Cigar Weekly

Even though there were still cold temperatures and blowing snow in the northern climates, here in Texas it was time for the first motorcycle journey of the season. In fact, early April is the perfect time to tour Big Bend by motorcycle, as the summers are pretty oppressive and in April the flowers and dessert cacti are in bloom. Our group consisted of four couples, all of the guys and three of the ladies riding their own bikes and one lady riding as passenger behind her husband. We headed out of the Houston area on a Saturday morning and rode in a westerly-south-westerly direction and stayed primarily on secondary roads, as they typically provide optimal scenery for motorcycles with much less interference from 18-wheeler rigs and 4-wheel automobile “cages.”

We rode Texas Hwy 290 for a good part of the day through the Hill Country, past Austin, with our lunch destination of Cooper’s BBQ in Junction, TX. Cooper’s is one of those classic family-owned operations which has been around for generations. You can smell the smoke from the parking lot and it only gets better the closer you get to the front door. Once inside, you are faced with a tough decision: sliced brisket, ribs, pork chops, chopped beef, sausage, or cabrito (kid goat – for you rookies). Our group sampled a good cross-section of the offerings and we had a great meal. Unfortunately, an afternoon siesta was out of the question; we were in search of more scenic back roads en route to Del Rio, along the Mexico border, was our evening destination. We took Hwy 377 south from Junction and were treated to rustic scenery, small towns and nice views across the valleys. We checked in to our motel and after a quick dinner, we adjourned to the pool area for cigars and a reflection on the day’s ride. Jim, our resident BOTB (Brother of the Briar) enjoyed a bowlful of mellow Cobblestone tobacco (a pressed English house blend from Croft’s Tobacco in Houston) in his unique Kirsten pipe, and BOTL Terry and I fired up our evening sticks. Terry had a Camacho Triple Black and I lit a Partagas 1845 Magnifico. Few things in life are better than a good day’s ride on the motorcycles, a pleasant setting, an adult beverage and a fine cigar with friends. The Partagas Black Label selection put a nice cap on the evening; its full flavor came through with a nice finish and a ton of rich, billowing smoke.

We rolled out the next morning under clear skies, crisp temperature in the 40’s and a lot of wind. As we made our way westward along Hwy 90, the bikes were leaned over just to keep them moving in a straight line. It did warm up a bit, but the wind was with us most of the morning, as we arrived in Marathon, TX, one of the jumping off points for Big Bend. Our lodging in Marathon was actually cabins just on the outskirts of town. The reason I picked this place was that there is a fantastic covered fireplace area, with comfortable seating, providing a perfect place for evening smokes. It also featured a great vantage point from which to watch the West Texas sunset.

West Texas sunset

 After lunch at Johnny B’s Cafe, we explored the town, took a walking trip through the city’s Gage Gardens (complete with a small putting green) and as evidenced by the pictures, three of us decided we did not want to risk injury from stray golf balls, so we kept our riding helmets firmly in place! We may have invented the new sport of “Full contact golf!”

Full Contact Golf!!

 We then rode over to Alpine, TX to tour the town and visit the Museum of the Big Bend – very interesting. Alpine is the home of Sul Ross State University, a beautiful place for a campus, with a lot of the students majoring in geography and other nature-related studies, with a fantastic “laboratory” just a few miles away in the National Park. There is a large mural downtown, which also pays tribute to one of the local legends, Dan Blocker (“Hoss” of TV’s Bonanza), who played football while at the university.

Alpine, TX mural

 After a good dinner back in Marathon at the Famous Burro, we headed for our cabins and had an enjoyable night by the fire swapping stories and lighting up cigars. The fireplace was a great gathering area and helped take the chill off a very cool evening. That evening, I smoked a Rocky Patel Edge Maduro with its peppery spiciness working with the fire to help warm up the desert night.

Roadhawg & Gail warming up

The following morning we headed to Big Bend for riding and activities in the National Park. The morning started, however, with a bit of a disappointment. From previous rides to Marathon, a morning treat (she opened at 5:15am) was the fried pies at Shirley’s Burnt Biscuit Bakery. Miss Shirley is quite a character and it was fun to get there early, have some of her pies right from the fryer and linger over coffee while talking to her and the locals who came in for their early morning sugar fix. Miss Shirley has now sold her shop and the new owner is a very nice fellow. He does put out a tasty product, but from the memory of hot pies coming out still on the rack, to fried pies now in a bakery case needing to be heated in the microwave, it was almost too much to bear. Anyway, we did find sustenance and were soon on our way into the park.

