Therapy On Two Wheels

Got up this Saturday morning (May 22, 2010) and decided to head out to the “Regency Bridge” in Regency, Texas. Here is the wikipedia information:

The Regency Bridge, locally known as the “Swinging Bridge,” is a one-lane suspension bridge over the Colorado River in Texas. It is located at the intersection of Mills County Road 433 and San Saba County Road 137, both gravel roads, near a small community called Regency. The bridge saddles Mills and San Saba counties.

The bridge has a span of 325 feet (99 m) and a wood surface. It was built in 1939, with most of the work being done by hand. The bridge was restored in 1997, with then-Governor Bush attending the rededication service. This was a major event for the community of around 25 people.

Vandals set the wood surface on fire on December 29, 2003, burning a hole in some planks. The bridge has since been repaired and reopened to traffic.

A nearby historical marker, located on the southeast side of the intersection of FM 574 and Mills County Road 433 (which is just east of the intersection of FM 45 and FM 574) reads:

This area’s first Colorado River bridge was at Regency, on Mills-San Saba County line. Built 1903, it served ranchers and farmers for going to market, but fell in 1924, killing a boy, a horse, and some cattle. Its successor was demolished by a 1936 flood. With 90 per cent of the work done by hand labor, the Regency Suspension Bridge was erected in 1939. It became the pride of the locality, and youths gathered there in the 1940s to picnic, dance, and sing. Bypassed by paved farm roads, it now (1976) survives as one of the last suspension bridges in Texas.

Nice Ride. Round Trip 415 miles. Nice day. Partly Cloudy. Cool in the morning but got up to 93 degrees in the afternoon. rode thru a couple of showers. They were short lived and were just enough to cool things off and then make it hot and humid. Oh well.

Here are some pictures……(click on each image for a larger version)

Until next time.

See you on the road,

David Whitford

Continued from The H.O.T. Rally Part 1……..

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The Western Trail – Near Brady, Texas – 150 points
Through this gap in hills called “Brady Mountains” passed the western cattle trail, also known as “Dodge City Trail”, “Fort Griffin Trail” or “The Beef Trail”. Said to have originated in 1876, this was the last of the old-time Texas cattle trails, those east of here having been closed by farmers. Large numbers of cattle were driven up this trail 1876 to 1886–over 200,000 head in 1881 alone.

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1870’s Cowboy/Indian Fight – Near Brady, Texas – 150 points

Near here in 1874 or 1875, 18 Indians attacked W.B. Brown and two comrades, spooking one horse and capturing bedrolls and grub, but sparing the men, who thankfully escaped. In the 1870s, when they were being driven off the range, capture of supplies meant victory to the Indians.

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Onion Creek Indian Fight – Near Brady, Texas – 150 points
One night in 1866, five men from Richland Springs (about 25 mi. NE) recovered stolen horses from Indians camped near here. A metal arrow hit a Mr. Lafferty, slid halfway around his skull, was cut out with a pocket knife, and Lafferty survived. The grave of an Indian casualty is about 30 yards north.

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Dairy Queen Dilly Bar – Brady, Texas – 200 points
At any Texas Dairy Queen buy a Dilly bar and bring back your receipt showing that you purchased this ice cream treat. The receipt must have the location, proper time and the correct item listed on it.

This was was fun and interesting. The Dairy Queen I stopped at was in Brady, Tx. However, their receipt showed the dilly bar as a “novelty” item. I lucked out and a very nice manager was there when I arrived and she said if I had a minute she could change it to read “dilly bar”. I said YES. I bought it and left with only a stop of 8-10 minutes. I thanked her cheerfully.

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Brady Butane – Brady, Texas – 400 points
Photograph the joyful Brady Butane Tank, “Brady”

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Jim Bowie Indian Battle Site – Near Brady, Texas – 150 points

According to the Marker this is the site of a 13 hour siege of 164 Caddo and Lipans Indians against Jim Bowie, his brother Rezin and group of seven other men. The group was on an expedition to find the Los Almagres Mine when they discover that a war party was stalking them. It was believe that 80 warriors were killed, while the Bowie expedition lost one man.

Voca Water Wheel Mill – Near Brady, Tx – 150 points

Built 1876, by H.A. Chadwick and sons, William and Milam, who constructed other mills in the region. Water was diverted from river by a still-visible, 1300-yard millrace. Originally used to grind wheat and corn; a saw was soon added to provide “rawhide” lumber. First cotton gin in the county, powered by this wheel and producing 3 bales per day, was constructed in early 1880s. A store operated near the mill for a short time, but moved to Voca after landlord refused to allow the sale of bitters. Mill operated until washed away by flood, June 1899.

