Hill Country Birthday Trip - Kegan and Vic go exploring!

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sckego
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Hill Country Birthday Trip - Kegan and Vic go exploring!

Post by sckego » Sun Aug 12, 2007 7:11 pm

So, my 25th birthday was on August 10, and Vic decided to take me (or rather, let me take her) on a bike trip down to Hill Country. We had a great time and took a few pics, so here goes...

Day 1
Packed up and ready to leave Fort Worth at 7:30 Friday morning
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Heading south with the sun to the east
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Somewhere on 1047, north of Lometa
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When people leave buildings behind... the horses take over. 3 of 'em, trying to keep out of the sun.
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Enchanted Rock State Park, north of Fredericksburg. Supposedly the site of human sacrifices, way back in the day...
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Wine tasting in Fredericksburg
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We bought a bottle. Vic was excited about this.
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Stopped off in Luckenbach. This has got to be the coolest little town ever. Seriously, how many places can you think of that have a bar (no, not a bar. a SALOON) in their post office building? With a couple of old-timers chilling around outside strumming tunes for whoever wants to sit and listen while catching some shade under century-old oak trees? I read a quote... "Luckenback is a place that you never want to return to after you've visited once, because you're afraid it might have changed."
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Scenic overlook on 337 between Medina and Vanderpool
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Arrived at the D'Rose Inn, in Leakey. Great little place to stay when visiting hill country. It's a motorcyclist/bicylist only inn... they won't give you a room if you're not riding something. No TVs in the rooms, just a central pavillion area where everyone congregates to talk story, chill, and eat. Its something to experience.
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Day 2
Saturday was spent exploring the area and trying to hit up every worthwhile road we could find. We started early in the morning by heading up 336 from Leakey. A pretty fun road, not as technical as 337, mainly alot of fast sweepers as the road follows a high ridgeline. It runs through open range, so you get to see alot of random animals, like a flock of sheep grazing alongside the road (that ran away before we could get a pic).

Driveway entrance off of 336
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Headed across on 41 and then down 335 to Camp Wood. There is only one way to describe 335: ROLLERCOASTER. If you get seasick easily, this is not the road for you... but if you can handle it, it is a blast. Up and down and up and down, cresting blind hills and feeling weightless before accelerating down the other side and nearly bottoming out the suspension at the trough and rocketing up the other side... WOOHOO! Of course, the downside to cresting blind hills at extralegal speeds is that you might find something unexpected on the other side, such as slow moving vehicle, law enforcement officer, or a piece of roadkill covered with 30+ huge vultures that scatter as you tear down the road towards them, full on the brakes, ducking and praying that you'll come out unscathed as you barrel through a maelstrom of black wings and bodies flapping all around you and you just want to close your eyes but you have to see where you're going and you finally come to a stop at the crest of the next hill, not breathing, heart racing, and silly fiancee on the back LAUGHING HER FREAKIN HEAD OFF and babbling about "bowling for buzzards" or somesuch crap from "The Lion King." Um, yeah. Care to guess which of those three options we encountered?

335
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Random exotic game ranch along 335... Kangaroos, camels, and ibex
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Breakfast at BJ's in Camp Wood
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Parked outside BJ's. Old vs New.
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Headed back across 337 to Vanderpool, then north on 187 to the motorcycle museum. Water crossings everywhere, but nearly all of them were low enough so as not to cross the road.
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Contemplating our next purchase--a 1916 Royal Enfield sidecar rig?
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Artsy shot by Vic of a Vincent Black Night
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After the museum, north to Hunt, where we found... Stonehenge!??!
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Then south to Medina, where we stopped at an apple orchard and had some fudge, and picked up a bag of apple coffee. No review on that yet.
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Then on to Bandera, where we ate at OST, a really cool joint with a whole room dedicated to a fellow Trojan alum, John Wayne. Can't belive I didn't get any pictures of that place. Oh well, next time! Finally, back to Leakey via Tarpley and Utopia.

