Here's another trail rider who told us about a town that was only a few miles away. It turned out that the town was 30 miles down the trail and the trail became increasingly treacherous.
Pat coming up the trail

Not sure what the exact temperature was but it was hot. We were told that a person would need a gallon of water a day to survive even if they were standing still. The GS's temp gauge usually reads 5 bars, but on the trail, it got up to 7 bars which is one away from the red. We couldn't get alot of airflow because our speed was only around 10-15 MPH.
Here I am catching up to Pat. After hitting a pretty good sized bump, we both lost some of our gear. I stopped to reattach my sleeping bag and retrieve Pat's water bottle. Pat rode on. While stopping, I took some time to soak in my surroundings. Its interesting to note how quite and still the desert is.

that's me
Me again
Pat with the thumbs up
Here's me enjoying the trail. I was very happy with how comfortable I was with this big bike offroad and how easy it was to maneuver even at slow speeds on uneven terrain. At this point, the trail was still very even and easy to travel, later, things got much more interesting. The conditions started to get worse a few miles later, we came across large ruts and lots of sand. We also had to dodge huge holes quit often.

Pat took his helmet off for this photo opp.

The entrance to Big Bend! As we approached the entrance I met another BMW rider who had stopped for a photo. (No picture with him though)

Southwestern Texas

South Padre Island

Brownsville, Texas

April 5

Doing my good deed for the day. This is at a stop just inside of Texas. If you look closely you may notice that I have my jacket sleeves wrapped up in tape. This jacket was flapping in the wind and whipping me all over the place. The problem was that its not a proper touring jacket. However I was never bothered by it before but we were now traveling at about 80-85 mph and it had began to whip around pretty good. When we pulled over I had Pat tape my arms and then once around my waist. I must say that I got some strange looks while I was being taped up.

April 4

After driving down to the coast, we headed north. Night was approaching and we weren't in any mood to pay for a hotel. We thought we would try the BMW anonymous book and hopefully find a tent space in someone's yard. That attempt was unsuccessful. The person that Pat called from the anonymous book kind of freaked us out. He was making too many references to guns and was unwilling to give us his address so that we could input it into the GPS. He argued with Pat over that idea. He thought he needed a GPS so that he could give us coordinates. He just wasn't willing and didn't understand. Yikes! By this time it was dark, we were tired and I almost got into a accident. Some over eager teenager, trying to impress his friends was driving like an idiot and pulled out in front of me. I almost hit him! Thank God for ABS, although my tire (not sure if it was the front or back) chirped for a split second. After a near collision, we stopped at a KOA campground. We soon found out that it was going to cost us as much to stay here as a hotel. We kept on going and by the end of the night settled for a remote corner of a truck stop. We used the rain cover from the tent and bungeed it down to the bike. Pat and I ate a meal of dinty moore beef stew (very greasy and nasty, but suitable on an adventure trip) and after that, I was ready for nothing else but sleep. I put my earplugs in and I was out. Surprisingly that night was one of the best nights sleep i'd gotten in awhile.

On our way back from the coast, we began to see flood damage. As night began to creep in, we ran into this dead end, the result of massive and permanent flooding.

We couldn't leave Louisiana without a visit to the coast.

April 3

I had a great time in Baton Rouge. Pat and I spent two days in a nice hotel with plenty of downtime. Originally I had planned to turn around and head back to Lancaster after the wedding. Pat on the other hand was heading out west to explore a state he had never been to, Texas. It was the morning of April 3 and time for me to make a decision. How could I resist the chance to tour Texas and better yet go without any real plans as to were we might end up? A true adventure no doubt! Well, I couldn't, so I called home, made some additional arrangements and was off to Texas!!

The beautiful bride Amy

Ryan's sister Jill

Ryan and I hanging out at the reception.

Three old buddies from high school reunite



Joe and Sandi Smith, Ryan's mother and step father.

I had a great time with my friend Joe (who also made the trip from Lancaster) , the groom's half brother and sister from the other side of the family, Mellissa and Sean.

Ron and Wanda Schenk, Ryan's father and step mother.

April, 1

Part of the reason, or excuse, to go on this trip was to see my friend Ryan Schenk, and attend his wedding in Baton Rouge, La.

Natchez, Mississippi

This is my friend and fellow adventure traveler Pat. We had a deal that if I would start the fire he would split the wood......No argument there.

For a reasonable $10 per night this nice space was provided along with virtualy unlimited firewood.

The worst thing about the Natchez Trace is shown on the speedometer. Although the speed was slow, there was no traffic to speak of and no intersections.

The Tennessee countryside