WeSTOC 2000
Day 1 (Houston to Ft. Stockton, Tx)
As I lay in my hammock with my eyes closed enjoying the gentle ocean breeze that blew across the beach and into the palm trees where I napped, I looked up to see Michelle Pfieffer and Halle Berry smiling at me and offering grapes and chilled wine. Suddenly, a gentle gust of ocean breeze blew off the ultra thin, gossamer like wraps that covered their beautiful bodies. As they each expressed a knowing smile, they began to caress me, my heart thumping like a jackhammer. Suddenly I heard a loud obnoxious noise and all turned black. It was my alarm clock!... NO, NO! I wanna go back. NOooooo!!! Then it struck me, it's 4:30 Saturday morning and it's time for me to get up and start my journey to Durango, Colorado for WeSTOC 2000. YES!!!! To heck with those dang women, it's time to ride!
After taking my wake up shower I put on my Aerostich and Sidis, grabbed my helmet and headed for the garage where my beautiful, black, Honda ST1100 was all loaded up and ready to rock and roll. I imagined that she had been whimpering and pawing at the garage door all night long in anticipation of a spirited gallop down the highway.
I hit the road by 5:00 AM and was on the way to my first stop to meet Frank Dannenbaum at 5:30 at the Shell station on the corner of Gessner and I-10 in Houston. He was unable to attend WeSTOC but felt like riding for a few hundred miles with me.
Upon arrival at the Shell station, my ST1100 immediately attracted the attention of the Pakistani attendant. Like many people, he initially mistook it for a BMW. When I told him it was a Honda he asked many questions about it then told me about the 50cc Honda he had back in Pakistan.
At exactly 5:30 AM Frank wheeled into the Shell station on his red '96 ST. I had only "met" Frank on the internet ST1100 Listserv prior to this day. I really enjoyed talking to him and discussing motorcycles in general and our STs in particular. During the course of the conversation, Frank came out with what has to be the classic word of the year; "chromosexual",... a reference to Harley riders who spend thousands of dollars to put mountains of expensive chrome on their bikes. I was laughing about that one all day long.
By 5:45 we were on I-10 heading west to Columbus where we stopped to eat breakfast at Schoebels (sp?). Once we had eaten our fill, we got back on the Interstate and headed for Seguin where we took highway 46 north to loop around San Antonio so as to avoid it's insane traffic. Because of the thick traffic and construction on 46 (yeah I know, kinda defeated the purpose), I managed to loose Frank. He had mentioned that this was about as far west as he had planned on going so I just proceeded on.
Soon I intersected I-10 at the town of Boerne to the northwest of San Antonio. Just before getting on the Interstate on the far side of town, I came up on one of the most unique business names I have ever seen... "2 Fat Guys Automotive Service" (see below).
Would you take your car to be serviced here?
Once I got back on I-10, I began the long, boring, grind toward Ft. Stockton. It was a long way and near Sheffield I began to get sleepy so I exited the interstate at state highway 290 to find a place to rest. I wound up at a very scenic roadside park that commemorates Ft. Lancaster and the supply road that led to it (see below).
Ft. Lancaster overlook near Sheffield, Tx.
It was very hot but the nicely shaded picnic tables provided a place to take a nap of 10 or 15 minutes. That was all I needed and I was off again, soon to hit the interstate and on to Ft. Stockton.
About 30 miles outside of Ft. Stockton Mother Nature was kind to me in the form of a nice cool shower. It was a blessing and very invigorating. At about 4:00 PM I arrived in Ft. Stockton, checked into the Holiday Inn Express and awaited another fellow travelling companion; Tomas Perez from Mission, Tx.
At 7:00 PM I heard the beep of an ST's horn outside my motel room and there was Tomas with his red '97 ST. After talking for a while and admiring his BMW handlebars and "new" used Corbin Saddle, Tomas got a room then we headed into town for a bite to eat. Afterwards, it was back to the motel to hit the sack in anticipation of a long day's ride to Santa Fe, NM the next morning.