DAY 5 THREE SISTERS, DAY 6 FINALLY THE GULF

DAY 5
Left this morning for Leakey TX to ride the three sisters, a collection of farm roads popular with motorcyclists; click the following link for a description (click here). Met up with fellow retiree Louie who now calls Texas home and proceeded to make the 100 mile loop riding all three sisrters before heading on east. It is a good ride but perhaps over stated in the literature about degree of difficulty. The authors have obviously never ridden Bear Tooth Pass with thousand foot drop-offs, no guard rails, in a snow storm, ah but that was last year. Ended the day in Pleasonton were an older lady was talking to a few of us about her riding in her younger days. Thinking about her the next morning as we waved goodbye prior to leaving I couldn't help but think about Neil Young's song Unknown Legend.

 She used to work in a diner

Never saw a woman look finer
I used to order just to watch
her float across the floor
She grew up in a small town
Never put her roots down
Daddy always kept movin',
so she did too.

Somewhere on a desert highway
She rides a Harley-Davidson
Her long blonde hair
flyin' in the wind
She's been runnin' half her life
The chrome and steel she rides
Collidin' with
the very air she breathes
The air she breathes.

You know it ain't easy

You got to hold on
She was an unknown legend
in her time
Now she's dressin' two kids
Lookin' for a magic kiss
She gets the far-away look
in her eyes.

I don't know what her younger days were like but she had that far away look in her eyes.

DAY 6

Headed south towards Corpus Christi under overcast skies and temps that were just cool enough for a jacket, in other words, great riding weather. Tried to see how much gas we could us out of the tank before stopping just as three bikes ran out, yours truly included. Made a quick stop at Harley Dealer, oil for some, t-shirts for others, Gold Wing riders just standing in a group uncomfortably. Finally the gulf waters of Padre Island as we crossed over the bridge into a different culture.

Yeah, That's why it's still a mystery to me,
Why some people live like they do.
So many nice things happening out there,
Never even seen the clues.
Whoa, but we're doin' fine, we can travel and rhyme.
I know we've been doing our part.
Got a Caribbean soul I can barely control
and some Texas hidden here in my heart.

JIMMY BUFFETT

Stopped for lunch at a little local place for fresh fish and shrimp and couldn't help but notice that everyone in the place from staff to customers to owners had a little different mind set. They still had that Texas attitude mixed with some laid back island attitude giving off a whole different vibe. Left the islands via a short ferry ride in a stiff wind that had been with us all day. The ride was only a few minutes and the staff put us on the leeward side of the superstructure sheltered from the wind. Continuing along the coast for the rest of the day it was a never ending series of refineries and docks, not the most attractive area. We had to go north a bit to find a motel that wasn't full of oil workers but ended the day in Alvin some 400 riding miles from breakfast.

Chuck