Ride to Jefferson and surrounding area

     It has been a while since I was able to take a ride that lasted more than a few hours.  The ride to Jefferson in East Texas had been planned for several months and was scheduled to leave on Friday morning and return on Sunday afternoon.

     As advertised, the group left College Station at the appointed time headed for East Texas.  I use the term “group” very loosely here…there were 3 motorcycles and 5 people…two couples and me.  Man, did I ever feel like a 5^th wheel. 

    Our first stop was in Madisonville at Buckee’s to fill up the tanks as the others had not done that in College Station.  Once that was done, we continued east on Hwy 21 towards Nacogdoches.  Not too far on the other side of Crockett, we stopped at a Biker Store.  The owner and his wife were very friendly even though we didn’t buy anything.  They took our picture for their wall and we continued on eastward. 

    We passed by the Caddo Mounds State Historic Site on to Alto where we turned north onto Hwy 69 headed north to Rusk.  We stopped for fuel in Rusk and continued on, north on Hwy 110, then Hwy 204 back down to Hwy 259.  We again turned north through Mt. Enterprise, skirted the southern edge of Kilgore and hit FM349 east over to FM322 which we followed on into Longview.  There we stopped at Dukes Fish Shack.  Sharon questioned the wisdom of eating sea food in the middle of East Texas but it was very good…mostly shrimp, catfish and frog legs…I had shrimp and it was delicious.

     After lunch…about 2pm, we jumped on I-20 for about 20 miles until we got to FM450 in Hallsville and headed north towards Jefferson.  The number of small creeks is too numerous to remember as is the small towns.  However, there were two interesting names that stood out…Good Springs and Pirtle Community.

     After a series of turns on other farm-to-market roads, we pulled into Jefferson around 3pm.  We parked in front of the Excelsior Hotel…our accommodations for the next two days…and checked in.  After cleaning up a bit, I did a little exploring while the others took a nap or something.  Jefferson is an interesting little town, with a population of only 2,100.  However, it seems a lot bigger with several good restaurants and antique shops.  

     The most interesting store I went into was The General Store.  This place still had a soda fountain in place…although it wasn’t active…and a lot of what looked like original signage.  Inside you could find a lot of things to buy.  It kind of reminded me of some of the tourist traps down in Galveston but there were also other items to buy, including a lot of throwback candy and gum and soda.  It was a lot of fun to roam around inside.

     That night we had dinner at The Cork Yard.  As the name implies, their specialty was wine but they also had a pretty good menu of appetizers and entrées.  After our rather large lunch, everyone decided on the appetizers so we orders 3-4 of them and shared.  It was a pleasant night to be outside and the group had a good time talking and eating.  Even thought we didn’t have dinner, we decided we should have dessert so we headed down the street to The Hamburger Store where we all had a piece of wonderful pie.

     Besides no cable or internet at the hotel that night, we all had a fairly restful evening.  Oh, did I forget to mention that my room only had a claw foot bath tub with a handheld shower thing.  It has been a long time since I took a bath and it took a few minutes for me to get the hang of it…but I managed.  My morning bath went a little quicker but I did manage to get the floor pretty wet washing my hair.  Oh well, I guess they’re used to that.

     On Saturday morning, we went next door to the Bayou Bakery and Café.  We ordered breakfast…I had a ham and cheese omelet which was amazing…and made plans for the day.  Our fearless leader was taking us west to Lake O’ the Pines, around it and back to Jefferson.  The after lunch we would head east to Caddo Lake.

     After breakfast, we headed west on Hwy 49, hit FM729, FM 726, across the Ferrells Bridge Dam, then Hwy 259 into Ore City on the shores of Lake O’ the Pines.  We followed Hwy 259 further north to the tip of the lake, skirted the town of Lone Star and then turned south on FM729 again.  FM729 offered a much better few of the lake as we crossed several bayous…that looked like part of the lake to me but what do I know.  When we got to the intersection of 729 and 726, we backtracked a bit and turned into the Buckhorn Creek Park where several fishermen were offloading their boats for an early start to the weekend.  We took the opportunity to do a little more planning.

     We decided that it was too early for lunch…considering the portions of breakfast we had consumed…so we decided to go to one of the nearby vineyards.  We had seen Enoch’s Stomp Vineyard the day before on the way into Jefferson but there was another one a bit closer to our current location.  We mounted up and headed to O’Farrell’s Country Vineyard.  We arrived at the entrance and 11:45 and noticed that they didn’t open until 12:00.  However, after a few pictures, it was time so we went in.

     The others went into the wine tasting and small sales office while I stayed outside talking to one of the visitors and the owner…both retired Air Force.  It was very interesting since both of them retired a few years before me.  The visitor, from eastern Oklahoma, had been stationed at Randolph and Travis during his career so we talked about those places and what they look like now.

     Following our visit, I sat in the shade with everyone for a while, soaking up the quite country ambiance.  After a while, we decided to head back to Jefferson for lunch.  Our destination was Kitt’s Kornbread Sandwich shop.  By the way, did you know there’s a Lodi, Texas?  Well, I do now.  It’s on the road north of Jefferson.