In the end, I was able to collect all 7 of the McColluch County Bonuses for the Triple Multiplier. This rendered me 4,200 points and then when you add the rest of my bonus points it put me at a total of 5,900 points.

I was going to be very happy to even place in the top 5 or even the top 10 for that matter. I finished my route very early and had enough time grab a bite to eat in a McDonald’s and review my paperwork and get it all in order to be turned in. All in all I had about an hour and 45 minutes to spare. I was not please as I could have included this time in my route and schedule in another bonus location but by this time it would have taken too long to get out to an available bonus and get back in time. So, I settled with my 5,900 points and would take the place I received with satisfaction.

Finally, I had a fantastic time and met some nice Riders. I won 2nd place!!

Thank you to James Stovall for putting this rally together. I look forward to next years.
I will be participating in many more of these. In fact, I am planning one right now for the Two Bit Rally out of Morrison, Colorado.

See you on the Road,

David Whitford
Wingpilot66

The H.O.T. Rally or otherwise known as The “Heart Of Texas” Eight Hour Road Rally was held on May 1, 2010. This would be my first road rally of this type. I CAN tell you it will probably be one of many that I attend and compete in. Let’s just say I’ve been bitten by the rally bug. This is not your typical rally when you think of a rally, or maybe it’s the other way around? Maybe they have it wrong? Anyways, this was probably the most fun I’ve had in quite a while in regards to planning and riding.

What is a Road Rally you ask? Well let me tell you. It consists of many, in this case, motorcyclist that will ride for 8 hours collecting Bonuses. Think of a scavenger hunt. Basically you could start anywhere in Texas that you would like BUT the Rally would begin at 7:00 am and end at 3:00pm in Brady, Texas. Brady is very near the geographical center of Texas. We were also given several “Alternate” start locations with big bonus points attached. However, you could see these as easy points or “sucker” spots. I did not choose to start any of the alternate start locations. We also received 5 days prior to the rally date a Bonus Listing of over 50 bonus point locations for you to plan and strategize around. Luckily our rally master did a fantastic job in presenting the locations with perfect Longitude and Latitude locations as well as some other basic explanations of the bonus as well as the requirement for capturing the bonus. Most of the bonus locations were photo type locations, but some were buy something or collect something and get a dated and timed receipt. Speaking of this, in my opinion, two of the most important locations in any rally will be your start and end locations for obvious reasons.
Your start is confirmed by a receipt of some type on the day of the rally. It must include the location, date, and time. For example, my start receipt was from a Shell gas station in Italy, Tx at 7:01 am on May 1, 2010. If it had read 06:59 I would have been DNF’d, or “Did Not Finish”. That’s really just a nice way of saying you’ve been disqualified.

Next you plan a route from your start location, to bonus locations of your choice, and then ending at the Rally End location. You can plan any route you like. It is up to you to decide the route and how many bonus locations to collect and to arrive on time without being late and then collecting deductions in your score. 0:01 to 15:00 minutes late minus 250 points, 15:01 – 30:00 minus another 250 points. 3:30:01 or one second beyond 3:30 pm and you are DNF’d. No if, ands, or buts.

Planning and strategizing my route, I’d have to say was #2 to actually riding the rally. Once the planning, routing and timing was all done, it was just then a matter if “working” the plan if you know what I mean.

My Rally number was, in my opinion, Lucky #13!! Here is a picture of what I put together for my rally flag.

What do you do with the Rally Flag? This rally flag is used to identify you in your pictures at the bonus locations that you collect. I will show my examples below. Most bonus locations require a photo verification. You use your own camera, and it should be set with a date and time stamp. In this case it must show May 1, 2010. Most rally masters will have a requirement for photo size, type, and resolution.

My plan and route consisted of 3 possible scores. These scores consisted of two circumstantial bonus possibilities that I might or might not be able to obtain.
Circumstantial Bonus #1 was to find and take a picture of a DPS Officer holding your rally flag in front of his/her vehicle. Circumstantial Bonus #2 was to find and take a picture of a McCulloch County Sheriffs Officer holding your rally flag in front of his/her vehicle. I thought for sure I’d be able to get at least one of them. WRONG! The old saying still holds true, “When you need one, you can never find one.” I even mapped out the Sherrifs office in McCulloch County! But NO! No one there but a dispatcher and she couldn’t leave her post, plus there wasn’t a car outside for her to stand by! [BUT.... at 3:30 or so? when the rally was over... guess what drove by the rally end location? Yep, you guessed it... not one but both of them!! Mr. DPS officer in his car and a McCulloch County Sheriff Deputy in his car. It was frustrating to say the least.]
So, anyways my original plan was for both of the circumstantial bonuses to be included. My plan totalled 7,400 points with both, and 6400, if I only got the Sherriff’s Deputy, and finally only 5,900 points without either. Well, at the end of the day that is what I ended up with, 5,900 points. Did I win? You’ll have to read on to find out.

