment to Afghanistan a couple of years ago, I hadn't been out of the country in 4 years.  There were times in my life (employed by US Olympic Committee and the US Navy) where I was routinely out of the country more than I was in it! Even though my international travel has slowed quite a bit in recent years, I've somehow managed to make it to Europe twice in the last few months.   A few days after all the promotion party shenanigans, I hastily rummaged through my pockets for left over Euros from my trip in May, packed a bag and then flew out to Spain.

I was asked to fill in and do some work with a sports team during a competition in Spain, so I cleared my schedule for a week for the opportunity to stay current in my chosen field.  Since this is a travel blog and not a work blog, I won't go into detail about my work  there, but I will share with you the little sightseeing excursion that I did manage to sneak into my schedule.

I was stationed in Rota, Spain in the mid-nineties, so I'm no stranger to the southern region of the country known as Andalusia.  The region spans from the Atlantic ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.  During my three years there with the Navy, I experienced so many quintessentially Spanish events. I ran with the bulls in Vejer on Easter Sunday.  Well, truth be told, I jumped up and hung from the bars on the windows of the establishment  in which I was standing in front while enjoying  a cerveza and let the bull run beneath me.  I rock climbed in Tarifa on a cliff so high that  I could see Morocco from it.  I went camping in Malaga and saw bullfights in Puerto de Santa Maria.  I drank sherry  and attempted to Flaminco dance at a feria in Jerez.  But one of the most memorable experiences was tapa-hopping and visiting the Alhambra in Granada with my mom when she came out on a vacation.

So, when I found myself with a couple of free hours on my last day in Granada  a couple of weeks ago, I caught a cab and went to re-explore the Alhambra.  It was still the majestic piece of architecture I remembered from over a decade ago.

According to its website, the Alhambra was so called because of its reddish walls (Arabic meaning "red castle").  The fortress, dating back to the 9th century, sits strategically atop a hill overlooking the whole city and meadow below it.  The Arabic influence on the current buildings built by the Moors in the 11th through 14th centuries is evident in the exorbitant stonework and tile throughout the palace.  The intricate carvings cover so much area that it's almost dizzying.  The gardens and pools are still immaculately manicured and overlook the picturesque countryside and town.  Though my time was limited, it was worth rushing to spend a couple of hours there after the tourists had thinned.

 Now that I'm back in San Antonio, my time has been consumed with teaching and trying to catch up from all the events of the last few months.  The weather has been great though, so I'm sure there are some adventures waiting to happen :-)