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Post by earlwb on Mar 22, 2008 22:34:13 GMT -5
The idea or concept is to ride to all the cities you can find in your area and get a pic of your scooter and something that shows you were there. This is a old idea from the Harley folks, but it is more challenging to do it on a smaller engined scooter like my 250cc powered one. I like the idea of City Limit Signs, especially as the signs are something of a vanishing icon any more, especially in crowded urban areas. I have a reasonable list of cities already done with pics of my scooter posing by the elusive "city limit" signs. The city limit signs are becoming something of a lost icon nowadays, especially in the crowded urban areas. I have a few extra pics of other cities as well. I only need to figure out a way to find a elusive town or city that starts with a X now. So far on my list is (as updated on 1/19/2009): Addison, Argyle, Arlington Bedford, Belfalls, Bellmead, Birome Carrolton, Cedar Hill, Chalybeate Springs, Coke, Coppell Dallas, Dalworthington Gardens, Denton, Durango East Tawakoni, Edgewood, Elm Mott, Elmo, Emory, Euless Farmer's Branch, Fate, Flower Mound, Forney, Fort Worth, Fruitvale Garland, Gerald, Golinda, Grand Prairie, Grand Saline, Grapevine Haltom City, Highland Park, Hurst Irene, Irving Justin Keller Lacy Lakeview, Lawrence, Leesburg, Leroy, Lewisville, Lott Mansfield, Maypearl, Mesquite, Milford, Mineola Newsome, Northlake, North Richland Hills Oenaville Pantego, Penelope, Pittsburg Quinlan, Quitman Roanoke, Robinson, Rockwall, Rosenthal, Rowlett Southlake, Sunnyvale Terrel, Trophy Club University Park Venus Waco Westlake, Westphalia, West Tawakoni, West Mineola, Wills Point, Winnsboro Yarrelton Zabcikville here are some of the farther out ones so far:    |
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Post by earlwb on Mar 22, 2008 22:34:32 GMT -5
Today I decided to make a run down to Venus Texas and have a donut. Of course you have to leave a little early to get there before they run out of donuts. All in all it was quite fun. FM157 sort of turns and twists and meanders its way down to Venus, the squiggly line on the maps is correct, which makes for a nice ride. It isn't a boring straight line run all the way down there. Venus City Limits  Downtown Venus    A group of local sportbike riders I came across while down there. Several of them have scooters as well. The guy with the yellow jacket has a Silverwing besides the Ducati.  [/img] |
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Post by earlwb on Mar 22, 2008 22:38:06 GMT -5
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Post by Daniel Wyatt on Mar 23, 2008 10:57:33 GMT -5
Wow.
Good old Texas (I was born in Austin).
I hadn't thought about it before but I bet it's great riding a scoot there.
All those long roads with hardly anyone on them.
I imagine the rougher roads are a bit scary though.
I like the pics, I hope you post more.
I think this is my favorite section.
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Post by mcrofutt on Mar 28, 2008 23:39:11 GMT -5
Wow. Good old Texas (I was born in Austin). I hadn't thought about it before but I bet it's great riding a scoot there. All those long roads with hardly anyone on them. I imagine the rougher roads are a bit scary though. I like the pics, I hope you post more. I think this is my favorite section. There's more here. I, too am from the Lone Star State! We've got a few pretty nice pics on that site. Mark |
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Post by earlwb on Apr 6, 2008 21:16:35 GMT -5
I was scouting out a new route for the DFW Scooterist's Saturday Cedar Hill Nature Preserve Ride as the old one is a obstacle course of road construction and detours. Here is a shot of one of the Cedar Hill Nature Trails, just off of Beltline Rd south of the Cedar Hill Park  So I added a couple more cities to my list. I took this shot in Grand Prairie  |
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Post by jb on May 8, 2008 22:01:43 GMT -5
earlwb, all these pictures are makin me a bit homesick. I grew up in Joshua, TX. You probably know where that is. Bout 8 miles south of Ft. Worth. I actually worked for 2 years in the prison right up the road from where that pic was taken in Venus. I've been in San Antonio for the past 2 1/2 years though.
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Post by earlwb on May 12, 2008 9:53:32 GMT -5
Joshua, yeah I remember the town. I am sorta partial to little towns in Texas. In some areas all the little towns almost look identical to each other. They have a railroad track, a small park with a gazebo and across the street a row of red brick buildings for a few businesses.
You know I was wondering what that place was that I went by, i was focused on looking for city limit signs so I missed and correctional facility signs at the time.
