OMG! What a GREAT trip…we made it back alive…too much fun!Okay here goes… I first have to say how much fun this was with Kemper…I can’t imagine doing something this crazy with anyone else. I trusted him with everything I am…he is so the safest driver ever and if I even suggested I needed a break he never hesitated to stop as soon as possible.
So…we left the house at 8:30 Saturday morning…leaving Trey and Heather on the patio fussing at us to wear our helmets…Who’s the parent here???
Anyway…we took off down 1488 to 149…rode up through the Sam Houston National Forest…beautiful ride…the weather was so pleasant, I was even actually kind of chilly a few times, then we’d hit a patch of sun and it was just right. There is nothing like riding all forest and country roads, the sights, the sounds, the smells (road kill and cattle ranches, mostly, but some nice smells too…the trees, bushes, flowers and the occasional country breakfast cooking). Another
treat about riding these back roads is, you never know what you might get behind…a John Deer tractor, numerous horse trailers (more smells) or a house…interesting…"mister that motor home you got there…it’s a biggen’”. 
Our first stop was Huntsville to check our map, get some water and stretch our legs…sitting on that bike for awhile starts to make you a little stiff. So after our rest stop we were all set to go some more …OMG we are so ready for this trip…we are so cool…by now we have our do rags on and are lookin’ cool! REAL Wild Hogs we are.
From there on we are riding hard and fast…sun is beating down
but still quite pleasant. We ride on to Crockett, were we stop again for gas, water and standing just keep our legs in shape…checking our map and looking ahead to stopping at my Grandmothers house in Jacksonville. WOW what a great time we are having so far! This isn’t bad at all…We get to Eula Mae’s house in Jacksonville…unannounced…we knock on her door and she hesitates to open it…she doesn’t know who these two do rag wearing bikers are…we probably could have gotten some money if we’d played it out…heehee…no, I'm joking. I said “Gran, it’s Kim…” she
starts laughing and let’s us in…I introduce Kemper and we have a coke. Man it feels good to stand up and walk around for a few 
minutes, we met her new little dog, Maggie, that adopted her, Gran tries to convince us to take her with us, she doesn’t want her, then she goes on to tell us don’t touch her cause she mean and will bite. Understatement, this dog was meaner than the devil, you couldn’t pet her, or even stand close to her, she’d show her teeth and growl…Gran tells us that Maggie doesn’t like anyone but her, (I think that must be my Grandfather revisiting…he had the same disposition). I introduce Kemper again…okay, so she’s having a hard time with the name…she said she was going to write it down but never does…after about an 
hour we tell her we’ve got to get on the road, we have check in at the hotel at 4pm. Gran of course stalling for more time with us has to show Kemper the pictures of the family…thank God there isn’t many of us and that doesn’t take long…after asking several more times what his name is she decides she’ll call him Kemp…we laugh and hug several times, she realizes Kemper is tall and we laugh…she watches us drive away as long as she can, waving the whole time…So Kemp, pulls out going the wrong direction…so we have to stop at the school to check our map and turn around…this where he nearly dropped the bike the first time…a locust landed on this Wild Hogs arm giving him quite a scare!!! After I quit laughing…I check to make sure he was okay…he was fine a little shaken, but fine…and off we went in the right direction with Jefferson Texas as our next stopping point.
If you’ve never been in that part of the country you wouldn’t know this…
BUT, the bugs there are big as freaking dinner plates! And when they hit you while you're going 80 miles and hour on a motorcycle…you think you’ve been shot in the head, Kemper (aka Wild Hog) thought at one point he was bleeding…after I quit laughing…I checked him out he was fine, shaken but fine.
By now, we are getting a little tired and hungry…we stop in Kilgore for gas and more sunscreen…we finished off our water, stretched our legs and back…really starting to hurt at this point, but I don’t think either one of us where willing to admit it…we did feel good that we are only a few miles from Jefferson.
Well, these next few miles were tough, in fact, it nearly did us in, the sun was blazing, I was really beginning to burn even through the sun block and my legs, knees and back felt like I’d never walk again…I was high on road fumes and really ready for something to eat and drink.
We arrive…in Jefferson…thank you GOD!!!! We find our B&B we park the bike and with many moans and slow motion we get off…and find our way into the house to check in…they take us through the house and kitchen were fresh cookies had just come out of the oven…upstairs to our room where we were ever so impressed. The house and our room were beautiful!!! There was candy in our room and mints on the pillows…the bed felt like a cloud and the hot tub was very inviting. But we were starving (I wasn’t so much really, I’d had a huge June Bug just up the road)…so we brought our bag up and unpacked got back on that bike and went to the nearest eating establishment we could fine…just happen to be Mexican food…we ordered a ton of food and instructed the gir
l to keep the Corona Light coming. We were Wild Hogs from Houston…we toasted to the day and to our accomplishment.After we ate, we WALKED down the street, took the time to check in with everyone to let them know we made it. We ended up in what would be our favorite place in Jefferson…Auntie Skinner’s Riverboat Club http://www.auntie-skinners.com/ we had a couple of beers and decided to go get more beer and go to the room to clean up and rest a while and come back out later.
