I thought I get out of the house nice and early to hit the road and sort out a couple of things with my Ranger ute as well as the Harley and then check out Fort Worth at my leisure, but as they say in the classics – the best laid plans of mice and men.
I walk up to the rental car and press the key fob to unlock it – computer says no. I get absolutely nothing, nada, zip, bupkiss, farq all from the vehicle – it was dead as doornail. I use the “safety key” to open the vehicle and find the battery completely dead. I jumped straight on the “dog & bone” to contact Avis for emergency roadside assistance and to arrange for a replacement vehicle for me to collect in nearby Denton.
As you can imagine, all this takes time and as such I decided to change up my route as it was 10:40 AM by the time I actually got going. The irony was also not lost on my that of all the vehicles I’ve been in on the trip so far, including the busted arse unroadworthy mini-buses, the newest one with the least amount of mileage was the one I had the most issues with – go figure.
I left the rental agency, headed north on I-35 East and then dropped down I-35 West for a straight shot down to the Unites States 15 largest city – Forth Worth, that was established in 1849 as an army outpost. With clear roads and light traffic, it took less than 30 minutes to find a parking spot and wander over the iconic 40 hectare (98 acre) Stockyards historic district, just in time for their daily re-enactment of a cattle drive with some decent size and well fed longhorn “hamburgers on the hoof”.
I wandered around for a bit taking in the historical Western architecture as well as Billy Bob’s Texas, which promotes itself as “The World’s Largest Honky Tonk,” before settling on a bite to eat at Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que located just over Stockyard Boulevard.
For rev-heads like myself, one of the “Sistine Chapels of Speed” would be Summit Racing Equipment’s purpose built 6.5 hectare (16 acre) building which includes a large 3,000 square metre (32,000 square foot) retail superstore in Arlington, that opened in 2017. Whilst I wasn’t able to purchase what I was looking for off the shelf or have it arrived before my departure on Saturday, it was one of the best ways to while away a couple of hours.
A traffic free ½ hour drive over towards DFW Airport saw me pull into Texas Harley-Davidson to try and sort out an oil pressure and temperature gauge set up and a better mounting solution for mounting the amps in the panniers. With what I figured to be well over 300 new and used bikes in inventory, I had a fun time checking out the various rides to see what either the previous owners or the dealership had done to them, which gave me a couple of ideas for my ride.
Just in case you’re wondering, the most expensive bike in the showroom was the 2019 FLHXS Street Glide Special Touring that was customised by the dealer and could be all yours for a measly $59,999.00 USD ($87,174.00 AUD) plus on road costs.
By now it was close to 3:30 PM and with dinner engagement booked with a great friend of the family – Don Eades, for 5 sharp, I decided to take the 121 onto I-35 East to hopefully beat any traffic. As luck would have it, I was able to sit on 70 mph (113 kph) basically the entire way to Mike & Bek’s, for the first time ever.
Dinner was a pretty decent effort with great company and conversation at the Prairie House Restaurant over in Cross Roads about a ½ drive away, made all the more enjoyable with Bek behind the wheel of Don’s red convertible Mustang that’s never had the roof raised.
Just for shit’s & giggles on the way home, I purchased a couple of tickets in the $367 million USD Texas Lottery Mega Millions and $288 million USD Powerball draw, just to see if I can keep travelling for a little bit longer.
Whilst it’d be fair to say the day started out less than ideal, it got a whole lot better as it went along and ended brilliantly with friends and family – not a whole lot more you could ask for really.