Day 3
Ready to head out from D'Rose Sunday morning. Sing with me: "Which one of these is not like the others?"
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Headed west on 337 towards Camp Wood
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Headed up 335 (had to do that rollercoaster one more time!) we came across two things you don't normally find in DFW: wild turkeys, and 35mph curves.
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Shiny!
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Blasting up 377
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A picture of a reflection of a shadow of us. Got that?
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Gas station in Telegraph, just south of Junction
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Last trip we took, we went to Paris. This time it was a UK theme - London and Dublin!
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This is where they send your bike if you spend too much time at 120+. Whoops.
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Cool story about an old oak tree in downtown Comanche
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Stopped off at Hard 8 for some lunch, then on to home! 940 miles later... what a great trip!
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Kegan "Glowstick"
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Post by Grinner » Sun Aug 12, 2007 7:27 pm

Sweet trip, and some nice pics... :grin:

I'll have to keep it in mind once I start venturing further than Stephenville for trips!
Did ya at least stop at the Dublin Dr. Pepper plant? I have heard it's pretty cool...you would think I would have already been after all my years in that neck of the woods but I guess I go after the things that are not local that I can see anytime I want to.

Glad to see ya'll made it home safe and sound.

See ya at the next out...
:D
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Post by doughboy » Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:39 pm

Great pic brother!!!! I might have to do that once in my life. But I think that requires me to ride my bike.
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Post by U-Turn » Sun Aug 12, 2007 9:18 pm

Looks like ya'll had a good trip. Pictures are great.
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Post by Aviconus » Sun Aug 12, 2007 10:03 pm

wow that looks like an amazing ride. see a 2/3 day trip like this needs to be planned club wide. that would be fun.
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Post by dz » Sun Aug 12, 2007 11:25 pm

Looks like a great trip and a good time. Thanks for sharing :)

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Post by digi » Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:18 am

Loved the pictures!!!!
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Post by Bird Shooter » Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:29 am

Looks like fun, how was the heat?
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Post by Firewa11 » Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:36 am

Looks like you had a great trip!
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Post by matadorCE » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:18 am

Cool pictures, looks like you guys had a lot of fun.

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Post by sckego » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:42 am

Glad you guys enjoyed the pictures as much as we did the trip (:

We didn't stop in on the Dr Pepper plant... I was kinda interested, but Vic wanted to push on, so we just cruised through.

The heat wasn't too bad at all. It was in the low 90s all three days we were there, and was actually quite chilly (60s?) early in the morning. Of course, it still felt good to get off the bike and into some air conditioning, but it wasn't unbearable. We just kept drinking lots of ice water every chance we had. The heat on the way back up, though... once we got up to around Brownsville, it started getting pretty hot. Rolling through Granbury we saw a bank sign reading 102*. Ew.
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Post by CrazyKuban » Mon Aug 13, 2007 9:09 am

very nice man. I will pm you one day to get the routes, so I can take the wife for a weekend.
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Post by sckego » Mon Aug 13, 2007 12:16 pm

CrazyKuban wrote:very nice man. I will pm you one day to get the routes, so I can take the wife for a weekend.
You can click on the links "Day 1" "Day 2" etc to see the route we took for that day.
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Post by Super Dave » Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:42 pm

Great pics! Terry, jay, darren, and i went on a hill country trip several years ago. It was a great ride and very scenic. (best i remember) :-) :-)

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Post by Darren » Mon Aug 13, 2007 3:02 pm

One high-speed sweeper with a double-apex on Hwy 16 was where we actually saw some scenery, huh Dave? The rest of the time was a green blur...

Nice pics... I have done the Hill Country trip quite a few times and know the area well. Although I never take the time to stop and smell the roses! Thanks for the narrative!

335... can *only* be explained as a rollercoaster, and you have to ride it to understand.
336... the random animals don't bother me as bad as the cattle grates every couple of miles. Talk about upsetting the bike...
337... worthy of many passes.

There are some great roads around Marble Falls too...

We'll take a club trip down there soon... :grin:

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Post by Edmond_Dantes » Thu Aug 16, 2007 6:13 pm

Great looking trip. Well done. Now I'll have to head down there too!
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Great Trip Story

Post by hawk » Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:50 pm

That is a great summary of you trip and it looks like you Both have a great ride. That is the best way to do the trip is riding down.

A few of us are goinglabor day weekend... Hill country here we come.
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Post by The Doctor » Wed Aug 22, 2007 3:58 am

Great Pics!

Hey, thanks for letting Sarah feel the seat at the track

Now, I need to get a longer range ride

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Post by Bird » Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:23 pm

Great pics, Kegan. Thanks for sharing them with us and taking the time to narrate. The Hill Country is beautiful ... I spent a few years down there in my early college days. I think seeing it from the bike rather than horseback would really be much better! :D
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