Well you guessed it, after we hit the hot tub (did you know NOT to put bubbles in the hot tub?, Well, anyway, I do now!!!) and laid down a minute…we couldn’t go anywhere…we hung out in our room drinking our beer eating the snacks we brought with us, laughing about the day and just enjoying the company of each other. We were asleep by 9 pm…and awake at 3am.Sunday Morning - If you’ve never stayed in a B&B OMG! Do that sometime…you know, they seem expensive, but when you think about it…it’s really not…We met neat people from all over and ate the most fabulous breakfast ever! Today we had Eggs Benedict, with Apple Baked Betty with cream sauce and Blackberry soup and muffins; the table was set for 12 with different china each day, a blue pattern today. The company, the history, the ghost stories, the hot tub, and awesome food…can’t beat it! And you are like family there…you can get a movie out of the library to watch in your room, and fresh cookies out of the cookie jar.
They have everything you might need, Steve was even a masseuse and they have a spa there…it's just very cool!
After breakfast we took off to Avinger (pop 464) that’s where I went to school and mom had her shop for many years. Even though the town is very small and there is nothing there, we had a good life and lots of fun memories…it was the best and the worst times of our life.
From Avinger we drove by our old house and to the lake…we went down to a section of the lake where I spent much of my teenage life with friends…I think some of my friends where still there…don’t believe they have moved in 22 years…heehee…
Kemper and I parked the bike and sat on a picnic table watching the jet skis zip back and forth, while enjoying a little gift from our friend Anne. We stayed around there a while until the hunger became too much and went back to Auntie Skinner’s for lunch…we had fried catfish…you can’t go to Jefferson and not…we left there to go do a little shopping and bought nothing but FUDGE, then back to the house where Kemper raided the cookie jar, we got a movie to take back to our room for a little rest. We soaked in the hot tub…Kemper is now taken to calling me 
Nana…okay, I’m not in very good shape for this biker thing…in fact, I’m pretty sure at this point my hip may be going out.We rest and watch our movie “Cold Mountain” I slept on and off, Kemper says it’s a stupid movie with a stupid ending…I asked “did you really think it was going to end well?”
After we recovered a little we got dressed and went back into town to do a little shopping…well, the streets roll up in Jefferson on Sunday evening, so we went back to Auntie Skinner’s where we had several Corona Lights and listened to the local lineup of wanna be singers in Jefferson. What a blast we had, we visited with other tourist, bikers and locals 
alike...and when the band refused to play anymore without pay (Jim Beam and water) we decided we should leave while Kemper could still keep the bike upright. Kemper stayed pretty directionally challenged throughout most of the trip…we laughed a lot, mostly at each other.Monday morning - we slept as long as we could without missing breakfast, got dressed and went down for another fabulous meal of stuffed French toast with pecan Maple syrup, fresh fruit, strawberry soup and yummy coffee…the table was set for 12 with a red china pattern today.
As soon as breakfast was done we hugged Steve and Elaine, of "The Claiborne House", http://www.claibornehousebnb.com/ and said our goodbye’s to our house mates, they all wished us well and to keep the rubber to the road. From there we went back into town, I wanted to pick up something for a girlfriend at work, the store was
closed but effort still entertaining…Kemper engaged in a colorful conversation with a local gal looking for work. Leaving 
Jefferson was sad…we’d had such a great time…I thank God I don’t live there, but I thank God for places like that to go…and people like that to entertain us.The travels back seemed to go much faster than coming…but by the first rest stop I am positive that not only has Nana’s hip gone out but her knees are shot as well…I may never stand up straight again. With the bug guts on my glasses and do rag…which is now just merely a rag…we take off again…by this time the clouds are
forming all around us…we are riding hard and fast but never get in the rain…by Crockett we spend a little extra time, resting and stretching our now extremely sore and aching back and legs…while questioning why we thought we could do this? Once we feel better and get the circulation going again, we jump back on talking and kissing much of the way.The plan is that we’ll cross big bridge over lake Conroe and continue to take the back roads around to Papa’s on the Lake…but you guessed it the
rain hit…just a light, lovely, soft rain though…we pulled over at a gas station to wait it out a few minutes…when we decided it wasn’t going to really rain any harder or softer, we went ahead to make our way around to Papa’s. Well, yep…not ½ mile down the road the rain was beating us…felt like little bullets hitting us, we are soaked and can’t see a thing…the air is like ice, we are freezing…we pass a
church with a carport we zipped in under the carport next to the church van…freezing still, we dried off and changed our shirts. We sat there for quite sometime while the rain just poured down...wild, windy, sheets of cold rain. Finally the rain gets lighter…NEVER stops…we take off to Papa’s to sit it out a while longer and get something to eat…once at Papa’s it’s 
PACKED everyone from the lake is there avoiding the rain…there is NO place to sit and the wait staff is way overwhelmed. We look and smell like drowned rats, not so cool as before…cold, frustrated and hungry…we got back on the bike to Fajita Jack’s, requested to sit outside so we wouldn’t freeze (yep, still freezing, yep it’s Labor Day, we’re freezing) ate soup and nachos and drank margaritas. Then made our way home in you guessed it the RAIN!!!! 
So, for our first Wild Hog adventure…it was an adventure, a Grand Adventure…we had it all, nothing left out…It was the perfect trip. So Nana and Wild Hog can’t wait to go again…we’re trying to find a way to make money doing this…a lot of money... hips ain’t cheap I hear.
But for now…if you can’t find us at our real job…you can bet you’ll find us on the road…we’re already looking forward to the next "trip".
Special thanks to Anne!!!
