Day 295 Thursday 25th August Dallas to Katy 455km

Last night we were spoilt by Pie’s Brother In Law. Pie’s sister was abroad and her husband invited us out for dinner, “for a real Texas Experience.” We met at The Hard Eight BBQ Restaurant and I got worried when I saw the line of people waiting to get into the door of the restaurant. Its a Smoke House with many big smokers which you have to shuffle past as the line moves to the front where there are two service points where you choose your meat that is sliced for you and put on a plate. The menu consists of Brisket, Ribs, 2 Types of Sausages, Chicken, Ham, Corn on the Cob and potato, the plate is then weighed and you proceed to the next area where there are salads and condiments and a few sauces. Then you pay and find a place to sit down, and then a visit to the bar to buy some drinks. No waiter service, its  Canteen Style, but only with amazing food.

Other items like steak and burgers can be ordered separately and is then cooked to order.

Our host was a delight and even though he emigrated to the USA 40 years ago, there was an instant connection and the conversation was easy and entertaining. He is Italian and entertained us with stories of his vineyard (also in Denison next to the Red River,) and of his Hover-Craft. We had a great evening and the Left Over Doggie Bag was enjoyed next to the Gas Station in the sun at 34 degrees, it tasted just as good as last night, except we did not have the wine with it like last night.

We left at 7h30 and drove past a “Day Care For The Elderly,” never hear of this concept before, cleaver, drop granny off then the kids at their Day Care and off to work you go. We fought our way through the traffic on the Interstate and Fly Overs and only after 112km did Milsy lead us onto a small Country road, but not before he took the wrong offramp that lead to a Toll Gate where we had to take a ticket, we were now on a highway going past the Airport, and the different offramps went to different parts of the Airport, and as we were not going to the airport we proceeded to the next toll booth and each had to pay over a R100 for the Airport Drive Through Experience thanks to Milsy, so guess who is buying the Whisky tonight.

Milsy’s passenger started the day sitting nice and still behind her dad, but as the day went on, and the sun baked down, and the legs began to ache I saw lots of different styles of riding pillion on the back of a motorbike, half lying sideways on the panniers, doing push-ups with her arms on the panniers to rest the bum, putting her feet on her dads footrests, entertaining to watch, but she was in good spirits all the way even thou the road was pretty boring compared to what we have experienced so far on this trip.

We passed through many little towns, all taking strain as the traffic was no longer going through their little town, people were driving past on the Interstate. But every now and then we rode through a town with gees, (spirit,) where it is on-the-up and little businesses are being conducted from the houses and the buildings has been restored and shops were fully let. Like Chappell Hill:

As we got closer to the coast we saw more and more “Donkey Heads” bobbing up and down pumping oil out of the ground. They work with electricity and are un-manned, and many of them all pump their oil to a central tank underground which gets emptied from time to time.

We drove past Cotton Fields :

(Rode past Macaroni Fields as well but did not get a photo.)

And also some interesting sign boards “Welcome Y’all”  :

For the 1st time since leaving Colorado did we have a hot day, and at places there was not much scenery.

Yes I know, Pasta don’t grow on the field, just keeping you sharp.

We heard form Peens, his bike has been repaired, a new clutch was fitted, but worst of all, some steel shavings were found in the oil, again pointing at bad workmanship from KTM in Seattle. We no longer have to wonder why the bike made such a noise after only 200 Miles (after they re-built the motor, and had to collect the bike and fix the noise,)  something metal must have dropped into the insides of the motor and was chewed up enough before they removed it when the bike went back to them. Peens is busy riding down to where we are and should get here later tonight.

Tonight we are going to visit Uncle Bob’s step-daughter and have a braai. We are not in Houston, more a city next to Houston, we are still 80km from the KTM near Tex’s house, at Galveston Bay, which we are going to 1st thing in the morning to try and get them to let us drop the bikes with them, then once serviced Tex will have them sent to his factory where they can be locked-up until we return in May.

If KTM cant take the bikes  tomorrow due to shortage of storage space we will continue on to Tex’s factory where he has a spot for us to store the bikes until KTM can service them.  Then it is off to the Airport where I will do a final Blog for Leg Number 17 and Final Blog for the North American Continent as in May we start with Continent number 4, South America, (but getting through Central America is going to be challenging, places like Mexico and Colombia and Nicaragua wont be a walk in the park, but we got through Ukraine, Russia and China, so we will make a plan this time as well. I feel sorry for the people on the plane sitting near me as I cant see how I will have my customary “shower before a long flight” as riding the bike in sweltering  heat, then dropping it off and then going to the airport by 1pm leaves no time to freshen-up, unless I do the “Splash-splash Thing” at the airport in the Restrooms????

Greetings

Fleisch