SViper
Senior member
Hey guys,
Just wanted to share our ride that we went on. Has to be by far the longest ride I've been on (about 8 hrs total). It was a blast, but probably would have been better with more frequent breaks, and if it weren't 95 degrees outside.
Here is the route we took: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=102942085158943234637.000490b37acb49c482f54
Had 5 bikes with everyone having a passenger except for 1 bike. Here is a pick of them:
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/SViper/IMG_20100911_122144.jpg
Started the ride at about 9:30am. We were trying to get an early start so we could beat the mid-day heat, but little did we know how long our ride would be. Was 6 of us starting out. We wouldn't meet the other 3 people until our stop in Llano at Cooper's BBQ.
I've been down 1431 plenty of times before, so there wasn't anything new there until our detour on Cow Creek Road through the Balcones Wildlife Reserve. That was a nice ride. Very twisty roads and plenty of cattle guards, but overall nice and scenic. There is a small creek that the road is adjacent to and occasionally crosses. Our friends said that they usually bring their swim wear and dip in the creek on the way back. Unfortunately for our trip, we didn't come back by the creek to take a swim, although that would have been awesome as it got up to about 95 degrees that day.
Going down Hwy 29 passing by Lake Buchanan is a nice ride. I love passing up "The Dam Bar" right next to the dam.
Finally got to Cooper's BBQ in Llano at about 11:45. We met up with the other riders here, since they live in Llano. Let me tell you, they have some good BBQ. You start out next to their large pit where they have all of the meat simmering. You pick you meat right out of the pit, and then they weigh it and give you your fixin's (potato salad, beans, corn on the cob). Nothing like some good Texas BBQ with some sweet ice tea after a long ride.
The only problem I had was I ordered way too much food. Luckily we brought our luggage day bag, so we packed up the left-overs and hit the road.
From there, we went to the Castell General Store. One of the other riders has been there before and wanted to take us there. It was a nice little place. Kind of reminds me of a small town with one main street and one store. We ordered a beer and they had them in ice chests next to the counter. Only accepted cash. It was also funny that we saw a chicken walking around outside while we were drinking. Wasn't in a pin or anything; just walking around looking for food.
When they said general store, they meant it. Just about everything you could imagine was in this little store: clothes, food, fishing gear, BBQ, sodas, wind chimes, and lawn ornaments to name a few. This is also where I took a pic of the bikes and the front of the store:
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/SViper/IMG_20100911_123926.jpg
After our beers, we took off for Dally's Down Under Saloon near Johnson City. We were all running low on gas and luckily stopped somewhere on the way. My bike has a 4.6 gallon tank and I manged to get 4.77 gallons of gas into it just to give you an idea of how low we were.
Dally's was a fairly new place. I think the bar was built a few years before. I have a pic from the sign here:
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/SViper/IMG_20100911_141418.jpg
The story is that the owner is from New Zealand, but he had a think Australian accent. Had a map of Australia on the wall as well. I thought the best thing was that he had some weapons and ammunition from World War 2 set in the bar tables in what looked like glass. I wish I got a pic of it. All in all, a cool hang-out place.
Well about this time, it was around 3:00pm. We actually had some people coming over for a BBQ later that night, so we just took Hwy 290 back into Austin to make it home. The other riders wanted to hit a few more places before heading back, so we went our separate ways. Later we found out that they didn't get home until 10:00pm that night.
All in all, it was a nice trip. I did have a few take-aways from it though:
1. Plan frequent rest/gas stops. The other riders were more experienced with me and I swear that this was an iron butt competition. My butt was thoroughly numb between the stops. Not to mention the gas problem we almost ran into.
2. Bring a luggage day bag. It is really convenient to have a place to put stuff. One of my other trips involved going to a winery, and my fiancee wanted to get a couple of wine bottles. We didn't have the luggage bag at the time, so we had to borrow space on someone else's bike.
3. Wait for cooler weather before going on longer rides. As I mentioned, we didn't expect the ride to take all day, nor did we expect to be riding in the heat of the day. Our rides before this one were about 2-3 hours at most, which is nice because we usually ride in the morning before the heat of the day.
Anyway, just wanted to share our ride. I hope to get a camera to film some of the trip next time. If you are interested, google maps does have street view for every section of the trip, although it is very out-dated.
