Buzzards In My Tent

Truck wars between the ACA staff.

Bikes in Blanco.

A house in the trees on the Blanco river.

A serious beer drinking cyclist.

Hillary and Marty.

A few of the tribe in Blanco. 

My kitchen window in Blanco.  Yes, I'm sunburned.

A Texas gate pole.

Hans and his styling helmet.  Yes, it's a helmet.

The tribe in Fredericksburg.

The first ride morning of the Hill Country Tour broke with overcast skies and a cool breeze.  The day looked promising for a great ride, with the haze burning off early afternoon and moderate temperatures during the day.  The tribe migrated out of their tents and circled for a hearty breakfast, loaded up their gear and got on the road.  The local buzzards, on the other hand, decided it was time for nappy nappy.  In my tent.  Jack, laughing, told me to look at my tent.  The brazen buzzards were on their way in.  Guess I found reason number 432 to not leave the tent open.

The ride Sunday morning was a lazy 39.4 miles into the little town of Blanco.  We camped on the banks of the river at Blanco State Park and had use of the breezy pavilion for our meals.  Fortunately there were no creepy crawly red headed centipedes to welcome us!  We dined on a fabulous meal, if I do say myself, of blue cheese wedge salad, coleslaw, mesquite smoked brisket, grilled red fish, yellow potatoes and homemade brownies.  The red fish was a huge hit!

About that red fish!  I learned my lesson last year about buying the scaly little devils.  Red fish filets, boneless, NO SCALES!! I swear there  are still red fish scales on the ceiling of the pavilion from last year

Ride day #2 was 40.2 miles from Blanco to Fredericksburg.  The tribe wandered through the hill country to Lyndon B. Johnson Historical Park , through Stonewall and into camp on the edge of Fredericksburg.  The route the tribe takes is different from the one we take.  They showed me pictures of gorgeous blue bonnets, a fabulous old church, Spanish moss balls in bloom, and centipedes with green spots and evil horns.  I swear they grow the scariest critters I have ever seen here in Texas.  And, they're big.

Dinner this night was a fajita bar with beef, chicken and tofu, with all the trimmings.  The tribe did a great job of consuming massive quantities of fajita!  As well, they finished off a record number of cookies for dessert.  They are also setting a new record for beer consumption!  It's a tribe of records! Speaking of beer, I found a great t-shirt for our dishwasher/lawyer who excels at beer consumption.  It reads: In dog beers I've only had three.

Tonights map meeting was quite fun with our leader, Gary, running a road booty competition.  The goal is to see who can find the most unique piece of booty that they find as they are riding along.  I hope they are watching where they are going!  The winner tonight was the finder of a deer skull.  Other entries were a Texas license plate, a Texas A&M banner and a red French beret.  Can't wait to see what they found today!

Today's ride was the Little Switzerland Loop consisting of 38.2 miles of up and down.  I think there was 2300 feet of up and down.  They all got in around lunch time and shuttled in to town to explore the brew pub and shops in Fredericksburg.  Jack and I took off and trucked into Kerrville to visit one of my favorite quilt shops. Good Jack.  We then headed to Opa's Sausage Factory to procure the yummy sausages for tonights dinner.  They will be accompanied by homemade potato salad, broccoli salad, sauerkraut, creamy polenta, bbq'd pulled pork and ice cream for dessert.

This seems to be a happy tribe: they are all getting along well and are into exploring everywhere they go!  We'll see where they end up tomorrow.