Rain and Riding

May 27, 2003

I mentioned earlier how Garrett decided to ride with his bald head exposed to the sunlight, I also mentioned that he chose NOT to wear sunscreen while doing this.  Here is where the really funny part begins.  Garrett woke up at the crack of dawn on the 27th with a skull that was as bright as a stop sign and the worst skull-sunburn I have ever seen.  He had blisters, big, translucent jellyfish on the top of his head.  This didn't amuse him at all - though I am not sure why.  He had the whole 'pain adrenaline' reaction going on and was bouncing off of the walls by 6am.  Garrett decided that he needed to ride back into Alpine and stock up on skin lotion to soothe his flaming skull (a convenience store was literally 20 minutes away, but this was a time for ACTION, not debate, clearly not a time for forethought).  He left just about the time the sun was coming up.  Actually, he was so wired I think he intended to run the 60 miles to Alpine in just his underwear and sneakers, he was practically doing jumping jacks in the hotel room trying to get out the door and get moving and I think he may have given himself a black eye trying to put on his own shirt.

Unbeknownst to us, the sound of opening and closing of doors REALLY carries at the Longhorn Ranch Motel.  Bill was WIDE awake though not alert (whether he had wanted to be or not) by the time Garrett headed into town.  He came out probably 10 minutes after Garrett left and proceeded to not wake up for the next half hour. 

 

While Garrett was out it also began to seriously rain.  The rain came hard, and fast, and cold.  Bill and I rolled the bikes under the awning and killed time wondering how Garrett was faring between the pouring cold rain and the sunburn. 

And here is the answer - Garrett was freezing, and wet, and sunburned.  That is easily the worst combination to be in, Garrett was miserable.  Mostly, I was just relieved that he was alright - the storm was pretty bad and he had been gone long enough for my 'elder brother' sense of concern to start kicking in.

 

And another shot of Garrett, telling us exactly how happy he was to have been caught in the rain.  Apparently he caught the rain on the hour long trip up, as well as on the hour long trip back.  He also nearly hit a bobcat that thanked him for swerving by chasing him down the road.  So, clearly I had no reason to be worried.  Just to remind you, a convenience store was 20 minutes south instead of an hour north - .

 

Garrett changed clothes, put on his newfound skin lotion, and went back to bed for at least a couple of hours.  During that time the rain abated and the sun came out - at least enough to brave a ride into the surrounding areas.

Our first ride was from Study Butte to Lajitas Texas.  This was our first venture seeing the desert roads and we thought we were impressed by them.  I will say this, the roads in this area are almost categorically fantastic.  They are well paved, generally pothole free, and have terrific visibility.  They were still a little wet though, so I didn't crank the BMW up too much.  Mostly we would pass a little hill, stop, take pictures, say "wow" and keep rolling.

 

Here is a shot of me by the side of the road, all I kept thinking was that song with the hook "the road goes on forever and the party never ends," out here forever is about 15 miles away . .

 

 

We arrived in Lajitas.  Let me give you some advice on Lajitas - don't go, if you go don't stop, if you stop don't talk to anyone, if you talk to anyone fight your urge to leap off of your motorcycle and begin throttling them until their eyes pop out of their jowly, flaccid, over fed faces.  On a map Lajitas is right on the doorstep of Big Bend STATE Park (more on that later) and it looks like a small town where you can buy some gas, get some local food and hang out for a minute.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Lajitas was bought out by some Dot-Com-Golf-Playing-Snotty-Snobby-gadzillionaire.  Then the following laws were decreed:

Basically, an *sshole bought the town and converted it to his personal playground for the extremely wealthy (or just the extremely snobbish).  Either way, don't go unless you are bringing explosives and a bulldozer - in which case call me first and I'll join you.

We left Lajitas - just before I had the chance to leap off my motorcycle and begin throttling a jowly faced, flaccid, over fed, white guy in a polo shirt and dockers until his eyes popped out.  I am not pleasant when fed and rested, hungry and thirsty don't do much to improve my disposition.

We decided that since the weather was being unpredictable we would make a pass at Big Bend National Park (we really were just exploring around and didn't know much about where we were or what was around each corner so we had to go by the maps).  First, we'd stop and EAT, then we'd head into the national park to see what there was too see.  Here is a shot of Bill on the way back to Study Butte from Lajitas.

 

By the time we started heading back from Lajitas the roads had dried and I took my first real opportunity to leave Garrett and Bill in my wake.  The BMW, as I have mentioned before, is sporty and I was ready to begin enjoying some of its 'autobahn ready' attributes.  I would ride ahead of Garrett and Bill for a while, then pull over so they could catch up.  At one point I pulled over and my bike immediately sank into 6" of quicksand.  I am not kidding, it was up to my ankles.  All I could do was dig my feet in and wait for Garrett and Bill to catch up to help me out.   After a few minutes they pulled up and the three of us basically lifted the bike up one end at a time and see-sawed it back to dry land. 

After that I rode to Study Butte a little more carefully, especially when I pulled over.  I would be kicking mud and rocks off the tires and my shoes for the next day and a half.

After lunch, we went into the National Park.  The National Park is about 20 minutes south of Study Butte and you should gas up before you head in.  There is one gas station in the national park and it keeps its own hours.  Luckily it has pay at the pump, but still it is better to be safe than sorry.  Our first ride into the park was intense (for the time) as we got our first REAL idea of what is out here.  The mountains seemed HUGE and grand, especially watching the clouds roll off of them and down to the valley.  We had time to noodle around a little, did a little jaunt in the woods . . basically a little exploring.  Then we agreed that we were coming back tomorrow no matter what, and headed back to Study Butte for dinner and rest.

 

 

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