Texas - it's big...

21st March

Spent most of the day riding around the Kisatchie National Forest, an area of mostly evergreen trees, near the Texas state line.



The weather is perfect, 68º F and sunny. The whole area is quiet, it being Sunday, and all the churches I pass have full car parks. In the early afternoon, I cross the River Sabine and enter Texas. I stop in Jasper and find I can't get internet connection from the hotel

I spend the evening doing chores and sorting out my photos. I check the bike over and note that the oil window is only showing oil in the bottom third - I'll buy some oil & top it up in the morning...

I'm also becoming concerned at the handling of the bike, and I'm pretty sure I've got a problem with the shock absorbers - I decide to post a question on the technical forum to see if I can get some advice...

Plenty of oil in Texas (luckily)...

22nd March

Actually, Texas is big - really big. It covers just under 262,000 square miles and has a population of nearly 21 million

So I got on the bike and decided to go and see some of it. First, though, I fill up with fuel and buy a quart of multigrade. I put about half a litre of oil in the bike and ride North. After a couple of miles, I glance down and see I have a problem. Poo



Top tip - when you fill up the oil, make sure that the O ring doesn't fall off the filler cap. (This picture was taken after I'd stopped & removed the filler cap - and graphically demonstrates how much oil you can lose without an O ring in just 10 miles)



I turn around and return to Jasper, stopping at the first garage I come to, which happens to be Jasper County Tractors, a John Deere dealer.



There I meet their fitter, an excellent bloke who rejoices in the name of Will Barrow (no - that really is his name ) - an ex US Army Abrahams tank driver and veteran of the (first) Gulf War. In no time at all he finds an O ring to replace the missing one, supplies me with a spare one, gives me a rag to wipe down the bike with and charges me 84¢...



I suppose I'll never have to worry about my left boot letting in water...

I stop in Lufkin and spend half an hour with a pressure washer getting the oil off the side of the bike - luckily none of the oil migrated as far as the rear brake or the tyre. I make my way down to Huntsville and check in to the Holiday Inn, change and then deposit my oil soaked jeans into their washing machine...

23rd March

A good day. I get a phone call from Arch Rodriguez, a member of AdvRider with whom I’ve been corresponding from time to time, inviting me down to his house in Katy, Texas (just West of Houston). I plan to avoid the sprawling metropolis of Houston by heading South West and approaching Katy from the West. As I leave Huntsville, I’m struck by the number of prisons there are in the area – I’ve ridden past 3 (I later find there are a further 4 in the county), including the, completely inappropriately named, Holliday Unit…



I stop for lunch at a small diner and have a gargantuan meal of Fried Chicken, fried Okra, mashed potatoes and black eyed peas for an extremely reasonable $6 – these little country cafes really are excellent value – they are often staffed by waitresses who actually seem to care whether you’ve enjoyed your meal or not…



I reach Arch’s spectacular house at about 1630…



…it’s spectacular, not just for its size, location and appearance, but for Arch’s choice of ornament in the lounge…



Yes that is a 1992 homologation Ducati 888 SP4…



Yes, it’s street legal and he uses it now & again. Arch and his girlfriend, the lovely Julie, have a motorcyclist’s dream home. Here’s the bikegarage (not to be confused with the double car garage – which also houses the dirt bikes…)



The Adv is amongst some pretty spectacular company…



We're soon joined by Arch’s best mate and long time riding partner, Warren, who proceeds to cook a Czechoslovakian dish he learned off a couple of Czech bikers he met in Idaho.



It’s called Late Show (well, that’s how it’s pronounced – I think it’s spelt Lecho) and is spectacularly tasty, though I suspect Late Show is probably Czech for ‘Throw in everything you have left in the fridge’.




We stay up swapping bullshit and drinking beer and have fun swapping local expressions. My favourite, culled from the vocabulary of an Aussie marine engineer ‘she threw a leg out of bed’. This meant the ship’s engine had thrown a con-rod through the crankcase. Arch seemed to enjoy the expression “he’s a two faced w@nker”, and continues to use it for the next 24 hours on every conceivable occasion…

Then Arch does something remarkable, something that Buddy Lee, a one time IT pro, couldn’t do* – he gets my laptop’s wireless card to work! Top bloke!
Eventually it gets late and I turn in.

*Sorry Buddy – he made me print this…

24th March

Spent the day doing a few more chores and having a brief look around Arch’s town. There is a massive park right next door to Arch’s house, which incorporates, amongst other things, an extensive drainage system – needed due to occasional freak rainfall in the area (a couple of years ago, Houston got 30 inches of rain in 24 hours! ) - this system is built and managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. All around the park, with typical American dedication to the efficient pursuit of their leisure activities, there are amenities for the residents. Some of these are fairly predictable, like horse riding and mountain bike trails. However, others are more unusual. This is a model aircraft airport…



…it has a control ‘tower’, which is used at weekends, and different areas where people can fly different types of aircraft (which vary from helicopters to F18s with gas turbine engines..).

Further down the road is the Bark Park…



…where you can walk your dogs in one of 3 areas, depending on their weight…



…as long as you follow the rules…

25th March

Went to Arch’s new employers today…



…Mancuso Harley Davidson, Houston’s biggest HD dealership. This is one of two stores they have in the area, it’s newly built and is vast – the size of a large aircraft hangar.



The workshop and warehouse areas are even bigger than the sales floor…

As you would expect, you can get most things Harley Davidson here…



Mirrors…



Footboards…



Slippers… (couldn’t find a pipe, though )



Bicycles…



Coffee…



…and bikes,



…lots of bikes.

26th March

After an overdose of Harley Davidson yesterday, I decided to have a bike free day and spent most of it doing various chores and sorting out my laptop (treated it to a complete memory laundry, disk scan, de-frag and bought it a cordless mouse). That evening Julie, Arch and I met up with their friend Rick at a new restaurant in the centre of Houston…



…The Aquarium. This place is amazing. It’s been fitted out like a set from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and is fitted with a series of fish tanks, holding over half a million gallons of water – including a column in the centre of a spiral staircase over 50 feet in height. The displays are excellent…



...and you can get very close to the fish – here’s Julie saying hello to some Stingrays…



The restaurant is superb. It’s a seafood menu, for those who don’t mind being stared at by the cousins of those they are eating The portions are huge (this is Texas, after all) – this is a crab & avocado starter…



…and the food is absolutely first rate – I hope the Red Snapper watching me eat didn’t recognise any of their relatives…



After dinner we continued our tour of the fish tanks,



before getting on a train and going through the final exhibit – a shark tank. The fairground type train stops inside a plexiglass tunnel which goes through a vast shark tank. The residents eye us as they lazily swim around us…



Afterwards we walk back to the car, looking at the lights of downtown Houston.

27th – 28th March

Over the weekend, Arch and I start planning where I should head for on Monday morning when I depart. On Saturday evening, Julie has a party for her work colleagues and friends at the house. Whilst preparing, I’m introduced to Ghettopoly, a game for all the family



‘Passing Go’ is slightly different…



…as is ‘Supertax’…



The next evening (after a slow, quiet Sunday afternoon), whilst Arch and I plan my immediate future…



…the lovely Julie prepares us dinner.