The perfect day starts with quality coffee.
The perfect day also starts with a quality sunrise.
The perfect day typically involves a short morning walk to really invigorate the mind and prep those legs for a day’s worth of riding. You didn’t think a perfect day wouldn’t including riding a motorcycle did you?!
There were about 13 of us as camp. As the week wore on, wake up times slowly started to slip, as hangovers increased and legs became more sore. Regardless, a few others had their fancy coffees going, with solar setups, inverters for hot water kettles, rechargeable frothers, the works. It would have been a regular Starbucks! We even had a BMW 1150 GS there for accuracy.
The plan for the day was to head north, through Alpine, to Fort Davis. From there we would do the Davis Mountains loop, and check out the observatory. At roughly 270 miles, it would be a decently full day. My companion Matt would be joining me on his inimitable Kawasaki KLX300.
We rolled out into a brisk 55 degree desert morning around 8:30am. It was mostly a mountain cruise north through Alpine towards Fort Davis. Our first pit stop was the Mountain View Lodge for a simple amazing, amazingly simple, diner breakfast. The perfect day includes a full breakfast of eggs over easy, bacon, hash browns, beans, more black coffee, and some biscuits.
Extra points to the owner of this fine establishment for trying with all her might to find me a USB-C charger. My headset didn’t take a full charge the night prior, and this lovely woman brought me no less than 3 different chargers asking if it would work.
I left a gracious tip for the bacon and technology assistance.
Getting gas in Fort Davis, we started the ‘Davis Mountain Loop’, taking Highway 166 counter-clockwise to Highway 118, past the McDonald Observatory. What’s so special about this loop, besides the cool crisp mountain air, views in the high country, and a subtle lack of traffic?
Beautiful, curvy, roads.
As mentioned, the lack of traffic generated a few photo opportunities.
Just some amazing roads and beautiful ranches up here. The loop surrounds Mt. Livermore at 8,378ft, providing consistently great views. Not surprised that a state as large as Texas also has actual mountains, you just have to drive 6+ hours to get to them.
We made it over the main pass and were shocked to find some telescopes just hanging out. In the middle of the day! Usually they only come out at night, so we had to document this momentous event.
We checked in to the McDonald observatory, got some general admission tickets for $3 (just exorbitantly expensive) and explored the complex a bit.
The newer Hobby-Eberly is actually one of the largest optical telescopes in the world right now. I was unaware that Texas was packing a space cannon of this size. We were able to check out the interior of this observatory, and…yes it was quite large.
It’s a bit hard to tell so I zoom in on the actual primary mirror. It’s composed of dozens of smaller hexagonal segments. Want to know more? Go read Wikipedia or visit yourself, I’m not a tour guide!
Tourism complete, we start the jaunt back towards Terlingua. We get back on the road we came on after Fort Davis, and Matt and I swapped bikes for a bit to spare his rear end the abuse that a full day on a KLX300 seat can deliver. Do you like 2×4 pieces of wood with a bit of foam on top? That’s the seat. I encourage him to use the V-Strom highway pegs and to abuse the seat that was 3-4x as wide as the KLX.
We returned back to camp, traded some stories, and set off to the Starlight Cafe for a killer dinner, pulling out all the stops. Matt had a hankering for the filet mignon, and it wasn’t just a novelty in the dessert. It was a top tier cut. The perfect day has to include some filet mignon right?!
I topped out with some steller (see what I did there) pork medallions, and possibly the best Mexican vanilla ice cream I have ever had. A perfect day needs some scratch quality ice cream, c’mon!
A perfect day also needs to end with a shower. I skipped a few thousand of these from my younger military days, so I am still catching up. Sadly, this was the most capitalistic shower I had taken in a long time.
First, the local RV stop no longer offered paid showers. You had to reserve a site to have access, and they put this on the door. You want a shower? Reserve a full night here, it’s that easy! /s
Luckily another ‘Around the Bend’ rider hooked me up with a shower code, until I found out they change the codes daily! I begin casually walking around the RV site, seeing a pack of motorcycles, and strike up a conversation.
Turns out I happened to run into Les, the guy that originally shared the code in our WhatsApp group! He’s also the same guy that chatted me up about mountain biking in Bentonville! Man, kindred spirits, and universal karma delivers. I get the updated code, but stay another half hour talking motorcycles, mountain bikes, the desert, travel, and how hard it is to get a shower sometimes. We say polite goodbyes and I head back to the shower house, entering the new code that lets me inside…
…until I find that the showers only accept $2 in quarters to turn on a six minute shower! Another guest mentions there is a coin machine in the lobby. I walk around the complex, but the lobby is closed. I walk across the dirt to the only open gas station in town and enter.
Me – “Can you break a $5 into quarters?”
Cashier and his buddy, with a stern forlorn face – “….well….I don’t know, the only bank in town is closed and we don’t have a lot of change right now. How much do you need?”
Me – “Anything is appreciated, even $2 to get one six-minute shower would be great.”
Cashier, realizing how silly a 6-minute shower is – “Ok I’ll tell you what, I can give you $4, that will be enough to get two runs in.”
Me – “THANK YOU” *cue eternal gratitude*
I walk back across the dirt, nearly an hour after I arrived in the first place. I stage my soap, shampoo, scrubby, shower shoes, strip, and load the quarters. This is going to be the fastest shower this place has ever seen. I push the quarters in, the water turns on, and THE CLOCK IS TICKING *DEPLOY DEPLOY DEPLOY!*
Exciting narrative aside, first shower in three days is amazing. I get a shave in too to help prevent all that facial Velcro sticking into my helmet cushions. All my personal hygiene complete, I ride back the half mile to camp in sneakers, thin pants and shirt, and my helmet. The night desert air dries the rest of me off, and it feels glorious. Under the stars at camp and inspired by the McDonald observatory, I do some quick astrophotography. Knowing where to look, and hand-holding my Olympus with excellent image stabilization, I aim at the Orion Nebula.
What a perfect day.
Click the gallery below for full resolution:
