Oh Wow ... C-H-R-O-M-E !!!

2004 Honda NRX1800EA Valkyrie Rune

Finally found some time to go ahead and put in some pictures and a bit of text. That's me, of course, sitting on a Candy Black Cherry Rune back in October. Texas Hill Country. At this point, the bike had about 120 miles on it.

Ron on his Black Rune	Jacob on Ron's Rune	He looks big on the bike, huh?
Texas Hill Country	West of Marble Falls	a stop in Crawford
as usual, click on the thumbnails for full sized pictures

The trip started well, had a hiccup, and then went very well, and then I had a long, long ride home.

It started well as I got a free flight to Texas, albeit all the way down to Angleton, some 5 hours south of where I needed to be. The drive up to pick up Ron was ok, but long, and then Ron and I drove to the edge of Hill Country - Georgetown, to be specific - to the dealership. The bikes were ready to go, shiny, sleek and oh so muscular-looking. The paperwork was ready and we signed on the dotted line and turned over a whoie bunch of money in exchange for keys and paperwork. The guys at Georgetown Honda were great ... what a HUGE store ... and they were kind enough to send a truck to the next town to pick me up when I dropped off the rental. That's where the 'not so well' came in ... I guess I need to read a little more carefully. The expected bill of less than $50 came to almost $250 as I had misread the mileage cost section ... my usual rentals are always mileage free. The guy at the counter was willing to help me out, though, so I ended up only paying 2-1/2 times what I'd expected.

Back to the dealership, some quick turn by turn instructions from the salesman - on how to get to Marble Falls ... and we were off. This huge beast was certainly far different than the Wing and it took me a few blocks to become familiar with the handing ... Ron was already ahead of me in that department ... he'd taken his for a tour of the parking lot while I was dropping off the rental. After a couple of dead ends, I finally found the way to the road back towards Marne Falls, and we were off, running at 60 mph as the light was starting to fail. Marble Falls - 60 miles - and dark approaching ... but we could have cared less. The bikes were awesome! The gawking was also awesome ... it was easy to tell that people weren't used to seeing these monsters on the road, let alone TWO of them.

Once I finally found the only road that heads over to Marble Falls, it was full-on dusk, and we were tooling along twisty curves and up and down hills enjoying the heck out of the open road. Until. Well, until we hit a spot where there had been construction and my back wheel slid sideways on some loose powder ... heart in throat time ... but I straightened it out and we zoomed into Marble Falls.

It had been a long day, so I pulled into the parking lot of the first restaurant I found and we climbed off to rest our butts and fill our guts. Good meal, and we found a motel right across the street that had decent after-season rates. And we were pretty happy to unwind and get a good nights sleep.

Tuesday morning saw us on the road just after twilight. It was cool, but my riding suit kept the chill off me. I think Ron was a little cool for awhile. I had mapped out a tentative route west and that's where we headed. The miles slid by effortlessly and we were really enjoying the ride. We got outside the heavy traffic area quickly, and started to get familiar with the bikes. During a couple of stretches where I saw several miles of empty, I tested out the throttle to see what kind of response it had. It responded! When I thought it was safe, I tested to see how far the throttle would twist. I chickened out at 120mph (just kidding, officer) and there was still some throttle left to twist. But no windshield meant a lot of wind ... I didn't feel like it was going to lift me off the Rune ... but ... let's just say that it felt like a possibility!

We rode all day Tuesday - almost 300 miles.

We rode all day Wednesday - almost 300 miles.  On Wednesday, we also had an exceptionally expensive lunch. Many people have bragged on Coopers in Llano, so we found our way there for lunch. You pick out your food at a station outside and the way they handle the food makes it look smaller than it is. Then you take it inside where they weight it and give you the bill. Uhmmm ... between Ron's selection and my selection and some side dishes ... it was a $58 dollar tab! Ouch. OK ... the food was excellent ... but I'm not completely convinced it was $58 good. However, we managed to take some back to the motel and had it with breakfast on Thursday morning.

Thursday we slowly made tracks for Ft Worth. As soon as I could get off the main road, I kept grabbing "ranch roads" that led in the general north and east direction. Saw a lot of interesting countryside that way, and had fun on a whole lot of curvy, hilly roads with next to no traffic on them. At one point, we suddenly found ourselves a few miles from Crawford. I have no idea where we rode in relation to the president's ranch, but I can say I've been to Crawford, Texas. And, thank goodness, no sign of that idiot "mother Cindy" at all.

We tried to make it back to Fort Worth before rush hour and managed to miss a great deal of it, but we did manage to ride at least 30 miles in very heavy rush our traffic, and managed to get through it unscathed. Jacob, as you can tell from the pictures, loved his dad's new bike and was grinning from ear to ear, and then some, when his dad took him for a ride.

Friday morning saw me starting out for home. I left after the rush hour traffic had abated, but still managed to get snarled in the I-30 traffic when I passed I-45. I keep hoping that Dallas will fix that atrocious intersection some day, but it seems unlikely. Sadly. I was a bit apprehensive at that time because my fuel light had come on 15 or 20 miles back and I had no idea how far the reserve would take me. Far enough, since it only took slightly over 6 gallons when I managed to find a gas station. Back on the road, back to 75 mph, and an easy 3 hour ride to Texarkana for a lunch break. It was exactly 180 miles and exactly 40 mpg for that leg ... pretty impressive. According to my Gas Buddy program, I managed to average 39.73 miles per gallon from the time I bought the bike until I got it home. It may actually have been a little better than that as my tank wasn't full when I got the keys.

The next 4 hours slid by quickly, and then I made the decision to have some BBQ for supper. I hit the off ramp just after I turned from I-40 onto I-55 ... and then had to turn off the ramp into the restaurant pretty quickly since I had an 18 wheeler breathing down my neck. I was doing fine until the back wheel hit the gravel on the pavement in the drive. Before I knew what hit me (it was the ground), there I was lying on the ground a few feet behind the Rune. It had slid a good five feet on the crash bar and muffler cover. The chrome was thick and solid but ... not thick enough. I need to replace the engine guard and the muffler shield on the right side. Nothing else injured but my pride. Worse yet, there was no way I could pick it up. Fortunately, a kind soul stopped and gave me a hand. Sadly, the BBQ wasn't really worth having stopped there.

After supper and examining the Rune for any other damage, I headed north to make more miles before dark. I stopped in a small town on the Arkansas border and finally found a motel ... another of the bait and switch places. I could have a low rate, but if I wanted a smoking room, it would be an extra $10. I sure wish they'd pack all the crooks off to the countries they came from, or to jail!

It was cold on Saturday morning, I'd put on all the clothes I had but it took a long time for the chill to go away. Worse, as I made my way north, it kept getting colder (and wetter). I finally stopped in Effingham to visit a K-Mart and get a sweater. I planned to head north on I-57 and then take a smaller road before I got to Chicago, but I somehow missed the signs, and hit I-80 at just about the ideal time. It was the least amount of traffic I can ever remember on that stretch. At this point, I was no longer interested in finding roads I hadn't ridden ... just wanted to get home and get out of the cold air. Didn't make it all the way, but I did make it into Michigan on Saturday, and then made it home by noon on Sunday.

Rather a long trip on a Rune ... the odometer ticked over 2000 miles when I stopped for gas in Saginaw. But, heck, I'd managed to do a couple of thousand miles, again, on a big cruiser ... this one was even actually smoother than the Wing. Great ride. And I really enjoyed spending time riding with Ron. AND ... to top it off, I managed to get some Hill Country miles in ... something I've wanted to do for some years.