BBQ!

Joe after a hard day wrenching! Honeysuckle: the Rather Sweet Bakery.

Wednesday is the layover day here in Fredericksburg. The tribe was up early to ride out to Enchanted Rock. Straight out of town and it's up and down, up and down. One of the climbs stretches up 3 miles and reaches 15% grade. Ouch! Enchanted Rock is a smooth, tall rock formation that can be traversed to the top for an amazing view of the hill country, if you're wearing the right shoes! It is enchanted because as the wind works around the formation it makes wailing type sounds that made the natives believe it was enchanted.

Tonight was BBQ night for this lucky tribe. They feasted on a purple and bleau coleslaw, potato salad, smoked brisket, bbq'd pulled pork, german sausages and sauerkraut, fresh baked cornbread and a huge bowl of chocolate oreo pudding for dessert. They cleaned up!

It was a quiet day for us. Our friend Isabelle came up from San Antonio to ride and visit for the day. She rode across country with Jack on the 2006 Trans Am ride. We opted for a quiet day at the campground and running a few errands. I was pretty beat! :The middle of the ride week is my tired time: up and down and in and out of the truck, equipment on, equipment off, set up and tear down. Cook, cook, cook, clean up. Whew!

We were honored to have Rebecca Rather stop by the camp tonight. She made time in the middle of a crazy week: magazine article deadline, desserts for 800 Saturday night, dinner for 60 on Sunday. And I think I;m nuts!! We had a nice visit and I hope to stay in touch with her.

Thursday is upon us and the tribe is headed out for a beautiful ride with hopes to see fields of wild flowers. There aren't too many out: Texas has been in a drought and the flowers bloom when there's rain. Go figure; we come to ride the hills and see the flowers and are thankful for no rain, but we don't get the flowers if there's no rain! We will end the ride today in Pedernales Falls State Park. It will be a quiet change from the noisy traffic next to us the last two nights!

Jack and I are headed to Opa's Smokehouse to load up on sausages for future rides and a case of smoked turkey legs for my son, Matt's going away party. He has received orders to deploy to Afghanastan in June for 7 months. Not quite where we want him to be, but he'll do fine. We'll just keep the care packages going!

Tomorrow is the last day for this tour. The tribe will ride back to Austin and we will head home. Three days in a big yellow truck. Yuck. Our next tour will be Cycle Utah, and then on to Cycle Montana. I believe there is still room on Utah and for sure right now on Montana. Get signed up and come out and ride!