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Finally got around to starting my portion of the Grand Tour of Texas today. I was headed east and figured this would be a good one for the DRZ. Roughly 330 miles and 9ish hours on the skinny (seat concepts) saddle, staying mostly on very unmaintained paved roads. Excellent weather today for the ride though.

I hit a couple of local dirty roads and then meandered north to find myself in Elmo, just east of Terrell. There I introduced a couple of Bumblebees to each other.



I hit a little bit of 80 headed east and then wandered around south just a bit to find my way to my next location. There weren't any Blue Bonnets out this way but there were a lot of the pink/red flowers.



I made my way to Gladewater TX where there were three bonus locations all within a literal stone's throw of each other. Ok, maybe the firetruck needs a better arm than me to get the stone over there but it was close.

First the oil derrick.



Then I ran across the square to get the Gladewater museum.



Then down to the other end of the square for the antique firetruck.



I'd filled up my new rotopax gas can to test having the weight back there and to test if it's sealed up good. All worked out well so I did a quick refuel here to top things off and empty the rotopax.

Red Roof Inn is a sponsor of the Motorcycle Tour of Texas so there's a bonus for getting any of their locations. I'm sure I'll have better opportunities but one of the few in the area is in Longview, right next to Gladewater so I ran down and scooped this one up.



On my way to my last stop in Jefferson, I was zipping down this paved road when I glanced right and saw the most beautiful dirt road. I looked at my GPS and it literally goes nowhere, this would be just an out and back of a couple of miles. Totally NOT on my itinerary, but I turned around anyway. At the area in this shot, it's that perfect level of squishiness. There was standing water in the ditches but it dried out after a bit letting me get some speed up and then it was over. The turn around at the end was all soft sand and I almost lost it there, but alll was good for the ride back to the main road.



I had to meander around Jefferson a little bit to find the rail car, but that's it under the cover behind the bike.



While I was looking for the rail car I passed Joseph's Riverport Barbecue which smelled really really good. I also saw that "Auntie Skinner's Riverboat Club" had good reviews but as I rode by the parking lot was full of HD motorcycles so I went over to the BBQ place. While looking for a place to sit, a couple that had their Himalayan and CRF300L Rally parked out front, offered me a seat at their table. We had a nice chat before I had to be back on my way home. No food pics as I was too busy talking.

I hit some of the same roads going back on the way home but I was tired and ended up doing a 1 hour blast down 80 back into Terrell to get me home quickly. It was a perfect weather day today and I enjoyed being out and about on the DRZ, but the next loops are big mile loops and I'll be taking the FJR for those. Stay tuned as I continue to update this thread with my progress.

Also, I needed a way to keep my rally sign from getting destroyed as it had to ride in my camelbak. I made this way cool protector out of two cheap mini clipboards from Walmart, just drilled the rivets out and removed the hardware.

That is a pretty dirt road!

Excellent ride report Jasen! That looked like a lot of fun. What were the temperatures like during the trip? Thanks for bringing us along.

Thanks for the cool report Jasen!

Louanne's family on her mom's side own land near Gladewater that struck oil in 1926. Been to that well tower...


It helped that family through the depression and still brings a few nickels in. It was a lot more until the Saudis had a price war that put the fracking companies out of business.

FJRPittsburgh wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 6:07 am Excellent ride report Jasen! That looked like a lot of fun. What were the temperatures like during the trip? Thanks for bringing us along.

It was 50F when I left. Was supposed to hit 74F but I don't think it got that high. I pulled the liner out of my mesh gear at lunch and put it right back in at the first gas stop on the way home. Not a cloud in the sky all day long.

My route from yesterday, took the southern side on the way out and the northern part on the way home.

Love the Bumblebee, and I see there's a Chevron there called The Bee Store....... here's one of the ways I envisioned doing up my VFR. I have quite the collection of decals, honeycomb, etc..... the movie was a B movie, but not bad. I did manage to make a yellow rear plate and apply the transformer decal........

I'm no stranger to the bumblebee themes.

In 2011 when gas went over $4 per gallon I traded my truck for a MINI Cooper.



Looking closely at the MINI badge...

Enjoyed the ride report. Three thoughts come to mind:

1. I'm impressed that you got "away from the itiniary" - even if it was just an "out and back". As you know, this is what I live for on either motocycle. To follow my big nose wherever it sniffs. I do realize that is not your think, but I'm glad you gave it a shot.

2. Dude - no food porn? Really? I read ".... Joseph's Riverport BBQ" and my mouth waters like Pavlov's Dog. I'm teasing myself from scrolling down in anticipation of what could have been the best picture of the RR.

3. We need to get together and do some D/S riding. Soon.

Well done, my friend....

I had the two meat plate, brisket and sausage, with home cut fries and bbq beans. It was average, the brisket was very tender but also very fatty, but those two tend to go together. I got caught up in conversation and was picking at the fries at the end of the meal when I realized I'd failed in the food porn area. Don't worry, I've already been called out by my wife for not getting that picture so it's all good.

As for deviations from the plan, I knew I had a big day planned out so had to be careful. Also, in land of roads laid out in big squares like we have around here, a small fun deviation either takes you nowhere, or adds a bunch of flat slab to your route. Got to be careful there, and I'd already carefully picked my route but sometimes the dirt is too pretty to pass up.