With Bryce at Texas Bible Institute in Columbus, TX..... I was longing to ride with my boys. All Winter, I dreamed and planned for our first, spring ride. What would it be? Finally, I arrived on a plan. Tyler and I would trailer out VStroms from Colorado to my Mother's home in Brownwood, TX, where we would meet Bryce. For the past year, Bryce has had his VStrom at my Mom's.
We would get up early on a Friday morning....and ride to West Texas, enjoying the Davis Mountains and Big Bend.
But it would not happen.
Upon arriving at Brownwood, we checked the weather and decided to 'bag' our trip to West Texas. The weekend temperature forecast for Big Bend was north of 105 degrees!!! (really high for the first of April) So, we needed a plan "B".
A couple of weeks earlier, a fellow rider had posted a note to me about the TAR (Texas Adventure Ride). As serendipity would have it, the TAR was happening the very weekend we had scheduled our ride and would be based out of Junction, TX.... only a short, two hour ride south of Brownwood. We decided the Hill Country would be our destination for the weekend. (And a great decision it was, due to the Range Fires that sparked and burned out of control in West Texas all weekend.)
Leaving Mom's, we rode south.
The heat wave affected all of Texas, including the Hill Country. On Friday the temps were in the high 90's. When we stopped to rest, it was in the shade. Upon arriving in Junction, Sonic Drive-In Route 44 Iced Teas hit the spot.
For the weekend, we camped at the Upper Llano River State Park. This little park sits about 3 miles outside of Junction and was the perfect base camp for our weekend rides. Two afternoons, we stripped down to our gym shorts and hit the river. Usually, we floated in the cool water for a couple of hours during the heat of the day. Our campsite, was a 'walk in' location where we had some pretty good privacy and the place, mostly to ourselves. (The last night, a group of Girl Scouts invaded us to make it interesting.)
The Texas Adventure Riders are a great group of guys and fun to hang around. The Christian Motorcycle Association was represented and made their rounds, praying for everyone's safety. Honestly, I thought the state of Texas was 99.9% private property and there was no access to dirt riding. I was reeducated... Actually, there are hundreds of miles of "county access" roads all through the state. It was these roads that we explored and had a great time. One major riding education point for the boys and I was the cement water crossings in Texas. Oh my goodness these things are slick as greased owl poop. Once, both boys dropped their bikes.
Being close to Campwood, TX where the Burleson side of my family grew up, I was excited to show the boys some of their heritage. We rode through Campwood, but the hit was a trip to Vance, TX, where many of our kin are buried in the little cemetery there. Here is a pic of the boys with the headstone of their Great Grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Burleson (Mother's Parents).
On our final day, we rode north-east to Fredricksburg, TX, to enjoy some great German Food. The boys were enamored with the Blonde Beauty. All three of us order different Brat meals and shared. It was amazing!
After getting back to Mom's, eating dinner with my sister and her kids and crashing for the night.... Bryce headed back to TBI and Tyler and I left for Colorado. The trip was a good, quick one... except for the trailer tire flat that delayed us for 15 minutes. Thank God I had a spare!!!
The New Mexico sunset.
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