With the bike running again we decided to take a ride on Labor day since it has been almost a month since we have been able to go out together. I didn't plan on riding as much as we ended up doing. If we had gone on any day but Monday it would have been better. The day was scorching hot, we left at 9 am and didn't get back until 6 pm. Normally that would be fine but I had to go to work the next day and it left me with no recovery time from a long hard hot day.
We started the morning by riding to Burleson, TX to have breakfast at The Porch. This little restaurant has become our favorite morning ride destination and it puts us in a great location for continued riding afterwards. I had planned on riding to Jacksboro, TX to try some lunch at The Green Frog restaurant since they have very good reviews. From where we were it was about 130 miles to get there. Margaret still wanted to go so I decided to go through Granbury, TX and stop there to take a break since the day would be heating up quickly. When we got to Granbury there was a bike event taking place that we didn't expect.
The Biker Bash Texas is put on by Full Armor Biker Church, and is a Christian bike ministry event. We were there on Labor Day when the event was beginning to wind down. As a result we missed the bulk of the action that took place on Saturday and Sunday. I talked shortly with Doc who was an integral part of putting this event together and he said on Saturday there were over 900 bikes that showed up. That's a very nice turnout. There were still things happening though which we were able to enjoy. The band was playing and there were still a lot of booths set up. Leather goods, patches, clothing, tattooing, pin stripping, food, bike contests, prayer tents, and more were still going strong. We wandered around for a couple hours, took pictures and video, and talked to various vendors, tradesmen, and riders while we enjoyed the event. Next year well be sure to go earlier when things are going full force.
It was about 2 pm when we left and now the heat was really coming down on us. It took an hour and a half to get to Jacksboro, TX only to find out The Green Frog was closed! That's not what their website was showing in the morning before we left. I had no idea if there was another restaurant in Jacksboro that might be open and by now we were both so hot we didn't want to ride around the town looking for something. I knew a place in Springtown, TX which was 30 minutes away that would be open and has some personal historical significance to it as well so we headed out for that restaurant.
The restaurant we went too is Howells Cafe. I don't know how long its been open but the last time I was there was 40 years ago. It's not gourmet specialty food, it's just simple home cooking at a great price. Every thing was fresh cooked to order, not frozen, canned, and microwaved like many restaurants seem to do now out of convenience. The historical significance of this place is that I grew up in another small town about 30 minutes away until I was 11 years old. My father rode a Goldwing and we would often ride out to Howells in the evening with a couple of friends that also rode to have coffee. Obviously I was a passenger with my father at this age. The ride to get coffee was more of a reason to take a short cool evening ride than anything else. Our parents would talk about riding, dream trips on bikes, and wild tales of all sorts while we kids would eat homemade pie and listen to their stories intently. We would often wonder if some of the crazy stories they would tell were real or made up and even to this day I don't know. I just know it was always fun, interesting, and allowed us to stay up late on school nights. It was nice to show Margaret a place related to riding that I had frequented growing up that was still open.
We stayed at Howells for a couple hours and chatted about whatever came to mind. Not quite the same far out stories that we heard when I was a kid here but this time the stories were ours. It was nice to talk about memories and make some of our own before heading home.
Labor Day 2014 Video
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