Saturday – May 1, 2010 5:15am
Time to wake up. I showered and I could hear the thunder and lightning outside. I was not deterred, as I was going to ride no matter what. That is the type of rider I am. Crazy? Maybe. Dedicated? Yes. Now you know why I need Therapy but it’s on two wheels! Nothing better at least for me.
Dressed and ready to go. While donning my rain gear I hear the hail begin to fall. It’s ok, I still had 15 min’s before it was time to leave. I didn’t even look outside. I didn’t care. I just wanted it to stop hailing at least.
Time to depart the house to get to my start location in Italy, Texas at the Shell Station right next to my first Bonus location. I was ready to go and I went to the garage and opened if and lo and behold the hail, rain, lightning and thunder had all stopped. It was there and then gone. Still cloudy and the roads where very wet. No problem. It’s going to be a great day!!

Here is a map of my route:

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Starship Pegasus – Italy, Texas – 875 points

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The Rock Station – Hamilton, Texas – 375 points
This unique gas “Rock” station was built from petrified wood and stone from the area.

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Engine 1080 – Brownwood, Texas – 250 points
Engine 1080 of the AT&SF is one of nine Prairie Class engines remaining in the country.

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The Heart of Texas – The Geographic Center of Texas – 200 points

This is an imaginary point whose coordinates divide the state into four equal areas. In straight-line distance it is 437 miles from the state’s most westerly point on the Rio Grande River above El Paso, 412 miles from the most northerly point in the northwest corner of the Panhandle near Texline, 401 miles from the most southerly point on the Rio Grande below Brownsville and 341 miles from the most easterly point on the Sabine River near Burkeville. Maximum border-to-border distance is 801 miles from north to south and 773 miles from east to west.

Note: This bonus is 4 of 7 bonuses in McCulloch County. Collect all McCulloch County bonuses and multiply the sum of these bonuses by 3.

Yes My plan was to collect all 7 of the McCulloch County Bonuses and obtain the multiplier. This, in the end, was going to be the KEY to this whole rally. Luckily it was already in my plan.

To Be Continued…………

A little late but as promised here’s a little text about our evening….. First of all, unfortunately Denise was unable to go as she got delayed in Fort Worth, TX visiting with Jayme and running errands with her before Jayme’s graduate school started on Monday. But…Gary, Annette and I both took the ride to Kaufman to meet up with the other couples. Kenneth, Celeste, Mike and Joan were waiting when we arrived. Brad and Carrie were unable to join us as Brad had to work. I honestly felt a little out of place but everyone else didn’t seem to mind. Gary took lead with Kenneth, Mike and then me bringing up the tail end of the group. It was a nice uneventful trip. Here’s a few pics of the restaurant and the group.

Now for my critique of the restaurant: I’ve not ever been to a Jalapeno Tree. The decor and restaurant had a great atmosphere. We were seated immediately but service after that was not the best. We actually had to ask for a waiter to get us some drinks and then they took at least 10 minutes or more to actually bring our drinks. Food was finally ordered and it too took a bit longer to arrive but it actually arrived faster than it took to get our drinks. While waiting for our food and drinks we nibble on chips and salsa and an extra sauce that I guess is Jalapeno Tree’s signature sauce. It appeared to be a green sauce that was most likely part sour cream and guacomole. I was not a fan. The typical red picante sauce or “hot” sauce was OK, was by far NOT the best I’d ever tasted. Ok, onto the food. I ordered the typical Chicken Enchiladas with Sour Cream sauce, refried beans and rice. I was right “Typical”… Nothing special to write home about, but they were tasty. I would say Average.
Grades (1=poor, 5 best): Atmosphere – 4, Service – 2, Food – 3 Overall Average: 3

See you on the road,

Wingpilot66

Tomorrow Evening 4 other couples from my GWRRA Chapter will be taking a leisurly ride from Kaufman, TX to Tyler, TX to eat at a Jalepeno Tree Restaurant for some Mexican Food.
I will try to remember to get some good photographs of the couples, the ride, and the restaurant. I will also give a critique of the food at the Jalepeno Tree. One of the couples going has eaten at one before but I have not so this will be a new experience for me. Until then……

See you on the road,

David W (Wingpilot66)