Nov 11 – Terlingua, TX

The rider meeting was at 8am. We broke up into groups. Tommy was our group leader. Tommy is fast as shit and can ride the wheels off of any bike and keep up with and pass 99% of the guys on this ride. He wanted to go slow this year, take in the sites and make sure that everyone had a good time. Our group consisted of Becky and Luke (Mother and Son), Rena (66 year old dirt rider), and myself. Other people drifted in and out of the group as did I.

A blonde woman crashed pretty bad about 5 miles into the ride. Her visor was mashed down and her nose was bleeding. We stopped for awhile to try and help get her situated. After a few minutes it turned into a traffic jam. She had plenty of help and we moved on.

Left to right – Tommy, Becky, and Rena

I was feeling more and more confident as we got going. It was a lot of fun and there was no one else out here with a bike my size. I was getting some strange looks for sure.

Rena is SASSY! She stands on her pegs and chews up the dirt and rock like she was getting paid by the mile. I give her a lot of credit. She runs hard and loves every minute of it. An example: She fell not ten yards in front of my front tire. She pops up a hell of a lot more annoyed at the holes in her new riding shirt than the huge gash in her arm. She rode for the rest of the day.

Lunch at the Terlingua Ranch, Chicken Fried Steak

That’s me on the approach…

…And the finish

I did pretty well that day. To me it was like an informal off road training school. Trial by fire. There were a lot of people there with a ton of experience. Everyone was patient with all of my questions and a little surprised at what I could actually learn and do on a grossly over sized bike for the terrain.

To be fair… I dropped the bike twice after lunch. Stupid slow moving drops. Nothing serious. I ate too much and I was just being lazy. Shortly after I got stuck going up a long slippery but fairly easy up hill. It took 15 minutes and three other guys to finally get me out of, and away from, the huge craters I dug with my rear tire.

Right after that there was a really hard uphill that almost did me in on the way down before lunch. Now I have to tackle this beast in the other direction. I’ve been describing it as a dried up waterfall. I know I’m exaggerating but shit, this thing sucked even just thinking about getting up it. It was at least a 30-40 degree rise, with these damn ledges that were like huge stairs. So to get up you had to bound up these things while your rear tire spun freely until it found a purchase and catapulted you to the next one. I left a lot of rubber in that dessert.

I think getting stuck slapped the taste out of my mouth and got me out of my food coma. I dropped it in first with a good amount of speed and didn’t let the throttle rest until I reached the top. That was a confidence booster by Jesus.

The GS is a worthy machine off road for all those wondering its merits.

I really liked riding with everyone throughout the day. Becky and Rena were fun to ride with. Luke and I would drop back for each other if either of us lagged behind. Tommy is a cowboy on a motorcycle. He would jump and wheelie the worst shit imaginable. There were other people that you would ride with and would recognize helmets and jerseys during the day but you wouldn’t know who they were with their helmet off at night.

It was a good hard day. The best day of the trip so far. I love that day.

We ate at the Starlight Theatre that night. It’s a two hundred year old theatre. There were a lot of bullet holes in the walls. Food was okay for the price. The company was great though. I met Shelly (Rena’s daughter), Patrick, and some really good friends of Ed’s, Pam and Matt.

Dinner with Rena and Company at the Starlight

The Starlight Theatre

Ed, myself, Patrick, Shelly, and a great Aussie guy whose name I unfortunately can’t remember