Day
6, Monday, April 20, 2015
This is the second day with Jake as my partner. The alarm went off at 6:30 AM and I got up
immediately. I didn’t want to. Last night went too quickly. I got up and got ready. Jake got up, got ready and I went out to our
Motorcycles to load two bags into my Motorcycle. I went on to breakfast. The guys came in slowly to have
breakfast. We all had breakfast and were
ready to go. As we were all at our
Motorcycles, Jan suggested that I get out my tripod and take a Group shot with
Louie before he left to go back home. It
was set up and a good shot was taken. As
we left the parking lot of the Hampton, Louie went home and we rode to Corpus
Christi. Ken was leading and we left at
9:00 AM.
Ken led us east on Highway 97 and then south on
I-37. We had a ways to go to get to
Corpus Christi. Chuck, Jan and J.B. had
checked the map and found a Harley Davidson Dealer in Corpus Christi. We needed to go there because Jan had a
little trouble locking his ignition. It
needed to get fixed. As we were riding,
it seemed forever to get to our destination.
At one point, I heard Jan call Chuck on the CB and asked him if his “low
fuel” light was on. Mine had been on for
quite some time, AND, I needed to go to the bathroom. Ken was tasked with the job of getting to the
Harley Davidson Dealer off of Exit 4A. I
rode up to Ken and signaled him that we needed to make a pit stop. There was nowhere to stop. At about Exit 14, Ken stopped at an Exxon gas
station at 10:23 AM after riding 104 miles.
Everyone rode directly to the gas pumps, while I rode to the front of
the store, parked and walked quickly to the restroom. Now relieved, I rode my Motorcycle to the gas
pump and filled my tank. I want you all
to know that I ride a Honda Goldwing and my gas tank holds 6.6 gallons. I filled up my tank with 6.722 gallons. I guess I was empty! Chuck’s gas tank holds 6.0 gallons and he
filled it with 6.02 gallons. Yes, we
were empty. We would have NOT made it to
the Harley Davidson Dealer. Everyone was
lined up and ready to go. J. B. had
positioned his Motor at the front of the line.
I rode and stopped next to J.B., jumping in front of the line. I thought that it was my turn to lead. J.B. told me that he was going to lead. OK, I just put myself right behind him. We left at 10:36 AM with J.B. leading.
South on I-37 we went in search of the Harley Davidson
Dealer. We turned right at Exit 4A onto
Highway 358. We rode a few miles, got
off, made a “Texas U-Turn” and rode on the access road a couple of blocks and
ended up at Harley Davidson Dealer. We
all parked in the front parking lot while Jan rode to the service
department. As we were inside drinking
coffee and whatever, Jan came back in.
They had finished rather quickly with his Motorcycle. We left at 11:30 AM.
J.B. led us east on the access road of Highway 358 and we
made another “Texas U-Turn” at the light.
We were now headed west. We
followed Highway 358 until we got to Padre Island. We turned onto Highway 361 and quickly left
Padre Island and into Mustang Island. We
had the Gulf of Mexico to our right and the Intracoastal Waterway to our
left. We rode into Port Aransas, TX
after riding 38 miles, J.B. stopped at Castaways Seafood and Grill at 12:11
PM. It was time to eat and J.B. said
that it looked like a good place to stop.
Now, how can we stop at a seafood restaurant by the Gulf of Mexico and
NOT east fish…we did. The fish was good! We finished lunch, mounted our Motorcycles
(that’s a CLEAN and innocent word…mounted) and continued on Highway 361. We soon turned and pulled into a busy parking
lot where there was a “fairy,” (NO, not that kind! A boat!) that took us across the Intracoastal
Waterway to the Main Land. We got onto
Highway 35 and rode north. We rode for
18 miles and stopped in Rockport, TX at 2:09 PM for a pit stop. A quick pit stop and checked the map and we
were off again at 2:18 PM, back on Highway 35.
We rode for another 85 miles and at 3:41 PM, we stopped
in Palacios, TX for gas. With gas, we
needed a pit stop and some beverages. We
needed to reload our bladders! J.B. was
done leading and it was my turn. I heard
J.B, Jan and Chuck talking and Chuck told me to lead the Group to Freeport,
TX. I didn’t think that that was
tough. It was an easy assignment. I heard them talk about a Holiday Inn Express
and a Hampton Inn. They didn’t tell me
where they were. Chuck told me to go
north on Highway 35 and turn right at Highway 36 and that should lead us to
Freeport.
I lead the group on Highway 35 and then turned right onto
Highway 36. We ended up in Freeport;
however, we were in the area of the oil refinereries. We made a big loop, rode 30 miles, stopped at
4:42 PM and, not seeing any hotels, I got my phone and checked to see where the
hotels were. I found them and led the
group to the hotels. We rode for 64
miles and stopped at 6:16 PM at the Holiday Inn Express. I went in to check for vacancies while Bruce
went across the way to the Hampton Inn.
Both hotels were completely booked.
Chuck and I were on the phone checking the neighboring cities for a
hotel with rooms. Chuck found a Best
Western Hotel in Alvin, TX with rooms.
He secured four rooms with his credit card. Chuck gave me directions to where the hotel
was and we left at 6:55 PM.
We rode back onto Highway 332 and then onto Highway
288. After riding for a distance, we
went onto Highway 35. We arrived in
Alvin and the Best Western Hotel at 7:37 PM after riding 36 miles. We checked into our rooms, took our bags to
our rooms and got ready to go to dinner.
J.B. stayed at the hotel and the rest of us rode about a mile and a half
north to a Chili’s Restaurant. We
finished dinner, returned to the hotel, covered our Motorcycles and tucked them
in for the night.
Today, we rode 387 miles.
It was a long day. It started
cold in the morning and we never took our jackets off. We got to ride on a “Fairy” and we rode all
over the Corpus Christi area. We did
change up our partners this evening.
Chuck/Al, Jan/Jake, J.B./C.E. and Bruce/Ken.
Tomorrow is laundry day.
We hope to stop at a laundromat so that we all can do our laundry. I heard Chuck and Jan talk about going on a longer
“fairy” ride, possibly somewhere close to Galveston, but I’m not sure. I guess we shall see… the
gulf of Mexico
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