Big Bend National Park

For those of you who may have only heard of Big Bend, but may not be familiar with it, here is the skinny. Big Bend National Park comprises over 800,000 acres, or roughly 1,250 square miles. To help put this in perspective, Big Bend is about 20% larger than the entire state of Rhode Island. It is an amazing combination of desert areas, mountains, valleys, forested lands, river basins and some awesome twisty roads which are perfect for motorcycling. This is a great time of year to visit as well. My first trip here about 10 years ago was in August and it was HOT, HOT, HOT. However, April brings nice crisp mornings, clear skies and daytime temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s. It is in the Chihuahuan Desert, or high desert, so it is very dry with almost no humidity. As my wife says, “Every day is a ‘Great Hair’ day.” For me, it was just more days with no hair. The park is bounded on the south by the Rio Grande and stretches north from the river. The Big Bend area was named for the drastic change in the flow of the Rio Grande from southeast to northeast (it makes a big “bend” – get it?). Okay – enough of the geography lesson for today!

Riders dwarfed by mountains

Our first stop was in Boquillas Canyon, right alongside the Rio Grande border. You may have heard country songs or stories from the past about paying a few pesos to ride across the river on a burro into Mexico for fun, food, drinks and whatever. Boquillas was that famous crossing. However, as times and various restrictions have changed immensely over the years, we decided it made sense to walk down to the river and put our feet in the water to sort of “sample” Mexico, rather than “crossing over.” Well, as we got down to the riverbed, we looked up to find two Mexican fellows, one on a horse and one on a burro, riding across the river towards us. Holy Cow Batman, can you say “International incident?” We chatted for a few minutes with the fellows and even though they did offer us a ride “into town” to drink tequila and party, they really only wanted to sell us some handmade souvenirs. We wished them well, said “Adios” and hiked back to our bikes to continue our exploration of Big Bend.

Amigos at the Rio Grande

The next stop was a ride down into the Chisos Basin and lunch at the Chisos Mountain Lodge. We were treated to nice views and a very interesting ride down into the basin. A lot of very tight 10MPH curves and 8% grades are always interesting on the big touring bikes; as we sometimes say as riders, the “pucker factor” was running pretty high. However, we made it just fine and enjoyed a great lunch with incredible views. As lunch settled, we headed for the southwest boundary of the park and rode right down to the Rio Grande at Santa Elena Canyon. This is another area where the vastness of Big Bend is evident. Approaching the canyon from many miles away, it looks like a small slit in the rock, but face-to-face it is truly immense. The rock cliffs rise up from the river bed and it conjures up visions of an ancient walled fortress. After the obligatory wade in the Rio Grande, we mounted up and headed on towards Terlingua and our motel.

Santa Elena Canyon

After checking in, it was time for a pre-dinner cigar. This evening I had a CAO Gold Maduro; a good cigar, a satisfying beverage and amazing views of the sunset really prepped my appetite (which never really requires any prepping) and we walked to a small place down the road called the Chile Pepper Cafe. Lupe, the owner, used to work in the restaurant of the elite Lajitas Resort and her dishes have a genuine taste of old Mexico. This was as authentic a Mexican meal as anyone would ever imagine.

Roadhawg in Terlingua

The Chile Pepper

The next day we were scheduled for a half-day horseback ride, which was exciting for approximately 50% (the female half) of our group. We rode out early to reach the stables, found our horses, got some basic tips on how not to break our necks, then mounted up and off we went. We immediately began riding to a much higher elevation and the way the horses picked their paths through the rock-strewn paths was pretty amazing. We were treated to an aerial view of the Rio Grande and were able to see a lot of the back country area not visible to the typical tourist.

BOTL Terry puffs on horseback

Upon our return to the stables, we traded our four legged rides for our two wheeled rides and rode on to Lajitas. We walked around the resort and planned the remainder of the afternoon. The next stop was a ride north on Hwy 170, the River Road. This is a great stretch of highway between Lajitas and Presidio, which is full of undulating, roller-coaster hills and steep climbs and descents as it passes alongside the Rio Grande. Unfortunately, last year’s floods washed away part of the road, making it almost impassable (or at least very tricky) for motorcycles. We took the road several miles north to see the deserted movie set of Contrabando. This is a mock-up of a small Texas - Mexican village along the river and there have been many, many movie scenes filmed here. Some of the older ones include Up Hill All the Way, Rio Bravo and Streets of Laredo. If those films are too old for you, one of the most recent was No Country for Old Men. The Rio Grande is very narrow here and I just could not resist exporting a rock to Mexico. The good news is that my shoulder is now feeling much better.

