The Texas
Adventure Ride
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The Texas Adventure Ride |
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10/23/07 |
2008 Texas Adventure Ride (TAR)April 24 - 27, 2008Junction, TXThe Texas Adventure Ride (TAR) is a 4 day adventure / dual sport ride & rally that occurs annually the last weekend of April in Junction, TX. Everyone is invited to attend. You can discover the wonderful paved and unpaved roads in the Texas hill country and west Texas; ride the best dual sport road outside of Big Bend; cross the largest, scariest river in this neck of the woods; pay a visit to Judge Roy Bean's Jersey Lilly Saloon or John Wayne’s Alamo; be one of the few to not only know where Pandale, TX is but to have also ridden through it; experience first hand just how tasty a Camp Easy hamburger really is; and more. Read about the ride organization here. How the Texas Adventure Ride came to beMy name is Richard Gibbens and I plan and organize the Texas Adventure Ride. Here's the story on how this event came to be. During Easter weekend of 2006 two friends and I did a 3 day adventure ride from Austin to Langtry, TX and back. After reading my ride report, a dual sport riding friend suggested I should make this trip into an annual event. That sounded like a pretty good idea since three of us had a great time on our Easter trip and the Texas hill country and west Texas are full of wonderful paved and unpaved roads. However, I could see that a 3 day tour could get a little tough, logistically speaking, if a lot of riders attended. Uncle and I discussed it and he suggested a rally instead of a tour. We decided that a 3 day dual sport rally would be much easier to organize and yet provide just as much fun and adventure as a tour. A rally, headquartered in Junction, TX allows us to ride the same dual sport roads my friends and I rode during our Easter trip, while also being logistically easy to organize with a single location as ride headquarters. I started working on the plan for this ride and figured out that the last weekend of April seemed to be a good weekend to have the rally. That particular weekend doesn’t conflict with Easter or other holidays, it’s not hunting season, and the weather that time of year is usually pleasantly warm but not yet scorching hot. Junction, TX seems to be an ideal location for the rally. Its location provides easy access to lots of great dual sport riding, it is a large enough town that it provides all the necessary resources for a rally (motels, restaurants, and other services) without being too large or full of other vehicles, it’s not so far away from east and north Texas that riders from that area can’t realistically make the drive in one day or less, and it’s not overrun with tourists driving up prices or clogging the motels, restaurants, and roads. Most important of all there are some excellent motorcycling roads in the Texas hill country and west Texas. In addition to being famous for its twisties, the Texas hill country also offers some excellent dual sport roads. West Texas is no slouch in the roads category either, offering miles and miles of wonderful paved and unpaved roads and remote & scenic terrain. Based on my riding experience in this area I was able to put together 11 different routes that include the top roads in the area so there is no shortage of dual sport riding opportunities. In short, this part of Texas provides the motorcyclist with great motorcycling roads, more riding opportunities than can be ridden in 3 days, and its not so far away as to require multiple travel days just to get there. Uncle? Who is Uncle?"Uncle" is my Uncle Roger Hazelwood. In addition to being a fine motorcyclist and a heck of a guy, Uncle is the reason I am a motorcyclist today. Way back when, about the time I was 12 years old or so, my family went to visit my grandparents in Oklahoma. Uncle was there too and he borrowed two dirt bikes from a buddy of his that had them for sale. We spent several days riding those dirt bikes all over the place and I absolutely loved it. My sisters and I bugged my dad to no end to buy those bikes and he finally gave in. We loaded them up and hauled them back to Texas with us. I’ve loved riding motorcycles ever since. Thanks, Uncle. In recent years, Uncle and I have ridden together many times. He was the primary influence on me taking up dual sport riding. So, in honor of my Uncle Roger, I dedicate this annual event to him. Uncle on his 2006 Suzuki DL 650 V-Strom (Wee-Strom)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 2008 Texas Adventure Ride is sponsored by Woods Fun Center. When you visit Wood's please let them know how much we appreciate their sponsorship.
Woods Fun Center
This site was last updated 10/23/07 |
