FOGG Riders Tour 05/11/2005-05/14/2005
Founded On God’s Grace
In attendance:
FOGG Members:
1. Kerry Baxley (Harley Davidson, Electra Glide)
2. Leo & Paula Bell (BMW)
3. Wayne & Elaine Bittick (Honda, Gold Wing)
4. David & Rhonda Johnson (Suzuki, 1400 Intruder)
5. John Willis (Harley Davidson, Road King)
Guests:
6. Charles Bell (Yamaha, V Star 1100)
7. Tommy & Janice Gates (Harley Davidson, Electra Glide)
Tuesday 05/10/2005
Group #1 (motorcycles 2, 3, 6, 7) left Splendora Tuesday morning and headed for San Antonio.
Group #2 (motorcycles 1, 4, 5) left at Houston at 6:30 pm headed for San Antonio
We all spent the night at a Fiesta Motel 6, at the 555 exit, off I-10, in San Antonio, Texas.
Wednesday 05/11/2005
At 8:00 we all left the motel and headed for a near-by IHOP.
We had an awesome ride from Kerrville to Stonehenge II (on Ranch Road 1340). The switchbacks and grade maked this a challenging run.
After Stonehenge II (around noon) the groups split back up.
One group (motorcycles 2, 6, 7) went on to Big Bend State Park.
The rest of us (motorcycles 1, 3, 4, 5) went up to Garner State Park, Fredericksburg and then on to Lake Buchanan.
The following is an account from the group that went to Fredericksburg:
Wednesday, after Stonehenge II, we traveled down to Garner State Park , via Vanderpool and Leakey (the ride down Ranch Road 337 is beautiful). We eventually ended up in Fredericksburg. Wayne and Elaine found us hotel, while we scrambled to make it to the services at Faith Baptist Church. We were 30 minutes late (as they currently start Wednesday night services at 6:30 pm). The sermon was good and the people were very friendly. After church we met a couple (Randy & Jenifer Holland) in the church parking lot and ended-up going out to eat with them.
Thursday we headed for Lake Buchanan. We stopped over to visit Ms. Louis Weiss (a long time friend of Kerry’s) on highway 16 in a little community called Oxford (just south of Llano). We proceeded to ride through various hills and various low water bridges until we got to Llano. Along the way we had to stop for cattle, deer and a snake that was in the road. In Llano we stopped to stretch our legs and discovered that there was a big funeral for a police officer that had been shot.
When we got to Lake Buchanan we had some trouble getting three cabins (there was no one in the office). But, we eventually got three cabins and headed off to Burnet for dinner. The best looking place has a buffet. Unfortunately they don’t have it on Thursdays. But, we found the menu filling. Back at the cabins we enjoyed a relaxing evening on the lake.
Friday morning we headed back to Burnet for breakfast. We settled on the same place that we ate the night before (mistake). The breakfast was good, but a little pricey.
After leaving Burnet, we traveled on 79 thru Taylor. From there we swung south down towards Lexington. On the way we stopped by a beautiful church (First Shiloh Baptist Church, in Willamson County, First Shiloh Baptist Church In The News) and then visited Lilly Dennis (a near-by friend of Kerry’s and a long time member of First Shiloh Baptist Church).
We stopped for a bite to eat at a small Mexican restaurant near Lexington. The waitress tried her best to get one of us to let her ride our motorcycle and another customer tried to sale us a motorcycle. After lunch, we made our way to Washington on the Brazos River Museum. After that it was a short ride to Conroe and then back home.
The riding conditions were perfect. It was partly cloudy to sunny the whole trip. I think the other group took the rain with them. We had a nice relaxing trip with frequent stops, lots of time for fellowship, meeting new friends and fun.
The following is an account from the group that went to Bid Bend:
We left the rest of the group after Stonehenge and traveled to Alpine, Texas. That night after it got dark we ventured to Marfa and viewed the Marfa lights. They were out and yes we were sober. The next morning we left Alpine and headed to Presidio and followed Hwy 170 (known as "The River Road") through Lajitas and into Terlingua where we spent the night. Except for 4 or 5 miles of no black top it was a great road to travel.
After getting our rooms for the night Tommy and I traveled north on Hwy 118 to view the Christmas mountain range, Santiago point and Elephant mountain ( all of these are around 6500 ft.). Out in the middle of nowhere we saw a sign for Terlingua Ranch Lodge. Well we had to find out what it was and why it was out in the middle of nowhere. After driving this blacktop (loose description) for 13 miles it turned in to a gravel and sand road bed. Since a sign said we only had 3 miles to go we proceeded. As it turned out it was only a hunting camp.( must be some good hunting ). By the time we got back to our rooms we had traveled another 80 miles.
We left Terlingua Friday morning and entered Big Bent National Park (a beautiful park). Their had been ample rain and the cactus and other plants were still in bloom. Lots of birds (quail, doves, and road runners) were everywhere. The temperature was holding good for this time of year. Most of the time it stayed in the mid 80's during the hot part of the day. In the mornings it was in the low 70's. God was smiling on us. Up till this time we had run into no rain to speak of. By the time we were reaching Del Rio Friday afternoon we were watching thunder clouds building up to the west of us and heading our way.
Saturday morning saw us leaving Del Rio early trying to get ahead of the clouds still building in the west. By this time we were getting tired (I had traveled almost 1600 miles) and we were looking forward to getting home. We traveled hard and only ran into about 20/30 miles of drizzle and light rain (enough to make the roads slippery, Ask Tommy). In Columbus Paula and I cut off I 10 and headed up some back roads to get home, Tommy and Charles continued through Houston on I 10.
All in all we had a great trip, good weather, no accidents, and good company. Like I stated earlier GOD was smiling on us and I thank him for that.