Launching a rock into Mexico

The next stop was not far away at the Terlingua Ghost Town. This is a unique, quirky little place, home of the annual World Championship Chili Cook-off. We moseyed around the shops (we don’t always walk in Texas, sometimes we just mosey) and picked up a few souvenirs. We sat on the porch with the locals for a while, and then dinner that night was in Terlingua at the famous Starlight Theatre. This is a cool place with live music and really good food. I had the chicken fried antelope with beer gravy and one of the BOTLs ordered the Diego Burger, which is a pound of ground beef topped with cheese, bacon, two fried eggs, jalapenos, grilled onions and a few other things thrown in for good measure on a freshly baked roll. It was only slightly smaller than his head but he finished the whole thing! We got back to the motel before dark; this area is so remote that with all sorts of critters on the road, riding after dark is simply not a good (or safe) idea.

BOTL Terry & the Diego Burger

The next morning we made our way northward through Marfa and on to Fort Davis. We toured the Fort Davis Historic Site, had lunch at the Fort Davis Drug Store (famous for their milk shakes and steak fingers) and explored the downtown area. Later that afternoon most of the folks decided to relax at the Butterfield Inn where we were staying, but I rode the Fort Davis Loop. This is a 70 mile scenic loop from Fort Davis via Routes 166 & 118, returning back into town by the McDonald Observatory. After a pre-dinner Perdomo Lot 23 Toro Maduro, we dined across the street at the historic Limpia Hotel.

Riders at Ft. Davis

We continued north the next morning and fought some crazy cross winds en route to our planned breakfast destination in Pecos, Texas. The La Nortena Tamale Factory is always a treat and I make it a point to stop here anytime we are with a hundred miles or so of Pecos. There are just a few tables inside, as their main business is shipping their fantastic tamales to out-of-town destinations. With just a smattering of Spanish, we managed to place our orders and it was just as good as I remembered from the last visit. The tamales are fresh, and the red and green sauces are both heavenly (or maybe hellish, depending upon the level of heat). We stuffed ourselves (not the first time on this ride) and made our way on towards Midland, fighting the wind until around Noon. There were reportedly sustained winds in the area of 55mph, which simply is not fun when you are on two wheels. We rode Hwy 158 from Midland, south of Abilene to Hwy 377 into Stephenville and our last night on the road. The sole reason for the overnight in this city is that it is the home of the Hard Eight BBQ Restaurant. We walked to the Hard Eight and the first order of business as you pass by the huge smoker pits is what I call: “Pick your protein!” The choices range from pork chops to chicken, brisket, turkey, sausage links, rib-eyes, ribs, and more. Inside they weigh the meat and you make more choices from corn pudding, bread, coleslaw and desserts, including pies, banana pudding and several fresh cobblers. Included at no extra charge are jalapeno laced beans from a huge pot where you just help yourself. Also, and this is pretty rare, the Hard Eight does not have a liquor license; so, even though they cannot sell beer, they give it away. Yes, you read that correctly. There is a small area in the corner with a tap and after proving you are 21 or older just hold out your mug. Gosh it’s great living in Texas!! As the final evening cigar of this trip, I treated myself to an H. Upmann Reserve Maduro Titan. This monster stick was a fitting conclusion to a fantastic motorcycle trip.

Last dinner on the road

Our final day on the road, we stopped in Hico, Texas for breakfast at the Koffee Kup Restaurant, which has some of the best biscuits you will find anywhere. We then motored through Waco, with the glint of sun shining off the buildings of Baylor University and made our way back to the Houston area safe and sound. This ride is really what motorcycling and cigar smoking is all about: The opportunity to relax and get away with like-minded folks who enjoy new adventures and good times. The weather cooperated most of the time, we were treated to beautiful scenery and great roads, and we certainly expanded our horizons and our waistlines. All of this, plus fine cigars at the end of the day’s ride made this a trip to remember. If you get the chance to put Big Bend in your travel plans, you will not be disappointed, and if you need any restaurant recommendations, just let me know! -- Roadhawg