Tejas Chapter National Road Run
Kerrville, Texas, 2005
Jim Watson Memorial Ride
By Jack and Karen Gross
Photos by Elton Morris

The Inn of the Hills in sunny Kerrville, Texas, played host to the first AMCA National Road Run ever held in the Lone Star State. This first-class motel was just the beginning of a well-put-together run. Sunday was the day of registration and a good old barbecue supper. The rider’s meeting was held afterwards giving the hosts a chance to explain the three days’ different routes and some of the local native hazards. While the group was inside at the meeting, Mother Nature was nice enough to provide a steady rainfall to clean the dust off the landscape and the roads. Stanley Miller explained the routes and the way of life in Texas. For anyone who doesn’t know, Texas does not believe in building bridges, but, instead, just laying blacktop right through the creek beds! They call them low-water crossings; well, that is when it’s not raining. To help you tell how deep the water is, they are kind enough to install a five-foot-tall flood gauge at every low spot.

Day One: Jim Watson Memorial Route. On a sad note, Jim Watson helped lay out this road run in very great detail. Unfortunately, Jim was killed in an antique motorcycle accident just three weeks prior to the start of this run.

Leaving the motel riders had the choice of two different routes taking them to the small pioneer German settlement of Fredericksburg, famous for its wineries and vineyards, arts and crafts and many antique and other specialty shops. Stanley Miller cautioned everyone that the “blue route” would definitely have water over the road due to the rain. The vast majority of us riders took the “yellow route” and safely made our first planned stop at the National Museum of the Pacific War.


The San Francisco crew, Rick and Loretta Najera with Larry Nizuk.

It sounded like there were a few brave riders who challenged and lost while trying the blue route. Reports were that three bikes and riders went down while trying these low water crossings. We then headed to a 47-mile loop through Willow City. With the blue bonnet flowers and the wild cactus blooming all over the place, this was one very pretty ride. Much of the loop was open range with long horn cows roaming free on the roads. We spotted several of the local white tailed deer and wild turkeys hanging out near the roadways for added scenery. Karen and I were following our friends, George and Beverly Twine, from Enfield, Connecticut. They must have straddled a coiled-up snake on the roadway with their side hack as it came slithering out stretching nearly the full width of our riding lane. A quick swerve over the centerline and raising up my feet for good measure avoided hitting this local critter.

After lunch we stopped at a wildflower farm for a short rest and a couple of photos. The route now had us heading toward the world famous Luckenbach, Texas. Our route sheets had a quote from Jim Watson that said, “Stop by and take a look around - you’ll either love it or wonder what all the fuss is about.” This quaint, tiny town impressed Karen and me. The sign in the old general store/post office/saloon kind of summed it up best: Luckenbach population 3. They did have live music that Monday afternoon, out back under the shade trees. On the last 25 mile segment heading back to our base, we encountered about a 10 minute rain delay, fortunately for Beverly Twine’s great leadership skills, she found us dry, overhead shelter within the first minutes of the rain. The first day only totaled about 140 miles, but it surely consumed a full day as we rolled back into the motel around 5:30 that evening.


The Lady in Black. Colette Sossaman from Lancaster, Texas, on her Harley Panhead.

Day Two: Stonehenge Route was the longest scheduled route at 180 plus miles. We headed west and up into the higher elevations of the hill country. A quick stop at the Hilltop rest area between Vanderpool and Leakey gave us a great Texas Hill Country view. Everyone was filling up their tanks in Campwood after lunch because for the next 80 miles of the route there was no gas available! About 10 miles north of the lunch stop, we were passing the Flying Bull Ranch, which is actually a private zoo. No entry was allowed but we were able to stop roadside and view several camels, buffaloes, antelope, deer, peacocks, a giraffe and about 50 kangaroos. We then found ourselves winding along and crossing the Guadalupe River a half dozen times. Just west of the town of Hunt, was a scaled down replica of the famous Stonehenge rock formation in England. Kind of neat to see once, but not worth driving all the way to Texas! We rolled back into town in plenty of time to find a good local Mexican restaurant for a large, cold margarita and a plate of hot spicy enchiladas.


Guy Monroe and Jeanie Hastey from New Mexico, take a break in the famous Texas Hill Country.

Day Three: Lost Maples Route had us heading southwest into Bandera County to the Lost Maples State Park. This area on Route 187 is famous for its flora and fauna combining steep rugged limestone canyons, clear, spring-fed streams and a large isolated stand of uncommon Bigtooth maple trees, not native to Texas. About a mile or so from the park, was the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum. This museum, operated by Allen Johncock, is a very fine example of an enthusiast-owned and operated motorcycle exhibit. It had many fine British bikes, both street and race machines just begging to have their throttles twisted. Many American bikes were also on display, some from the early teens. Allen and staff provided free coffee and cookies for us tourists, along with offering some of their delicacies from “down under.” After lunch we rolled the bikes down into Bandera which is reputed to be the “Cowboy Capital of Texas.” Their Frontier Times Museum features a 40,000-piece collection of Old West, pioneer, and prehistoric artifacts. We ended the ride after clicking off nearly 150 beautiful miles of Texas Hill Country back roads.

That evening the buffet style banquet was stocked with all kinds of delicious foods, along with two separate dessert tables for our enjoyment. Both Karen and I were lucky and won door prizes that were awarded after the meal. Several specialty highly-coveted awards were given.

These National Road Runs are a whole lot of fun as there were 90 riders from 24 states. Even our National President, Pete Gagan, and his wife Mary Jane, were in attendance. My advice to you is; quit making excuses, get your old bike out and go for a ride.