The tour stop locations are now final. A few late changes were made, so you will definitely want to review the list before you make plans to find the sites. The pics below provide hints to the latest additions. These three stops are in very different geographic parts of Texas. See the tour stop page for more info.
The response to the 2020 tour has far outpaced my expectations. As of this writing (Feb 13th at 7 pm), there are 585 folks registered for the tour! Folks from all over Texas have registered for the tour. In addition, folks have registered from California, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Washington.
To facilitate the submission of your tour stop photos, the idea of using email has been scrapped. There are too many riders for that to be practicable. So, we will use a Picture Submission Portal (PSP) on the web page where you can upload your pics. The PSP will be accessible on March 1, 2020. It’s easy to use the portal via a computer or a smart phone.
So far, I have mailed-out 440 tour flags. They are being mailed-out in the same order that folks registered for the tour. The earliest registrants should receive their flags first. The next batch will go out tomorrow.
Time is running-out quickly for folks to register for this year’s tour. Registration closes on February 25, 2020.
I hope to see many of you at the May 16th event in Bandera, TX – “Motorcycle Roundup at the Flying L.” When I created this tour, I wanted to include an event to help a worthy non-profit. Well, I found two very worthy causes. They will both be represented at this event. In addition, several of the tour sponsors will be there. They include Ride Texas magazine, Alamo BMW Motorcycles, Hill Country Motorheads Motorcycle Museum, Frio Canyon Motorcycle Stop, and Liberty Mutual Insurance. Of course, the Flying L is also a sponsor. Come out for a fun time and get some tour stop pics.
We will have raffles at the event for some great prizes. Several of the sponsors are contributing to the raffle prizes.
Several of the sponsors are setting-up internal raffles for the tour riders at their locations. More information about those events will be provided in a future blog post.
When you stop at a sponsor’s location to take your picture, be sure to go on in their establishment and let them know you are on the tour and checkout their great products.
Classic Rock Coffee & Kitchen in Navasota is offering free keychains to the tour riders. When you stop for your picture, checkout their establishment and get some great coffee and/or food while listening to great classic rock music.
In the letters that come with your tour flags, I included a promotion code that you can use to get a discount on lodging at the Flying L for the May 16th event. The Flying L has a variety of great lodging options. If you are coming with a group of folks, be sure to ask them about multiple bedroom options.
We have some real nice tour t-shirts in a variety of styles and colors. Check them out on our shop page. These are high quality shirts at very reasonable prices. Be sure to read the descriptions about the t-shirts on the web page before ordering. There is a no return policy on the shirts.
Awesome! Looking forward to it! Great job at organizing. Let me know if you need any help.
Thanks
Hi David. Thanks for the update.
For the PSP, will we need a password, or will our email address be our password?
I know it’s not active yet, just curious.
Hi William – I’ll decide on that and notify the riders soon.
First ti.e doing this hope yo have loads of fun and meet people and see this state I’ve been transplanted into.
Is there any site that has the tour stops broken down by areas such as north east Texas, deep mmh east Texas, coastal Texas, etc?
Thanks
Barry Higginbotham
Hello Barry – One of the tour riders (Jim) created a google map with pins to reflect where the tour stops are located. So, you can easily see how many stops are in each region of Texas. I added the link to Jim’s map on the tour web site. The link is at:
https://motorcyclegrandtouroftexas.com/jims-map/
Thanks Jim for the more detailed info. After viewing the initial sites, I noted that I had to search for the city locations and this will definitely help to give an overall picture of the site areas.
Glad I could help, Jon!
Yesl Jim, thank you for the map. Thumbs up!
David,
Just want to say I am really looking forward to this event and think it is an excellent idea for all Riders! Thanks for putting it together and to all who helped you, as well as sponsors.
Everyone PLEASE ride SAFE! This is our Texas and not all cages or roads are of the quality many of us wish.
Would like to have seen a link to the “Final” list.
Hello Jon – The final list is on the web page. It’s at https://motorcyclegrandtouroftexas.com/home/tour-stops/
I got my Flag!!!!
You mentioned 585 people signed up so far. My flag number is 585!!!! That’s a good sign for me!!! Looking forward to getting started with this.
Well, we are up to 763 now.
I rode 350 miles on Day 1 and made it to 5 stops. While at the World’s Largest Pecan in Seguin I was somewhat surprised to see about a dozen other tour riders there as well. One couple had managed 10 stops already!
Uh Oh! I thought we were doing good at four.
John – if it’s any consolation regarding the couple with 10 stops, the guy seemed really stressed. About all I could get out of him was they had to take a bathroom break which apparently put them behind schedule. Maybe they were some of the out of state-ers and didn’t have until November to earn completion status.
Though you can’t get up on the observation tower, I really enjoyed the short ferry ride and all the cool boats at Port Aransas. Then headed south over the long bridge over the bay at Corpus Christie was a relaxing and very cool ride.
#0789-Friday the 13th & Saturday the 14th, I rode the Hill Country and managed to accomplish 12 locations. I use Google Earth and dropped pins at all 50 sites so I can map out my trips easier. Research your targets and plan your missions, and ride safe. TX 337 to Leakey Saturday morning was very damp (twisted & scary). Thanks Dave for putting this all together.
David, my husband Gary and I are well on our way to completed the Grand Tour of Texas. We were in the Hill Country this weekend and made 9 stops and photographed them all and I will be submitted the pictures. But the only one we had trouble with was the Geographic Center of Texas. I think we came at it from the wrong direction. Any suggestions on the best way to locate it? And FYI there were several that were hard to get a photo of because the “Covid Nazis”, as my husband calls them, had the gates shut, so we did the best we could. Please let me know when you get the photos if there is a problem with accepting any of them. Thanks!
Hi Cris – Please send me an email and include your flag number. I’ll review it Tuesday. My email is DavidCanada@mcgttx.com. Thanks, Dave
I went to tour stop 47 and took a picture of the Liberty Mutual Sign. A guard saw me and told me I am not supposed to take pictures of the sign because it is copyrighted. I suggested that any sign in public is meant to be photographed and told him about the motorcycle tour. He didn’t make me delete my photo.
The guard has no clue. I have a contract with Liberty Mutual. Even if I didn’t, you can take a picture of anything in plain view from a public space.