Quick, quick, slow, slow

April 10/2019 Weather 92/63  HOT, HOT, HOT

throw those steaks on

It's never been this hot here when we have have been in Kerrville, Texas.  And tonight is the 11th Street Cowboy Bar.  The bbqs were fired up.  You bring your own meat and use the BBQ's and buy your fixins and ice cold beer. 

Nice Bottlecaps baby

The bar is so crowded on steak and dance night you have to visit when it is empty to see all the crazy walls and especially the ladies washroom in the front bar. The decorating is hysterical.  I will show you some pics at the end of this posting.  After our supper the band kicks up and the dance floor is packed.   Quick, Quick, Slow, Slow.... The Texas Two Step.

A couple Texas two stepping before it got crowded

There was a singles group in tonight and another bus load besides our bus from Buckhorn Lake RV Resort.  Super deal getting on the bus from BLR so we all go together.  We would never drive here on the Harley at night with all the wildlife out at night.    Ok here are the ladies bathroom walls..... crazy, crazy, crazy..... you sit on the toilet and look right at this, can you read what it says: "you are re-entering the wild kingdom home of the untamed male predators"  and "wanna straddle my hog honey"  and "nice jugs"  and so on and so on.  OMG.  Ha,ha.  

 And then you are still sitting on the toilet and look up to the side and there is a window with 3 guys watching you!!!!

So you can see why we love the ambiance of this bar!    Best cowboy bar in Texas 

Harley's and Horses welcome at the 11th street bar

The Best Way to Ride is Just Get Lost

Red Poppies

March 7/2019 Weather 71/52 but the last 3 days have been cold.  42/52/59 high and lows 32/28/29  so we definitely were not out on the bike.   Thanks to our friends we survived, they took us with them in their pickup wherever they went!  This is our last day and we are headed out to ride.  

Castroville's Alsatian Tourist House

We stopped at the Castroville Tourist house and the red poppies were so pretty around the place.  Off we go to the west taking a farm to ranch road and then looking for the next one  when we think we missed the road ......... oh oh.   Further down the highway Billy pulled over and asked "do you know where we are"?  haha  "no idea" which means technically we were lost!  We thought let's put Bandera in our GPS and use the adventure route and see what happens.  The map came up pretty squiggly which looked like the route for us. 

Lake Medina is a squiggly lake so taking the roads around it are perfect

A view of Lake Medina as we crest to the top of the road

It took us all along Lake Medina through some canyon river roads and then wound us along a damn and more river roads then popped us out in Bandera.

coming down along the river and through the wash

I wish I could tell you what the roads were, we can only find them when we are lost:) 
 The best things happen when you don't plan them. 

driving into Bandera

Get our Cowgirl On

March 21/2018  Weather sunny, 77, low 52. 

Couple of Cowgirls Stepping Out (Rosey & Pam)

Tonight we get our "cowgirl" on.  Blue Jeans.  Cowboy Boots.  Cowboy Hat. 
A night of country music, cold beer, slab of beef on the BBQ and fun.  The 11th Street Cowboy Bar and Grill is so much fun.   You just have to go; and you never know who will show up.  Lots of wanna be cowboys and cowgirls and then the  real thing.  Tonight did not disappoint.

Ingram Grocery & Market

For the BBQ tonight we had to get two nice ribeye steaks from a small grocery with a butcher shop in the back, just like when we were kids.   I remember my Mom taking me to Merlin where she would get the weeks groceries at Shirley Campbell"s or Cedar Springs to the Red & White.  Both had butcher shops and a few aisles of groceries.   Tonight is a Bring Your Own Meat!

Our table, bellies full, cold beers in hand, people watching

Billy and the guys took the meat to the communal BBQ grills while the girls got the side fixings.  The sun went down and the band started playing the Texas two step and the night was in full swing.   The dance floor was full and then we spotted a fellow that was undeniably the real deal.

having a good time on the outdoor dance floor

During intermission Billy says "see that guy over there with the neck bandana, beard, mustache, cowboy hat & boots - now he looks like a real cowboy".  Turns out he is somewhat of a local celebrity cowboy.   Sitting across the dance floor was Trail Boss James E. “Hoot” Gibson.  In 2004; Hoot rode his horse along with two partners from Bandera, Texas all the way to Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  About 2500 miles.   The journey took almost 5 months;  through the heart of Texas, across a corner of New Mexico, skirted the eastern edge of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, over the windy flats of Wyoming, into the spectacular and well named Bear Tooth Mountains of Montana, and finally across the border and up the “Cowboy Trail” of Alberta (Highway 22) into The Calgary Stampede.  The partner along on the adventure has it recorded in a novel called “The Eye Reckon Freedom Ride Trail.” 

James E. "Hoot" Gibson

To end the night somebody just had to get on the Long Horn......

Rosey wants to be a cowgirl.....

