A bit of Texan time y'all (Part 1)

Over the next week I ate at Wholefoods every day, 

walked around the city a lot, ordered some gear online such as my new tank bag, 

some maps, extra GoPro batteries and the long awaited GPS – a Garmin Etrax 30. However after waiting five days for a two day delivery for the GPS, the company informed me after I phoned them, that my credit card had failed because I was using a different billing address. Yes I was. When exactly were you gong to tell me? If you send copies of your ID to us sir…I think we will cancel that order!!

 I ate out and hung out with my friends 

and enjoyed the buzz of Austin catching some live music in the famed Sixth Street in downtown. 

I made contact with the Horizons Unlimited Austin Community and was pleased to get five replies. One was in hospital, one was on a sailing trip, one was in a nearby city – San Antonio. However a couple of guys were around. Troy from Texas and I had a long couple of coffees and talked about his experiences in Central and South America.

Pat and Lyn are planning a trip around the world and we caught up for an afternoon to start with; that turned into a night and eventually to a later couple of nights. Lots of talk about planning, gear, maps, borders. They showed me the generosity that I have read about on so many trip reports and I’m extremely grateful for their friendship.

I was given some tips of great riding roads in the Hills area west of Austin. I rode to Wimberley where I saw an old BMW with side cases sitting outside a café. I stopped in and met Jim, a great character who has lived here for the last seventeen years. 

He was chuffed to meet an Australian travelling around the world so he called a couple of his friends who also ride GS Beemers.

Klondike Mike is from Alaska and has only lived here for a couple of years. His white hair and beard still hide his advanced years, and he told me how he works on his dirt skills on the big 1200GS by doing figure eights and tight circles on the dirt.

Craig is also a BMW rider but had more stories about his Honda Goldwing and his brothers and his travels and his business and his Goldwing…he enjoyed a chat! Great guy though and keen to hear about my planned trip.

Jim also told me that he had been riding all his life but in the last couple of years he has been reading a lot of literature about riding techniques and in the last two years has completely changed his riding style, and now feels he is a better rider than he has ever been, and is enjoying it more. Jim is in his sixties. Never too late to improve!!

We sat and ate breakfast and drank coffee for a good three hours before Mike left, then I saddled up, while Jim and Craig went back into the café. Full time regulars!

 After getting some good information of places to ride, I again headed west on a number of backroads towards a little town made famous by Willie Nelson – Luckenbach. It had the coolest looking post office, 

which was really a shop with a bar at the back, posted with number plates and a million other parphernalian items over the walls and the ceiling. 

I mentioned to the barmaid that there were no signs to Luckenbach from the main highway, and that I actually found it a bit by chance. She told me that all of the signs had been stolen, even a tall sign on wooden posts had been sawn at ground level and the signs taken. The Government refuses to keep replacing them so the community makes up a few reflective hand drawn signs to direct people. They haven’t been stolen yet!

 The rest of the town looked like a concert venue with a stage and a restroom block, both interestingly decorated with more number plates and trinkets. 

Interestingly, the place is a huge draw card and near the town is a large dirt carpark to handle all of the traffic, but the best thing about Luckenbach was the priority parking for ‘motorcycles only’ directly outside the Post Office/shop!

Here I met three guys, two on Harleys and the other on a new Triumph Bonneville. 

We stopped and talked and once again the line ‘I’m from Australia and riding a motorcycle around the world for three years’ meets with astonished looks and the regular question ‘Are you doing a blog?’ ‘Yes I am, here is my card with the blog address’. It happens that these amigos had been riding together for the last three days doing the exact route that I had been told about, and they had a map! They no longer needed the map so they gave it to me and it had all of the towns, the sites to visit and distances, downloaded from their computer. After a bunch of photos of each other’s bikes, and each other, we went our separate ways.

 As I blog my journey I get some constructive feedback from friends back in Australia. I have been told twice now to get more ‘people’ photos because I tend to do buildings, signs, nature, but seem to forget to take shots of people I meet along the way. I’m trying!

I headed south for a while to a town spelled Boerne – pronounced Bernie – and turned west again to travel through some lovely hilly country with long sweeping bends. It would have been more enjoyable if the temperature rose above six degrees Celsius, but still the chilly misty cloud that had descended over the region made for some beautiful hill and valley views along the way.

 A couple of more towns and I came to Vanderpool where just out of town is the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum run by Alan and Debbie, Alan being an Aussie from Adelaide! The collection of British bikes is stunning with four Vincents, including the famous Black Shadow and one I did not know called the Black Prince, a Batman-looking machine completely enclosed in fairings. There were BSAs, Triumphs, some collectible Norton classics; an Ariel Four Square and other bikes I had only ever heard of in folklore and old bike magazines. Alan and his team lovingly restored each motorcycle and many of them are regularly ridden.

Alan is in need of some restoration himself, sadly afflicted with a degenerative disease that is taking away his ability to walk and function, but he took the time to talk about each of the sixty or so bikes and tell me where he bought them from. The majority were from Australia oddly enough. I really appreciated his one on one time with me. He was about to open for the season the next day and there would not be this opportunity again. I think he enjoyed talking with someone who knew Adelaide, his home town.

Moving on, I again headed east over some larger hills…little mountains…with lots of beautiful twisty roads and long undulating stretches. It was one of the Three Sisters, Routes 335, 336, 337, considered amongst the best motorcycling roads in Texas, I was informed.

 Stopping at a Texas BBQ store in Wood Camp, I had the biggest baked potato in the world, was nearly convinced into having a relationship with Jesus by a couple of local ladies, and was directed to a campground, where I set up the tent and tried to forget about the comfortable sleeping arrangements I had for the last nine nights!