The End of a Great Weekend

  We roll out in time to leave right around 9:30am or so. Our plan is to head for Dallas and have a late lunch at Brian and Lori's. Shane and his wife, Stephanie, will likely be there as well. Then we'll just head down I-45 to Huntsville and call it a day. While we are loading the bikes, John Morin wanders out of the hotel. He is also about to leave so he decides to just follow us to Dallas. We invite him to stop off with us and have lunch so he can meet Lori and Stephanie.

  Leaving is always such a weird feeling at the end of a trip. To have spent so much time planning the trip, waiting in eager anticipation, and then having it go by so quickly, leaves one wondering... "Did I dream this? It happened so fast!" Then we are on the road and heading home. Already the memories of the weekend's rides seem like a lifetime ago. And I start to wonder about the next trip...

  John slips in behind us and follows us back down highway 7 towards Interstate 30 for the super slab run back to Dallas. A few miles out of town the road gets nice and twisty but there is quite a bit of traffic. Pulling the trailer and being in a big diesel truck means I won't be doing any fast passing. I keep wondering how John can stand to ride behind us and be sucking in all those diesel fumes from the truck! We eventually reach a part of the road where it opens up to four lanes and is nice new black top asphalt. Sure enough, John goes zipping by us because he just can't stand to see such a good piece of road go to waste! I just sigh and watch him go by, wishing all the while that I was chasing him on my VFR, hehe. We come into a small town shortly and see him pulled off at a gas station. He remembered that I needed to fill up the truck and found a good place to stop. He tops off as well.

  The weather is overcast and threatens rain. It is quite gusty as well. When we hit the freeway, John just settles in behind us. I set the cruise on about 85 mph and off we go. John keeps pretty close to the back of the trailer. When we finally stop again for a rest break, I ask him if he's afraid of something coming out from under the truck and tagging him before he can dodge it. He tells me that he has been drafting me and that he can see through the truck windshield to keep an eye on the road ahead. He declines to fill up the bike and we continue on our way. Next stop is Dallas.

  When we start to reach the outer edges of Dallas I am wondering if John is going to run his tank dry? We had agreed that when he needed gas, he would pull ahead of me and exit, with us following. The truck has a range of about 350 miles so we would not need to fill up until we get home. It is not until we are on the loop in Dallas, only a few more minutes from Brian's home that John finally pulls ahead and we stop for gas. He puts in almost 5 gallons and according to the truck odometer he has gone right around 270 miles! Sweet! We have been averaging about 14.5 mpg in the truck, hehe. The sky has cleared up and the heat is on. You just gotta love these Texas summers!

  Soon we reach Brian's home in Duncanville, on the south side of Dallas. He has already contacted his insurance company and had them send out an agent to inspect his bike, and this on a holiday! Shane and Steph are present. Lori starts getting the food ready and Brian fires up the grill. Harrison, the rug rat of the house, is busy checking out all the new people to play with. He takes a special liking to John. It must be his manly sensitivity ;-) Then the guys move out to the garage to sit on the bikes, drink some beer and talk guy stuff (that real important stuff like what we'd like to see on our dream motorcycle).

  Lunch is great. Of course now I feel like I need a good long nap. The long weekend is catching up with me. But we still have about three hours to get home. John heads out into the afternoon heat for his three hour ride to Austin. We say our goodbyes and hit the road in our cozy air conditioned truck ;-) It feels good to get home. Now I get to start the process of trying to figure out what to do with the wrecked VFR. To make matters worse, we are supposed to leave for a 4600 mile bike trip to the four corners area of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico in two weeks!! There is no way the bike can be fixed by then. Once again, the rusty gears in the back of my head get to grinding... But that's another story.


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