Just wanted to share our ride that we went on. Has to be by far the longest ride I've been on (about 8 hrs total). It was a blast, but probably would have been better with more frequent breaks, and if it weren't 95 degrees outside.
Here is the route we took: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=102942085158943234637.000490b37acb49c482f54
Had 5 bikes with everyone having a passenger except for 1 bike. Here is a pick of them:
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/SViper/IMG_20100911_122144.jpg
Started the ride at about 9:30am. We were trying to get an early start so we could beat the mid-day heat, but little did we know how long our ride would be. Was 6 of us starting out. We wouldn't meet the other 3 people until our stop in Llano at Cooper's BBQ.
I've been down 1431 plenty of times before, so there wasn't anything new there until our detour on Cow Creek Road through the Balcones Wildlife Reserve. That was a nice ride. Very twisty roads and plenty of cattle guards, but overall nice and scenic. There is a small creek that the road is adjacent to and occasionally crosses. Our friends said that they usually bring their swim wear and dip in the creek on the way back. Unfortunately for our trip, we didn't come back by the creek to take a swim, although that would have been awesome as it got up to about 95 degrees that day.
Going down Hwy 29 passing by Lake Buchanan is a nice ride. I love passing up "The Dam Bar" right next to the dam.
Finally got to Cooper's BBQ in Llano at about 11:45. We met up with the other riders here, since they live in Llano. Let me tell you, they have some good BBQ. You start out next to their large pit where they have all of the meat simmering. You pick you meat right out of the pit, and then they weigh it and give you your fixin's (potato salad, beans, corn on the cob). Nothing like some good Texas BBQ with some sweet ice tea after a long ride.
The only problem I had was I ordered way too much food. Luckily we brought our luggage day bag, so we packed up the left-overs and hit the road.
From there, we went to the Castell General Store. One of the other riders has been there before and wanted to take us there. It was a nice little place. Kind of reminds me of a small town with one main street and one store. We ordered a beer and they had them in ice chests next to the counter. Only accepted cash. It was also funny that we saw a chicken walking around outside while we were drinking. Wasn't in a pin or anything; just walking around looking for food.
When they said general store, they meant it. Just about everything you could imagine was in this little store: clothes, food, fishing gear, BBQ, sodas, wind chimes, and lawn ornaments to name a few. This is also where I took a pic of the bikes and the front of the store:
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/SViper/IMG_20100911_123926.jpg
After our beers, we took off for Dally's Down Under Saloon near Johnson City. We were all running low on gas and luckily stopped somewhere on the way. My bike has a 4.6 gallon tank and I manged to get 4.77 gallons of gas into it just to give you an idea of how low we were.
Dally's was a fairly new place. I think the bar was built a few years before. I have a pic from the sign here:
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/SViper/IMG_20100911_141418.jpg
The story is that the owner is from New Zealand, but he had a think Australian accent. Had a map of Australia on the wall as well. I thought the best thing was that he had some weapons and ammunition from World War 2 set in the bar tables in what looked like glass. I wish I got a pic of it. All in all, a cool hang-out place.
Well about this time, it was around 3:00pm. We actually had some people coming over for a BBQ later that night, so we just took Hwy 290 back into Austin to make it home. The other riders wanted to hit a few more places before heading back, so we went our separate ways. Later we found out that they didn't get home until 10:00pm that night.
All in all, it was a nice trip. I did have a few take-aways from it though:
1. Plan frequent rest/gas stops. The other riders were more experienced with me and I swear that this was an iron butt competition. My butt was thoroughly numb between the stops. Not to mention the gas problem we almost ran into.
2. Bring a luggage day bag. It is really convenient to have a place to put stuff. One of my other trips involved going to a winery, and my fiancee wanted to get a couple of wine bottles. We didn't have the luggage bag at the time, so we had to borrow space on someone else's bike.
3. Wait for cooler weather before going on longer rides. As I mentioned, we didn't expect the ride to take all day, nor did we expect to be riding in the heat of the day. Our rides before this one were about 2-3 hours at most, which is nice because we usually ride in the morning before the heat of the day.
Anyway, just wanted to share our ride. I hope to get a camera to film some of the trip next time. If you are interested, google maps does have street view for every section of the trip, although it is very out-dated.
