Ride Day 2.
Thursday October 18th, 2012.

I awoke with the rising sun.
It’s rays streaked through the gap between the curtain panels and directly into the room over my bed which was right by the window.
I felt fresh. I think I had a good sleep.
George was up early too and we prepared and made our way down to the breakfast area downstairs, just off the lobby area.
Breakfast this morning was quick and okay - the usual continental breakfast.
I ate alone as George does not “do” breakfast. Health reasons, and it shows. He passes easily for someone 20 yrs. younger than he actually is.
He has a perpetual smile on his face. Just being with him made me feel relaxed. He constantly reassured me that everything would be okay. The support of my pseudo big brother is /was priceless. You just can’t buy this anywhwere!
I was parked on the upper parking floor of the garage on the level of his room so that made it easy to load the bike back up and prepare for my journey onward towards the Days Inn in Benton, Arkansas - my destination for the day and our meeting point and home base for the next 3 nights.
Tony and William would be leaving Corpus today, taking a different route to arrive in Benton.
I was looking forward to meeting up with them and getting to see Henry again.
I had 417 miles to knock down before arriving at the Days Inn Motel in Benton, AR.
So as time would have it, George and I parted ways. Him for work and direction Arkansas for me.
Exiting the parking garage of the hotel, I made a right turn towards the south onto Sage Rd. The second street, Richmond Ave. took me eastwards towards the highway.
This had to be the longest underpass I had ever driven/ridden.
6 lanes of the highway ran overhead.
It did not take me long to find the ramp that afforded me access to the 610 Loop.
The morning commuters of Houston began to pile up on the side streets in their bid as well to access the highway system en route to their individual places of work.
So with the speed of the flow of cars on the highway, the ST was more than happy to oblige me with her performance. (She was showing off now).
In the blink of an eye she not only caught up with, kept up with and worked her way ahead of them all, but also worked her way into a nice comfortable spot with good space around us as we began to put distance between the city of Houston and our backs.
Settling down to comfortable pace of speed limit +5, we embraced the open highway that lay perpetually ahead of us.
The journey was uneventful.
The highway was boring.
I ”pounded” it for the best part of the day, maintaining speed limit +5.
The biggest excitement I had was stopping at the state line marker and taking my obligatory picture! After which I got back on the highway and continued my journey, arriving at our designated meeting place and home-base to be, the Days Inn in Benton, Arkansas. I checked in promptly and for assurance, asked the desk clerk to verify that Tony's, William's and my room were next door to each other.
Yup, that had been taken care of.
With directions from the clerk, I drove around to the side and rear of the premises and found my room. I promptly unloaded my luggage and rehydrated myself with some water.
Tony and William arrived just before sundown and not much long afterwards, Henry, off work, rushed to meet us as well, riding his new-to-him Honda Goldwing, which we aptly named The Yellow Submarine.
This thing had all sorts of lights on it. It lit up like a decorated Christmas tree after dark. Henry liked it a lot. Much more than his Kawasaki Concours, he said.
So we chatted into the evening over a steak dinner at Colton’s Steak House which was situated pretty much next door to the motel. We left the riding plans to Henry, who already had the whole of the next days’ ride already mapped out. Yes we trusted him that much to “put” us onto an all-round great riding experience.
After all, this was his neck of the woods!
At the end of the day, I said my prayers and settled in for the night, not before calling my wife to report in about my safety and find out about their well-being at home.