My Name is Shawn

April 5/2018  Weather 73, sunny and a low of 53. 
Spoiler Alert:  FYI  there is "No" city in Willow City.  It would be fair to say it is a Ghost town.   You won't find gas, or restaurants or much of anything in Willow but some great views.

Willow City Loop Road

We are in search of the wildflowers today and even though we have heard unfavourable reports we will take the ride on the Loop.  Before heading north on Hwy 16 from Fredericksburg we are stopping for some lunch.   A fun stop is at the Airport Diner.   While enjoying our food we can watch the planes flying in and out.   This is a busy small airport with a boutique hotel.  Not something you hear about often; a cool diner and hotel attached to a small town airport.

our view from our booth at the Airport Diner

Hey there's 2 fellas that will be in the Chuckwagon Cookoff this weekend (Fairgrounds are right next door to the airport)

Cruising through Fredericksburg on Hwy 16 to Old Willow City Road we catch the Loop road (you can also get on it at FM 1323).  The scenery is breathtaking any time of the year and can be jaw dropping during wildflower season in the spring.   Sadly this year is the poorest we have seen in the last three years.  Flowers are sparse at best, it appears the ranchers have graded and cleaned and put in fences along their ranch property thus disrupting the natural seeding of the flowers.  The narrow road travels through canyons that were cut by creeks; the ride itself is a great motorcycle road except it is pretty busy with other cars/trucks ~ flower peepers!   

bits of bluebonnets; we have seen this covered before like a blue carpet

white poppies

The ride up and back is about 13 miles each way.   This year we stopped at Harry's on the Loop to get a cold refreshment.  We walked in and chatted with others sitting around and then a fellow got up and said "would you like a beer?"  Well we said "Yes, you must be Harry".  "Nope" he said "my name is Shawn" ???????
And isn't that just the way things go.  Funny.  

Harry's on the Loop