A Timmie's Run

Mar 10/2018  Weather is a beauty today - high of 90,,,,,, and tomorrow they say a north wind will put us back to 65; so we are loving the ride today.

driveway into a ranch lined with blooming pear trees

redbuds are on fire everywhere in Hill country

Tree Spring blooms are everywhere along the ride from Kerrville to Bandera.  We take the winding road, Old Medina Hwy 16, this is a great bike road but not for large trucks or towing trailers, just a few hair pin turns.

A real bag of Tim Hortons Coffee under the Live Oak tree on 11th Street

We have a mission today to make a "Timmies Run" for fellow Canadians.  By now you must realize there is a drug in the coffee that "we Canadians" cannot live without.  Our Ontario friends Jim and Paulette are meeting us in Bandera which is nicknamed the Cowboy Capital.  The lore of the town is that it is a place where rodeos reign, dude ranches abound and real cowboys mosey through town!

Courthouse and the Clown Jabber

Bandera was the southern starting point for the Texas cattle drives

Many of the local buildings are built with the beautiful creamy limestone from the local quarries.  We walked down to take a look at the Bandera County Courthouse and Jail from the mid 1800's.   Billy was talking to a fellow the other day and he kept saying to keep an eye out for the clown jabbers........ it took us a while and then it hit us that he was talking about the longhorn steers....  hahaha ~ get it?  Clown Jabbers.  Don't feel bad it took us a while to figure it out too.

Old Chuck Wagon

Ride to Eat

Cypress Creek Road on the way into Comfort

March 27/17  Weather has been perfect for riding.  Hovering around 80 everyday and 55 +  at night.  We have been out riding everyday.  Those wheels are turning!  Seems most days the guys say "Where are we eating today?"

Billy walking into Luckenbach - Post Office, General Store, and Bar

now there is a chair at the bar for you in Bandera ,,, or should I say saddle

Closed Sign in the quilt shop in Bandera, "Headin' Out"

 So here is the list of small towns in the last week - Luckenbach, Welfare, Waring,  Bandera, Comfort, Boerne, Leakey, Hunt, Ingram and right here in Kerrville.    Now the name Welfare for a town, just has to peak your curiousity????

German word Wohlfarht, translated as "pleasant trip"

Some of the days have been almost 200 miles and other days only 50 miles.  This 'Hill Country' area is just a great area for exploring.  Motorcycles, Antique Hunters, Jewellery, Cowboy stuff, Thrift shops, Foodies, Hand Crafts, Wild Exotic Animals, Hunting, Spring Wildflowers, Wineries,,,,,,,   the list goes on and on.  If you have an interest you will likely find it here. 

riding along the hills in Kerrville

The Biggest Little Bar in Texas

Wednesday nights in Hill Country  - Yee Haw!!!   great weather.
Every Wednesday you can go to Bandera, and be a cowboy.... or you can want to be!  The 11th Street Cowboy Bar has live country music for your boot scooting pleasure.   You take your cooler with your beer, your steak and a couple of steak knives.  Really......   The bar sells a side plate of salad, baked potato, roll.      You sit outside by the stage and have a good time visiting, dancing, drinking and eating!!!   How great is that???    Such a cool cowboy bar.    And definitely bring your steak knife, we forgot and cutting our T Bone with a plastic knife was a little difficult.   I think our fellow park friends had a good laugh watching us; shortly into our steak we were given one of their real steak knives:) 

11th Street Cowboy Bar

the cowboys and wanna be's at the cowboy bar

boot scooting

grilling your steak for dinner

Cowboy Capital of the World

Jan 31/16 Yee Haw.....Sunday mornings in Bandera is a biker destination for many out of San Antonio, Breakfast in Bandera!!!  Little did we know.   Of all the places we have been across the USA the Texas Hill Country has more bikes on the road than we have ever seen anywhere.  Hey Y'all Texans like to ride.

Breakfast in Bandera - Bike destination ride on Sundays

We just thought it was a gorgeous day to ride and see the town that was the beginning of the Great West Cattle Trail in the 19th century. The movement of cattle to markets started in Bandera, moved to Abilene, Texas then continued north to Dodge City, Kansas then on to Ogallala, Nebraska and later to Belle Fourche, South Dakota.  Nowadays the main street still has that country feel and it is often that horses are tied to hitching posts in town,,, but not on Sunday when all the Iron Horses are there!  The area is full of Dude Ranches.

Bandera General Store

Soda fountain counter inside the General Store

Cowboy Boots for the Cowboy at Heart

The ride from Kerrville to Medina and then on to Bandera was quite a challenging road.  We had to watch the switch backs,  a couple were pretty tight.

Most every ranch has a clear water creek running through it

A good stopping spot was at the Apple Store in Medina where you help yourself to a piece of Apple Pie and pay on your way out.  It was huge!

Apple Pie

Apple Store in Medina