(You can click any picture below to enlarge it.)

The Two-wheeled Texans, and more specifically, Scott from over there, hosted a little dual-sport ride this weekend.  I decided, 'why not', so I left the house this morning at 7:00 to head to Huntsville and meet Scott and whoever else showed up at his house. 

Of course, I stopped at McDonalds and had breakfast, but I made it to Scott’s at about 8:45.

It didn’t take long for all of the crew to show up… there were 8 of us total—one 1150 GS, me on my 650GS, a Dakar, and the rest were lighter XRs and DRs.  I'm sorry I do not remember everyone's name (I've always sucked at that), but in addition to Scott, there were Steves and Bills and a Will...

... but missing from the line-up was Dr. Josh and the big green KLR.  He's in California for the next 2+ years, "specializing"... it's just not the same without you Josh!

Of course, my motorcycle was the only one with street tires on it.  Everyone else had knobbies, but that’s what I had, so that’s what I rode on.

We got on road about 9:30 and within a few minutes, we were on dirt.  Most of the roads were gravel, but there were some places where the sand was a bitch with my Tourances.

Stand up, knees bent slightly, and as 38 Special said, "hold on loosely but don't let go... if you cling too tightly, you're going to loose control."

We ended up in the woods a few times which was also nice:

But at the slower speeds, it got ugly hot really quick.  And, I forgot my Camelbak... Scott didn't forget his:

Scott led us all day down one road after another:

But, we needed several breaks to simply hydrate:

Will on the Dakar seemed to be having a good time, but like me, I can only assume wielding the heavy thing around wore him out too:

Dust.  There was dust everywhere.  I had it from head-to-toe even though I was covered in ATGATT.  I'm pretty sure my chain was unhappy with me at this point:

Anyway, it was good to have another F650 out there with me:

And once again, we stopped for something to drink:

Sorry there are not more or better pictures, but we spent the day riding... not really taking pictures.

Things I learned today: