Bard Letsinger

Texas Pride Barbeque Lunch Run

I am sunburned, wind burned, my tail-bone hurts and I think I upped my cholesterol by 100 points but I had a great day. This week my friend Ricky invited me to join him and a few of his fellow firemen on a 200 mile round trip lunch ride to Texas Pride Barbeque just outside of San Antonio. Motorcycles, food and fellowship, three of my favorite things. Ricky did not have to ask me twice.

We left Victoria Fire Station #5 around 10AM taking Hwy 87 up through Cuero and La Vernia. This is a great little highway ride. Some hills, a few lazy curves and some beautiful country.  I love riding over the old 1930’s era steal girder bridge over the San Antonio River outside of Cuero. On a bike you can feel the change in temperature as you pass over the river. The day was hot but you stay fairly cool flying 70mph down the highway. The ride was for the most part uneventful, however, outside of Nixon, TX we did have a “Wild Hogs” type moment as we got stuck behind an 18-whealer hauling chickens. Not sure which was worse, the smell or the feathers hitting us in the face. 

Noon and 95 miles later we reached our lunch destination,

Texas Pride Barbeque,located at 2980 East Loop 1604 in Adkins, Texas. Food Network’s Guy Fieri featured Texas Pride on his shows Dinners, Drive-Ins and Dives(for those non Food Network junkies you know Guy from the from his TGIFriday’s commercials). When you first enter the restaraunt you stand in line to get to the meat cutter who slices your order by weight, serves it to you Texas Style on butcher paper, and gets you your sides. The meat cutter was a character and the rest of the staff was wonderful. While the BBQ was great it was the Pecan Cobbler, or as the meat cutter called it “the hart attack in a cup”, that was off the hook.

We ate outside under a covered area with picnic tables and cool “junk” all around talking about the food and of course about motorcycles, bike equipment and places to ride. Even thought I only knew one of the guys, and am not a member of the VFD, you would never have known it. One of the things I love most about riding motorcycles, and one thing I think the church can learn from motorcycle riders, is acceptance. Even in church I still see clicks and holy huddles. If you don’t look right, dress right, are not a member of the right profession, or one of right families of the church, etc., you can come but you won’t ever really be accepted… and that’s NOT right. With bikers what matters is that you ride a bike. Doctors and ditch diggers, ranchers and artist, white collar and blue collar workers, people who would not normally hang outtogether or run in the same circles, will come together for a ride and sit at the same table for dinner talking bikes, family and life without any thought of their social status.

I see a lunch or dinner road trip with the family or another couple in the near future. This time we will drop the top on the convertible and go. Can not fit the whole family on the bike.

The Killing of a Town, Helena TX.

One of the great things about riding a motorcycle is…riding the motorcycle!!!  Sometimes it is not enough just to go for a ride so I have started putting together “devo rides” where at one point we stop and do a short devotion that is tied into our ride destination.

Earlier this month my ride group rode to the to the Texas ghost town of Helena, about 70 miles south of San Antonio. Over 120 years ago at Helena’s prim the city had a courthouse, a jail, a church building that housed three different congregations, a Masonic Lodge, drugstore, blacksmith shop, two hotels, a general store, up to 13 saloons, a school (the Helena Academy), a coeducational college and two newspapers. The town had a population of about 300 and was on a major trade route from the coast to San Antonio. Helena's future looked bright.

But Helena was also a lawless western town right out of a Hollywood movie script. How rough was it? Many people just referred to it by the first syllable of its name…”Hell”. It was the birthplace of the “Helena Duel" in which the left hands of two opponents were tied together and each fighter was given a knife with a three-inch blade. After the combatants were spun around a few times, they slashed away at each other until one bled to death from the accumulation of cuts and stabs. Robberies and shootings were common. 

Something had to give, and the beginning of the end for this once a thriving boom town  came the day after Christmas 1884 when Emmett Butler, the son of prominent rancher and Civil War Veteran  Colonel William G. Butler, was shot and killed.

There are many versions of what happened to Emmett that evening in Helena. They range from kissing the wrong girl (ah-la Kevin Cosner in Silverado) to shooting the sheriff. One version was even portrayed on the popular TV show Death Valley Days. All versions of the story end the same. Emmett is shot and killed while fleeing town, then the next day his father, Colonel Butler, rides into town with his brothers and cowhands demanding to know who killed his son. When no one would, or could tell him he supposedly shouted the famous phrase “This town killed my son, now I’m going to kill this town”.  What there is no doubt about is that soon after the killing of his son, Colonel Butler gave the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway free right-of-way through the family ranch to by-pass Helena, and in the late 1800’s being bypassed by the rail road was the kiss of death for a town. Within ten years of Emmitt’s death the county seat and most businesses had left Helena and moved to towns on the new rail line.

Our ride took us to the Helena town site that today consist of the old court house and post office, now museums, and several historical markers. I did a short devotional on generational sin, focusing not only that which led to the death of Helena, but also the generational sin of the Butler family and some of its history which I know well. Colonel Butler’s father was my great, great, great grandfather. My great, great grandfather was Pleasant Burnel Butler who was Colonel William Butler’s younger brother and one of the men who road into Helena to find out who killed Emmitt. Today we still have a tract of land on our ranch that is still owned by the rail road where the orgional line came through.

While we are influenced by our family and it’s history we are not bound by it. Ezekiel 18:30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct," declares the Lord GOD. “Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you.” (NAS)

We have the power, through Christ, to break the generational curse; we do not have to repeat the sins of our family. So what generational sins do you need to overcome, and what sin do you need to take to the Cross and ask for forgiveness so that it does not become a stumbling block for your family. Maybe you have grown kids, what have you passed on to them that you need to go to them and ask forgiveness to help them not pass it on to the 3rd and 4th generation.

It was a great ride, with some great guys and I am looking forward to the next one. 

Bravo Bravo's

Any day you can go for a ride is a great day. After church the Parkway Riders, the Motorcycle Ministry at Parkway Church, took it’s semi by-monthly Sunday lunch ride. This time we took a short trip up Hwy 87 to Don Bravo’s in Cuero, Texas. Nothing like Bikes and greasy Tex-Mex. Don Bravo’s is on Hwy 183 in Cuero on the right as you head out of Cuero toward Austin.

Don Bravo's is your typical “Hole in the Wall” restaurant. Most of the parking lot is gravel and grass in the back, paint on the building is fading, not sure if the neon sign works, seating is tight, you can feel the heat from the kitchen when you walk in the door and you pay at the counter when you leave. Don Bravo’s is the place that travelers passing through town blow right by and where all the locals eat. Great food with big glasses of tea make it the perfect destination for a quick ride for lunch after church.

Good weather, good food, good company and conversation. Did not have to wait for a table. Can't ask much more for a ride (well maybe for the temp to be about 10 degrees cooler).

Our next ride will be sometime in September. Anyone who rides is welcome. I am working on incorporating a study into our next ride and making it a Saturday road trip. Don’t know if I will have time to finish writing the study by September. If I do not we will make another after to church lunch run. Any excuse to get togather for a ride.

Ride to the Hanging Tree in Goliad Texas

I have had a great weekend, however my backside is telling me enough is enough. On Saturday I spend about six hours on my bike taking the MSF Experienced Riders Course. Then today after church the Parkway Riders held what is becoming our bi-monthly after church lunch ride. We had four people, including myself, from our last and everyone else was new, about 14 people total.

This time we rode to the Hanging Tree restaurant in Goliad, Texas. The Hanging Tree sits on the Goliad town square across from the 114 year old court house and a real ‘hanging tree’ (follow the link for a great pic). Now there are many old oaks in Texas that people call hanging trees but this is one of the few that has historically documented hangings, like the ones during the 1857 “Cart War” . To the left is a picture of our ride group in front of the tree and to the right is the Historical Marker in front of the court house. The food at The Hanging Tree restaurant was great. Small menu but with a good variety of items. Steak, fried catfish, meat loaf, lasagna, chicken Caesar salad, and the bread and rolls were great. I had the chicken fried rib-eye and it was very good.

We took the long way home, heading up TX 239 toward Kennedy, then east across TX 72 stopping to fill up a few tanks, and empty a few others (if you know what I mean) at Pico’s in Runge, then over to Yorktown and finally down through Mission Valley and back to Victoria. The roads have few decent curves, nothing great but at least they are not strait shots like our last ride.

Next up, The Parkway Riders will be holding a Blood Drive in June and I am also working on writing a “Ride Study”. This is where we take a whole day, ride to a location, like Presidio La Bahia, stop and do a 20-30 minute bible study. Then back on the bikes, ride for an hour or two, stop someplace for lunch and part two of the study, then ride some more and make a third stop for the conclusion of the study and then home. I have to work out the material, mileage and time, but I hope to do it with our ride group this summer and use it as a trial run for the video studying I am working on.

Some of the pictures from our April 20, 2008 ride to The Hanging Tree.

Parkway Rider ride on April 20

   

The Parkway Riders will hold our second ride of the yearthe weekend of April 20. I will have an area in teh second row of the Parkway Church parking lot sectioned off for motorcycle parking. We will leave from the Parkway Church campus at 4802 John Stockbauer Dr. at approximately 12:30 PM and head to Goliad for lunch at The Hanging Tree restaurant on the town square. After that we will take the long way back to Victoria, going up TX 239 toward Kennedy, then right onto TX 72 to Yorktown, then FM 2718 into Mission Valley. From Mission Valley riders can head for the house taking FM 447 to Hwy 87 or Fm 1685, whichever puts them on their sid of town. Total trip distance is approximately 127 miles, 95 of it taking place after lunch, so those wih small tanks will need to stop in Runge or Yorktown to top off. We can discuss a side stop at lunch if one is needed.

Here is a Map Quest Link of this weekends ride rout. http://www.mapquest.com/mq/10-w0uW*Vli4qnr

I will post pictures of the ride on next weeks blog.