I'd spent a few days in Austin seeing friends and doing some maintenance on the bike; new front tire, oil change, and rear wheel bearings that were far overdue for a replacement. But soon, it was back in the saddle and chasing the sunsets.
Due west of Austin is Hill Country, a section of the mostly-flat state that actually has some fun elevation and twist roads.
A lot of them are proper sportbike twisty, some so good that they have a name. There is a whilea series of roads well known in the motorcycling community as "The Three Sisters".
The GPS on my phone was insisting that I was somewhere else entirely.
Weeeeeeeeeeee!!!
All that idiocy made me hungry, so I stopped in at a little greasy-spoon for some food
It was your basic fast food, but it was also very inexpensive, so I couldn't complain.
Sadly, the fun didn't last, and soon it all flattened out and gave way to the bland terribleness that is West Texas. Where no sane person would ever want to live.
Hours and hours of this:
The only real way one can deal with stuff like this is to kick back in my preferred "Straight boring roads" riding position. One foot on the crash bar, the other on the instrument console, leaned back on the seat bag.
It worked out perfectly, in that the master cylinder would nestle between the buckles on my boot. So by flexing my leg ever so slightly, I could make minor course corrections to compensate for wind and passing trucks.
I rode until the sun set that night, eventually pulling into a little campground somewhere in buttfuck nowhere.
As always with when I pay to stay somewhere, the sole deciding factor in me staying here was the big sign offering free wi-fi. SERIOUSLY. ANY MOTEL OR CAMPGROUND PROPRIETORS READING THIS. You ALWAYS need to have free wi-fi available. This is the 21st century, internet access is as basic of a necessity and amenity as electricity and running water (Unless you live on some tiny island in the middle of the ocean or something)
The next day dawned cool, and damp. The fog got so bad in some places that I slowed down to ~25mph and road on the shoulder, lest I get rear-ended by some truck doing a billion miles per hour.
Eventually I road out from under it, and stopped in some little featureless town for breakfast just before 10am.
The whole area was dull, flat, and terrible in every single way.
Who the fuck actually wants to live someplace like this? Really. The only reason I can think of is utter stupidity or small-mindedness. Because no sane, thinking creature would look at everything this country, this world has to offer, and think "Nah, I don't want to live anyplace nice. I want to live in someplace that is completely flat and hundreds of miles away from anything that doesn't suck."
West Texas, you suck. You suck big, floppy donkey dick.
It seemed that a lot of people agreed with me though. Seems like every little butthole of a town I passed through, most of it looked like this.
Something burning off in the distance.
After a seeming eternity of what amounts to motorcycle torture, FINALLY off in the distance there was a hint of hope. Actual elevation change!
Mountains!!!
Hooray! Back in the best idea that America ever had.