     A few minutes later, we pulled into town and found that it was very crowded.  It’s amazing how a town of only 2,100 can become so crowded with no event scheduled for this particular weekend.  However, Jefferson is the county seat and I guess between visitors, town folks and folks from the surrounding area, it can get crowded.  Kitt’s was crowded, even at 1:30 in the afternoon.  We found seats at the bar and perused the menu.  Right away we noticed some interesting items.  We also could not help noticing the pies in the display case when you entered.

We ordered our Kornbread sandwiches…I had the Redneck Special…bologna and cheese…followed by a slice of apple pie.  It was yummy.  I highly recommend it to anyone headed to Jefferson.

     With our bellies full, we headed east to Caddo Lake.  One of our riders grew up fishing at the lake so he was our fount of information once we got there.  One of the interesting things about Caddo Lake is the town of Uncertain.  It’s not much of a town but rather a collection of trailer parks, RV parks and cabins for people coming to Caddo Lake.  The lake itself, especially close to the shore, is a carpet of water lilies, so thick you would think a boat could not get through them.

     In fact, the guy who had spent some of his youth fishing on the lake said that in addition to the water lilies there are many submerged stumps and/or trees that if you don’t stick to the marked “highways” in the lake, you could find yourself bailing fast to keep afloat.  We did not take the opportunity to rent a boat this time…maybe later.

     On the western end of the lake sits the little town of Karnack.  Once again, not much of a town but it did have a nice restaurant, the River Bend restaurant, which used to be a large boat dock, and a nicer place called Big Pines Lodge.  Along the road between the two places there were a couple of very nice homes…or should I say estates.  It’s amazing where people will spend $500K or more to build a home.

     By the time we had made the circuit on the south side of Caddo Lake, the weather appeared to be coming in from the west so we decided it was time to head back.  We arrived back at the hotel about 4pm, cleaned up and rested and met in the lobby at 5:30 to head to the local sports bar and grill, The Franchise, for dinner and the Aggie game.

     It had been a good day with good riding.  The roads around Jefferson are mostly smooth and those that need a little work appear to be prepped for a new surface.  We went through several small towns…the largest of which had a population of 500.  We also crossed numerous creeks and bayous once again…the largest of which were Hurricane Bayou, Black Cypress Bayou, Big Cypress Bayou and Little Cypress Bayou.  Needless to say, the area has some cypress trees.

     We had a nice dinner at The Franchise, milking our appetizers, drinks and dinner to manage to see the whole game that night while it rained heavily outside.  Fortunately, we caught a break in the heavier rain and managed to get back to the hotel without getting very wet.  Our landlord had graciously allowed us to park our bikes up on their porch for the night so we were able to make some preparations for Sunday morning’s departure.

     I slept much better on Saturday night as I managed to get a room with a shower and a working television…although the weather knocked out the cable so once again I went to bed before 10pm…probably a new record, two nights in a row.

     On Sunday, we ate breakfast in the hotel dining room…a very good country breakfast.  It was not raining, although it looked like it could at any moment.  Our leader, after looking at the radar picture on his phone determined that we were on the backside of the front that had passed through the night before and he didn’t think we’d need our rain suits all day.  Of course, as luck would have it, we had not even gone a mile down the road when it started raining.  We pulled over to the side of the road and everyone put on their jackets and we continued on.  As it rained harder and longer, we got wetter and wetter.

     We pulled into a gas station in Marshall to top off the tanks and everyone got fully dressed in rain gear.  I learned several things that morning:  1) when you put on the jacket, put on the pants too; 2) my boots are not waterproof…my socks and inside the boots got wet in a hurry; and 3) always wear the full-face helmet when inclement weather is anticipated…this one I had done.

     Leaving Marshall, we took Hwy 59 south towards Carthage, looped around the northern edge of the city and took FM315 through Clayton into Mt. Enterprise.  There we got on Hwy 259 south towards Nacogdoches.  Once again, we skirted the edge of town on their loop to Hwy 7 and turned west towards Crockett and home.

     On Hwy 7 we went through several small towns like Pollock, Redtown and Ratcliff, plus over the Angelina River and Neches River and through the Davy Crockett National Forest.  We took the loop around the eastern edge of Crockett until we came to Don Rafa’s Mexican Food…the only kind of food we had not had on the trip.

     After a good meal, we hit Hwy 7 headed towards Centerville, passing through the little of towns of Eunice.  We continued on 7 through Concord, Redland and Marquez where we got on Hwy 79 through Franklin and into Hearne…only 30 more miles to home.  We arrived back in the Bryan/College Station are about 4pm, definitely ready to be home…although my house was empty save for two little Cocker Spaniel dogs, eager to play and get into trouble.

     Overall, the ride through East Texas and Jefferson was very good.  We had some good food and good fellowship and I rarely felt like the 5^th wheel I was.  We had sun and hot weather, cloudy and muggy weather and rain…sounds like Texas…and covered just over 700 miles.  This trip was a bit expensive…probably why there weren’t many takers…but it was worth it.  There might not be too many more for this old guy so I’ve got to take advantage of these types of rides when I can.  I have my dear wife to thank for encouraging me to go.

     Nothing much on the horizon for future rides, other than a dinner ride here or there.  I need to get back to my ABC’s of Texas tour soon but hopefully the colder weather and holidays will be here so there might not be too much more riding until spring.  Until then, thanks for visiting my blog.