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Post by earlwb on May 24, 2008 8:38:49 GMT -5
Friday decided to go for it. I made a long scooter day trip way down to Zabcikville and Yarellton Texas, taking pics of all the city limit signs or towns I went through to do it. I racked up a total of about 355.8 miles for the entire trip. I had stiff 20 mph winds out of the South, so my speeds going down there really sucked as I was mostly cruising 40-45mph, sometime 35mph going up a hill. I averaged 61mpg fuel consumption heading south but had a spectacular 71mpg average on the return leg with the tailwinds. It looks like used about 5.7 gallons of regular gasoline to do the trip, which costs about $21.65 dollars for the gasoline at $3.79 a gallon. About 1 mile south of Maypearl on Route 66 the front valve stem came loose on me. Fortunately, my son drove down and brought my spare valve stem, stem tool and big C-clamps. So I was able to fix it and still ride the scooter home. The nearest auto parts store or even Walmart was like 26 miles away. Maypearl doesn't really have any businesses left in it for things like that. I had been thinking about replacing the valve stem for a long time, but since it looked good without any cracks and wasn't leaking air, I kept putting it off. I suggest everyone replace their OEM crappy Chinese valve stems right away, as they are a time bomb waiting to go off. I was going about 50mph when it came loose, and it was a scary slow down to stop safely without crashing. Fortunately the tire beads didn't come loose on me, or it would have been all over. If it wasn't for the valve stem, nothing else would have happened as I got home OK. So now I have all the letters of the alphabet as to City Names, except for a "Q" of which I'll have to head east to Quinlan and or Quitman to get a pic of later. There doesn't appear to be a town with a "X" in it in Texas that I have found so far.  Getting close only seven miles to go...  Zabcikville, Texas. That little dirt road on the right is named Zabcik Road too.  The Zabcikville building that was built back in 1932, it is used by the area water company now.  Greens Sausage House in Zabcikville, they actually have a "Sausage Burger" to let your taste buds go wild with glee. Sorry no Texas Chainsaw Massacre feelings inside. it is a nice little Ma and Pop run business with a cafe.  Yarellton is another hard city name to get.  Oenaville is also a toughie to get a pic of.  Yes my scooter fell over in Durango, ouch! I need a new left turn signal lense unit now.  The Malone USPO is about the only business left in town.  Leaving Waco entering Robinson  Golinda  Elm Mott  Lacy Lakeview  Maypearl  Venus Westphalia  |
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Post by wildbill84 on May 25, 2008 2:19:58 GMT -5
355 miles!, that's one hell of a trip!
Nice pics, glad you survived the valve stem blow out. Sounds scary.
Sorry to hear your scooter fell over Earl, Luckily my Vog hasn't fell over yet.
But, My 1st scoot fell over in a parking lot once scratched up the side pretty good but black is easy to touch up.
It fell over in the yard at least twice.:-)
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Post by joschmo86 on May 29, 2008 22:55:10 GMT -5
I am wanting to drive to Belton(temple) to see my folks in a few weeks. ONly issue is the 150cc is only good for 55mph, and all the speed limits are posted at 65-75mph if I remember correct. I am located near Houston and usually take Hwy 36 up there.
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Post by keepaustinscootin on May 29, 2008 23:15:39 GMT -5
Earlwb - Thanks for sharing those pics. When are you coming to Austin?
That brings me to a question for you and any other riders from Texas that have experience riding on our state highways. I would really like to do something similar and visit some of our smaller cities and landmarks. But, like joschmo86, I have a 150 and I fear it might have a meltdown going over 50 mph for long stretches. Can you experienced riders share what roads are best to take for getting around the state? I have relatives in Ft. Worth, Houston, Friendswood, and Bishop and would like to visit if possible on the scoot. That may be an unrealistic expectation for a 150 but a ride to Fredricksburg, Wimberly, and other places in the Hill Country would be a great alternative.
Thanks,
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Post by "Big Guy" on May 29, 2008 23:22:11 GMT -5
Go to mapquest and route it, select avoid highways and you'll get all the FM and back roads. That's how most scooterists plan routes.
-Rich
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Post by keepaustinscootin on May 29, 2008 23:33:07 GMT -5
Thanks Rich. I'll give that a try.
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Post by earlwb on May 30, 2008 5:46:30 GMT -5
Yeah that is what I did, I used the "avoid freeway" option and it gave me a lot of good routes and roads to use. I only had a problem in Waco in that I got lost when I missed the correct road to take, and had to tool around a while figuring out how to keep going.
So far I have been limiting myself to "day rides", so Austin is a little too far at this time. Maybe if the weather conditions are perfect, I might give it a ride. With summer being here now, I probably wont be doing any "day trips" until it cools off this fall.
I feel naked without all my riding gear on.
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Post by earlwb on May 30, 2008 5:50:34 GMT -5
Oh yeah, I did manage to find two candidates for the town or neighborhood that has a name that starts with "X", but they are both at the extreme ends of Texas. I mean extreme ends too, almost as far south and as far north as you can go. XX Farms Colonia is a small neighborhood that never became a town. Located a little north of Brownsville. texas.hometownlocator.com/TX/Cameron/XX-Farms-Colonia.cfmThe other is the XIT Ranch, of which they have a museum for way up in Dalhart almost as far north as you can go in Texas. The XIT ranch when first created extended from Lubbock all the way to the Oklahoma border, and was huge. Almost a state to itself. The ranch actually extended through ten different counties. www.xitmuseum.com/history.shtmlI was sort of bummed to discover I missed out on visiting Zipperlenville, which was only a few miles away from Zapvikville and Yarrellton. texas.hometownlocator.com/TX/Falls/Zipperlandville.cfm |
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Post by xapilot on Sept 8, 2008 1:46:27 GMT -5
When it cools down and you start your Tejas tours again let me know and I would like to ride along as well. I like taking long scoot rides
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Post by stevep on Sept 9, 2008 22:52:45 GMT -5
Yeah, Earl, me too....I'm down in Burleson, have a 250 mule which is itching to go somewhere besides Burleson, Crowley and Joshua...I know some folks prefer solo rides, and I do too at times, but it would be nice to ride with The King!
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Post by earlwb on Oct 22, 2008 6:17:30 GMT -5
I am planning on riding over to Quitman and Quinlan later. I haven't planned any days yet. But I did discover another small non-town about 10 miles or so east of Zabcikville I didn't know about that starts with a Z too. |
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Post by earlwb on Jan 19, 2009 22:38:07 GMT -5
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Post by flyangler on Jan 22, 2009 16:49:58 GMT -5
Earl ,you have some beautiful flat roads to ride on I envy you, I love living in the Berkshires but it would be great to have some flat roads to ride on.
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Post by earlwb on Jan 24, 2009 22:12:43 GMT -5
Thanks, but technically it isn't really flat, you are always going up or down a slight hill or steeper hill.
Only out in west Texas is it really flat. The pictures seldom show you going up or down a hill.
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