Monday, November 11, 2013

Destination: Muenster, TX

It's been 3 weeks since my last post due to a lot of construction projects I am managing at work. Because of this we haven't been on a ride in 3 weeks either! This weekend however I managed to get a small break and was able to take off Sunday. We took advantage of this and took a ride to Muenster, TX.

The weather was bleak and dreary nearly the entire day. Overcast, dark, cold, and crisp.  The chill was sharp for most of the day but did back off for a bit mid afternoon. We encountered a few areas where rain had fallen but never ran into any ourselves thankfully. Overall though, it was a fantastic ride and the day ended too quickly.

Our route took us initially from Fort Worth to Decatur via State Highway 287. We took a more direct route to get in the general vicinity quickly since the days are shorter and it was kind of cold. At Decatur we took a short break before heading up some nice FM roads that eventually took us to Muenster. It had started warming up by then and I was able to remove my gloves and begin taking video. I cant push the button on the GoPro with riding gloves on and until then began fearing I might not be able to get any footage of the ride.

We arrived in Muenster and had lunch at Doc's Bar & Grill. The food was wonderful, the service was great and we absolutely enjoyed every minute of our time there. We took our time, ate and drank coffee before our self guided tour of main street. It's a beautiful little town and we had a great time wandering main street taking in the sites and culture it had to offer. Below is a bit of history of the town that has its roots in German heritage.

Muenster, Texas was founded in 1889 by German Catholic settlers Carl and Emil Flusche. One of several small towns in Texas founded by the Flusche brothers, this one was in western Cooke County just aside the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad which ran from Gainesville to Henrietta. The railroad ceased operation in the 1960′s. Muenster is currently situated along Hwy 82 about 15 miles west of Gainesville and Interstate 35. German was spoken until the mid 1930′s after which English became more common. The economy in Muenster is maintained through agriculture, oil production, steel fabrication, metal machining, home building, and other industry.

Upon leaving Muenster we went west to see the wind turbine fields. It's quite a site and until you get up close its hard to imagine the size of those things. We were able to pull off the side of the road at one place and spend some time getting a somewhat closeup view of them. Unless your willing to drive down dirt roads its hard to get right under them. It was still a good view though.

After this we continued further north to visit the Texas-Oklahoma border which happens to be the Red River. There is a huge bridge that spans the river and makes for a nice scenic ride if you want somewhere to go. Again we took a nice break at the bridge and walked along it to take pictures and some video. This concluded our destinations for our Sunday ride and it was by now it was getting late. We could feel the temperature beginning to drop and still had a couple hours ride home.  We took FM roads again to get back to Decatur at which point we finished out our ride home on State Highways and Interstates.

Muenster, TX 2013




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