New Year's Day Ride Stephenville, TX 2014

Remarkably beautiful weather rolled in on New Years Day 2014. We had been in the lower 40's and below for every day for over a week and suddenly on January 1, 2014 the temp rose to 65 degrees. The obvious thing to do when something like that happens and opens a window of opportunity is to RIDE! Which we did!

We planned a short ride to Stephenville, TX through some decent back roads with our lunch destination being the Hard 8 BBQ. We left later in the morning to give the temperature time to climb. At 10:30am it was still 45 degrees which makes for some cold riding. By 11:30am the temperature climbed to  54 degrees which was perfect. Earlier that morning Jim called to find out what we were up to for the day so we invited him and Pat to join us for the day. Pat is not a cold loving person and it took some persuasion to get her to ride along with Jim. She finally broke with Margaret's pleas not to be left alone with "these two" in reference to Jim and myself.

We met them in Crowley, TX, fueled up and headed out. The route was 85 miles to Stephenville and was pushing 64 degrees when we got there and even for the ride home.  The landscape had that dead of winter look with everything being brown from from fall. Hardly any green was to be seen but this provided a nice change of scenery to roads we've ridden before. There was a VERY hard wind coming in from the south east and we rode almost head on into it the entire time. We saw a good number of other bikers on the road with the same mindset we had of getting in a day of riding while the weather permitted. Upon arrival at Hard 8 BBQ there were quite a few bikes that had made the ride.

Hard 8 BBQ is a bit unique from other BBQ places. The cooks are outside in front of the BBQ pits and you walk up to them and tell them what you want. You can look right into the pit and see all of the pork, ribs, brisket, sausages, chicken, corn, etc. and they cut off the portion you want. Everything is by the pound so you've got to be careful because it can add up quickly. Especially when everything looks so good and you just want to have a bit of everything. You then take your tray inside to get your sides and pay. It was a fun experience and the food was good. It makes for a good trip which I added to my route list page.

That was all we did this time and it was enough since we left quite late for the ride to be a bit warmer and tried to get back before the cold blasted back in. When we pulled into the garage at home you could already feel the cold snap had hit and the temperatures were dropping quick.

New Years Day Ride 2014 Video