S. Padre Island - The Road Trip ~ Part 1

Here's the plan:
Ride our motorcycles from our farm to South Padre Island. Stay for 3 nights and 4 days and then ride back home...simple huh?...NOT! If we were to ride straight through, and we had no intention of doing this, it would take 7 hours.

Here I am right before I geared up to leave. I wanted to leave at 4AM and Don wanted to leave at 10...so we compromised and aimed for 6. We actually left the driveway at 6:30AM.

This was our first long motorcycle trip, so we thought we would start some fun rituals...like giving each other temporary tattoos! Here is my 'bracelet'!

This is Don's arm star...

...and his long horn that I put on the back of his hand.

The first leg of our journey took us to Bellville after riding through Hempstead. This was an easy ride, but we did have to stop to find an unmarked road that headed towards Cat Springs..(which was a very beautiful hilly place with lots of pretty farms!) Next we rode on I-10 all the way to Schulenburg. Here we stopped for gas and got our first scare. My bike did not want to restart! We went into a 60's style family owned restaurant and ate a nice breakfast, deciding that if my bike would not start, we would have to go to plan B. You always have to have a plan B when you use your bike as vacation transportation!

Out we came and I jumped onto my bike, whispering a prayer...and YEAH!! it did start. All my gauges were showing normal, so on we went. We rode for 2 hours straight without a break. I did not want to stop unless we absolutely had to..just in case. As we rode, I thought that maybe my bike was not starting up right away because it needed to cool off. We kept this in mind when we had to stop for gas the next time. Again, after fueling up, my bike refused to start. I could not leave it running as we gassed up either, because I had to use the ignition key to open the gas tank. We rolled the bike out of the way and took a break at the local Dairy Queen. Yep! My 'diet' went right out the window there...and through out our entire vacation!

Thirty minutes later, the bike was cool and it started right up. It was getting hot outside(100+)...and I mean REALLY HOT! So hot...that I am sure the entrance to hell is somewhere in between the arrows I have marked out below! We actually saw a sign that said; "No Gas For 65 Miles!" YIKERS!!!



TEN hours later..yes, I said 10, we approached the entrance to heaven...well in this case it was the La Quinta Hotel. This is what it looked like from the street.

I reserved a suite and we were not disappointed either. Here you can see the king size bed and the sitting room. There was a small back porch from the back door.

Here is the super huge Jacuzzi tub. There was also a separate shower.

As you walked down the main hallway, passed through double glass doors, you came to the pool and cabana area. To the left was a pool house where you could buy drinks and snacks.

This is the beech which is right down the stairs from the pool area.

...and here is Don who is standing kind of funny because his butt kept falling asleep on our trip. Don't worry Honey, we will get you a gel seat before our next long trip!

...and here I am - just happy to finally be there.This concludes day 1 of our trip. On day 3, we got on our bikes to go to a special place on the beech..only to find out my bike had died - only this time it was for good!
...to be continued...