Stage Thirteen of the Motorcycle Cannonball takes us into Texas, our final state of the journey. And you know what they say, everything is bigger in Texas and that proves true as we had our biggest loss of perfect point bikes.

Today was tough on the old machines as five bikes with perfect miles were loaded on the sweep trailer.   Rider #8 Joe Gimpel, followed by #28 Joe Burch on his 1928 Harley-Davidson JDH; #34 Ben Pierce riding the Ner-A-Car; #79 Jody Perewitz who had been leading Class Five wound up on the trailer with a broken motor mount. Topping it off is #63 Erik Bahl, who up to this point boasted perfect scores on all previous Cannonballs, experienced a devastating fail when his 1915 Harley-Davidson front fork broke and left him stranded on the side of the road with no possible fix.

The route today almost immediately put us over the Texas State line with the first stop in Texarkana at Texarkana Harley-Davidson where the gracious staff fed riders a good Texas barbecue for lunch. The weather has warmed up considerably which may be taking a toll on the riders and their machines but for the lucky ones who stayed off the trailer, we arrived in beautiful downtown Nacogdoches, Texas for check-in.   We were greeted by our friends at Lumberjack Harley-Davidson who were set up there and provided tools and airlifts to riders that needed to make adjustments on their bikes. Rider # 64 Dave Currier is still holding tight onto the First Place in Class One and as Overall leader. Will his 1911 Harley-Davidson be able to stay tough the last few days? We will soon find out… follow along as we will be in Victoria, Texas tomorrow.