Texas Hill Country Fall Ride

Thought I'd post some pics of my most recent ride through the Texas Hill Country. Started out on a very cool foggy morning, Saturday, Nov 14, 09, and had to stop a couple miles after starting to put on my cold weather gloves. Damp and cool made for a question as to whether it would be a good day for a ride. But, the weather report said it was supposed to clear up and be a clear day. Taking I-10 to Loop 1604 to SH-16 I made the highway cruise to Bandera, TX, where I enjoyed a cup of coffee and a slice of apple pie at the Ole Spanish Trail cafe. Met a couple of riders and we discussed the usual biker stuff, roads, sights, weather, near misses, you know the usual stuff. I stayed long enough for the fog to start to clear off and warm up a bit, then saddled up and continued up 16 towards Medina.

Some beautiful fall color as noted here with a shot of the scoot.
A little further up the road, I came across this shot. The picture does not do the scene justice (a wide angle lens would've helped). Anyway, had to take a shot.
Although this was my usual weekend ride, I actually had a goal, the Lonestar Motorcycle Museum in Vanderpool, TX. A favorite of motorcycle and car enthusiasts, this little museum out in the middle of Southwest TX has an excellent collection of privately owned motorcycles dating back generations.

I obviousle drifted towards the classic Triumphs, but there were Ariels, Matchless', Nortons, Hondas, Harleys, Indians, Vincents, and a few whose names I can not remember. All in beautiful condition. Obviously, I rcommend a stop if you're in the area.

They also serve some fine road cuisine. Famous for their burgers and fries, I instead had to try out the Chicken Curry Meat Pies. Deliscious.

After a casual meal and a thorough going over of the bikes, I headed back to the road and winding my way home.

Back through some beautiful winding roads, up and down hills, and crossing small streams here and there (really special after the year and a half drought) along the way.

Making it back to Bandera, I refueled and returned at a fairly good clip the way I came. Bandera is famous for rodeos, and trail rides. Here a couple of cowpokes entertain some tourists with rope tricks and a how-to on dutch oven cooking. All in all, about a 230 mile rounder and was well worth the sore butt I came home with. I was greeted at home with the Cowboys getting soundly whomped. Bummer dude. But I did get a good nap in.

Short November 09 Solo Run

What a great day for a ride. Temps in the low to mid 60s expected to warm to the middle 70s. A crisp clear very cool morning for a ride in south of Texas. Usually I am running in the Texas Hill Country, but the Dallas Cowboys will be playing at noon and I have to make it a short trip.

That means I'm running in the farm and ranch lands east of San Antonio and south of I-10. Leaving my house I catch onto FM775 heading west. A couple of miles down the road I pulled over to get a picture (1st pic) of this fine clear morning, surely the Lord's work at his finest. Continuing west I passed through the little town of LaVernia and catch Hwy 81 going north towards Loop 1604, then west again. Seeing signs for Lake Calaveras, I decide to pay a visit as I had not been to this lake in quite a while. $2 entry and I'm in taking a bit of a rest (mostly to warm up). Still pretty much the same as it had been the last time I was here. A recreation and power lake, Calaveras is of a fairly good size with lots of fishing. The 2nd pic is of the scoot sitting in front of a plant (no, I don't know what the plant does) residing on the lake. Checked out the facilities and headed back on the road going west on 1604 again.

This time I'm heading for Braunig Lake a little closer to San Antonio (20 minutes fro downtown actually) just to check it out again as well. Going west 5 more miles, I take a right onto I-37 North and go another 4 miles taking the Lake Braunig exit. Another power/recreation lake, Braunig offers great fishing, picnicing and limited camping (primitive only). Still, a good little lake. A short pause to enjoy the scenery, take some pics (3rd one above) and then I'm back on the road north staying on the frontage road. I have an alterior motive here.

Next year I take over Muster Master for the RV travel Club of which I am a member. One of the duties of the Muster Master is to look for new places for the club to rally to. So I gave the Braunig Lake RV Resort a quick once over, including a chat with the manager about rates, accomodations and such other things before realizing that it was already after 11am. That meant it was time to mount up and blaze a trail home to make the Cowboy game in time. A short run, but a nice one as folks had not yet gotten out onto the roads yet. The only bummer was the throng of Long Nosed Brown Butterflies that have been blanketing the area lately (literally). Thankfully, I'm running with a windscreen. Made it home only 5 mins late to watch the Boys put a licking on the Seahawks. What a day.

VFW 2nd Annual POW/MIA Run

My first big run in quite a while. Appropriately, it was a run sponsored by VFW Post 12058/MC group 16 and hosted by Cowboy Honda in Kyle, TX. Open to the public and all bikes, bikes started arriving at 9am to begin registration (if you hadn't registered earlier, I did). This was the 2nd annual POW/MIA run for 12058 and would prove to be a good one. I didn't get an official count, but by my eye about 70 bikes were there for registration while I was there.

Between 9 and 10 was a meet and greet opportunity where we all checked out bikes and then of course check out Cowboy Honda's inventories of stuff. I picked up a can of wax for the scoot and I noticed a number of other's picking up odds and ends (maybe even a new bike?). Anyway, a good turn-out from Cowboy's point of view as well. During this time I met a couple of enthusiasts, Phil from Flugherville and Jack from McQueeney (both HD drivers) and we struck it up pretty good and figured we would be a sub group on the ride.

At 10am, we gathered around for the POW/MIA ceremony. Being an officer of a veteran's service organization, I have done plenty of these (and honored to do so everytime), but this one was with a biker's twist to it and I thought it was done nicely. Instead of the table with a place setting for one, a bike (the Goldwing) was used with all the items that remind us that there is someone unable to join us, in this instance, for a ride.

After the service, we mounted up and headed out for the first checkpoint. The instructions had us return down I35 frontage road and turn right on Brent Rd and cruise through Kyle to pick up Rebel Rd. west. Ride to the junction of Rebel (SH150) and Kyle Road (RR3237), There was the first checkpoint at a quickstop. After we collected the ticket for this checkpoint we continued west on Kyle road. This leg took us through the town of Wimberly (no stop) and picked up 2325 on the west side of town heading west. The route continued on this rode till we intersected with RR165 at which point we turned left heading for Blanco. This is Hill Country Riding on the main roads, that means fairly good clip on well maintained roads. Nothing super twisty, but fun at the higher speeds (50-60). Beautiful country side with vineyards and medium sized ranches along the way. Often we were at the top of the hills and had some really great views.

Upon making it to Blanco, we arrived at the Sunset Bar & Grill to get our tickets. We were in the 2/3s part of the group, so the pub was fairly full by the time we got there. No big, at the same time Blanco was having their Market Day in the town square, So we ambled on over for some bbq and sausage sandwiches and talked it up with a couple of the locals (who were glad to see a hungry bunch by the way).

After a short break, we mounted up again and headed south out of town. We picked up RR32 heading back southeast Canyon Lake area catching RR3424 connecting to SR 306 east. Along the way we stopped at a bar (I forgot the name) and collected our 3rd ticket. After a beer (rootbeer that is) we continued east on 306 until we turned left on SR 1102 north heading to San Marcos. At this point we approaching 2pm, we're to be back at Cowboy's at 3. Our stop in Blanco wasn't as short as it probably should have been so we're hookin along pretty good. At this time we are closed up with the main body, I think there were probably 40-45 bikes or so here. The next checkpoint is Jack's Bar just north of New Braunfels on 1102 and 2439. Pics of me with my TBA and a picture of Phil with his Heritage HD (a real beauty). I think this is at the Comal/Hayes county line as the road changes at that point to SR2439. A short break at Jack's and we're heading north again. Going through San Marcos we pick up SH 80 and then turn onto Hwy 21 N. At this point it's the end of the run, we're a little behind (minutes) on the schedule, so we're just rolling. We finally make it back to Cowboy's a little after 3 and just in time for the drawing to begin.

They really had some prizes, $100s of bucks worth of gear and gift cards from local bke shops and other merchants.

Both my new buddies (Phil and Jack) won some gift cards, I just got be part of the confetti parade. Well, it's all for a good cause the money raised went to the VFW Wounded Warrior programs. Saying adios to my new companions, I headed back home and a good nap. Nice run.

The Re-acquaintance Run

13 September saw my favorite gal and myself heading out for a short easy run around the general local. This was basically a re-acquaintance ride for Christa as she had not been on a bike in quite a while. A little bit of a re-learner for me as well as I had not carried a rider in quite a while.

So we stuck to rodes close to home that weren't real challenging, but offered all the opportunities to get "back in the saddle." We started out heading NE on Woelke Rd taking a right on Settlers Way, then turning SE on Sweet Home Rd. The roads out here are mostly flat with gentle undulations. Roads are in fair to good condition and are chip sealed, so you do get a little gravel action. Scenery is composed mostly of small ranchettes with a couple fairly large places with horses, cattle, goats and the occassional place hosting some exotic game such as axis deer and one or two places that have small herds of buffalo (I use the term herd loosely, a couple bulls and some cows). The weather was clear sunny, and started with a fair temperature, but became rather warm later on.

Christa was handling the new ride well and hadn't forgotten some of the basics of being a good rider (i.e. not doing strange things on the back of the bike like trying to stand or leaning opposite of the way I was going). My previous bike had a cushy sissy bar for her to lean back on, but the Bonneville just has the pillion seat. We continued on Sweet Home until we turned right on FM 467 continuing to FM 725. Taking a left just south of New Berlin, we proceeded SW to the town of LaVernia. Nice little town and they have some nice restaraunts, but we were rolling and continued until we reached SH 87, turning left and heading for Stockdale. We didn't actually go all the way to Stockdale, but turned right on SH 97 and continued on till a right turn onto US 181 (also known as the Corpus Christi Hwy) in Floresville. Nice straight rodes where we could unwind the bike a little.

About 10 miles up road on 181 we hit a rest stop and decided to take a water break and take an assessment of how the ride was going for Christa. Well, things were OK, but her backside was a little sore. Again the Triumph was not as cushy as the KZ Vulcan. Also, I think I might have adjusted the shocks to stiffly. Next time (will there be a next time?) I'll bring them down a notch. We sat there a little while relaxing as we had a noon lunch date with my sis and bro-in-law at the Texas Pride BBQ joint on 1604.

Shortly, we were back on 181 heading NE until we intercected with Loop 1604. 181 was a true Hwy with 70 mph speeds, so we were able to really open the throtle a bit, though I did keep it kind of tame for Christa's sake. Once heading east on Lp1604 we only had to go a few miles and we were at the Texas Pride BBQ joint. A local favorite with some of the best BBQ around. Top that off with a live outdoor music venue for the weekends (and being out in the country) this place can really draw a crowd. Thursdays are Bike Night, though I have yet made that as my partyin style is sort of mild these days. Still, a great stop if you only partake of the food (great cobbler, too).

After leaving Texas Pride we just sort of wandered through some back roads until we arrived home. A short ride lasting only about 3 hours, but a nice break-in run.

Hill Country Ride

As promised, I am posting some of my recent rides in and around the Texas Hill Country while on my Triumph America. This post will cover a Labor Day ride that was very enjoyable for me as I am mostly a solo rider. I do on occassion meet up with other like minded scoot enthusiasts while on the ride and find these encounters to be the best parts of the ride.

Wimberly is a little town, once home to many artisans working in leather, stained glass, furniture, antique stores, little bakeries and coffe shops, wood carving and more, but lately has been seeing a lot of expansion as this is a "a place to be." While there is nothing wrong with wanting to be in a place, the increased population brought in affluent buyers building really gorgeous homes, but at the same time making the place to expensive for many of the local artisans that were craft subsistent and, sadly, they have to move on as tey can no longer afford the taxes. That said, there are still many craftsman in the town and the "old Town" part still has that village charm, though many of the stores are now becoming high end Rodeo Drive type establishments selling imported goods. And there are still some of the stores that I still love to visit because of the quality of the goods that are still made locally. There are still some keen bakeries and diners, and I truly enjoy going in for a bite and maybe a conversation with a local.

After a bite of breakfast and coffee At the Wimberly Cafe, I'm ready to get back on the road. I head out towards Blanco taking RR 165. More rolling hills and a decent road with mild twists and turns creates and enjoyable ride for the cruiser or Tourer. Many ranches lie on either side of the road with lots to see.

A quick drive through Blanco, another small Texas town that has been able to maintain its charm, I hit State Highway (SH) 281 headed for Johnson City, where the LBJ State Park and his burial site are located. A bit larger, I just keep rolling through connecting with SH 290 heading west. Just outside the west side of town on 290 I come across a pretty interesting site. It's a ranchette where a local metal sculpture has displayed some of his works throughout the property. Some unusual and beautiful pieces of work are immediately visible from the road and I stopped to take this picture of a metal Longhorn statue. Sort of a tribute to the old cattle days of central Texas. I believe that the property is open to the public at certain times, but I didn't stay to check it out. I'll save it for another day.

Anyway I continue on towards Fredericksburg, enjoying a nice gently curving 290. Along the way are the customary ranches (big ones) dotted witht he occassional specialy store, fruit or vegetable stands and more than a couple BBQ places that bear investigating in a future ride. Just before making Fredericksburg I turn south on RR 1376 heading towards my real goal, Luckenback, TX. Made famous by Willie Nelsons song of the same name, this is a truly distinctive village, if I can use the term, having an old time Post Office (now a gift Store), a general store selling refreshments, burgers, dogs and the like, and a small unsupposing stage. As this was Labor Day, a lot of fellow bikers and muscle car enthusiasts were starting to show up for an impromtu party. A band was warming up (about 1 PM) and people were milling about enjoying a cold one and checking out each others rides.





Some really nice bikes and rods were to be seen. I just stopped for a break, a bit of a chat, and then was on my way again. Driving south I picked up Farm Road (FM) 1888 heading back towards Blanco. After Blanco I headed south on 281 to pick up RR 32, affectionately known locally as the Devils Backbone as the road runs along a "spine" of hills with some great views.






Notvery challenging, the road is paved well and has a couple of nice picnic stops where I met a couple of riders chilling on the road side. After a bit of checking out each others rides we elected to cruise back towards San Marcos untill we would split going our own ways. RR 32 eventually intersects with RR 12 and I'm back in San Marcos heading for the barn. All in all, about a 200 mile drive, a beautiful day (though it did start getting pretty warm towards the end, close to a hundred F), and a chance to meet some interestin folks. A perfect bike day. I frequent this part of the country just for this readon. Hope your days are filled with the same.

My new thrill.

OK - so I've been away awhile-alright, so it's been a long time. Well all I can say was that the last year was a bit rough and I was being pretty domestic in my travels. So there wasn't much to

write about. But things have changed. I've added a new toy to my box. Check it out; a 2009 Triumph Bonneville America. Picked her up in the middle of July

Used to ride all the time, but gave it up to do the family thing. Now, kids are grown and there is once again time for some of the fun stuff. Keep posted for some of the many rides I'll be doing in the near future. Of course the RV is still around and is currently in the shop being tooled up for a bit of traveling as well. Hopefully I'll be able to combine the two. Best of all worlds. Ciao.