Old Texas 20

Every year we have a memorial camp out at Krause Springs in Spicewood, Texas to remember Coleman Davenport, who owned an ice house at the northern edge of San Antonio. The sign said “Hills and Dales’ – but everyone who ever spent time there called it Howdy Neighbors – Coleman would sit at the register and call out “Howdy Neighbor” to every person who walked through the door.

Howdy Neighbors - That's Coleman's shilouette in the window.

So, I loaded up the bike for four days of camping and visiting with old friends.

The Ural loaded for camping - packs up nice.

This is our usual camping spot under the cypress trees at Krause Springs – everyone else is down in the water cooling off.

Getting set for a hard day of doing nothing.

I set up my tent a little ways away from the main group – essential if you want to actually sleep.

Another excellent use of a Ural - closeline pole.

On things about Krauses is the dang racoons – there’s no trash cans in the camp area – so if you forget to haul your trash out before you hit the sack . . .

Racoons at work during the night

And the little buggers have figured out how to get into your ice chests and haul off anything that looks tasty as well.

Call CSI - we have prints!

On Friday morning I took the scooter and made a run down to Kendalia – about 85 miles from Krause Springs. There were several county roads I wanted to ride, and then I’d seen a report that the Kendalia General Store made a good burger – so I wanted to check that out.

Krause Springs to Kendalia

The weather was cloudy and a little hazy, but it was only in the mid 80s – so it was nice riding weather. I cut down CR 408 right in Spicewood. Nice 35mph one lane County Road.

CR 408 heading south from Spicewood, Texas.

My KPS (kevo positioning system) – kind of like a rally strip chart. I sit down with a map before a ride and write down my turns (most of then anyway) on 3×5 index cards – and then stick them in a handlebar map case. So, all I need to do (theoretically) is look down and see what my next turn is.

The Kevo Positioning System - also see my phone list since I've never figured out how to put numbers in my cell phone. ,

You’ll notice I don’t put the mileage between turns – since my Ural reports neither miles or kilometers on the odometer – but some other measure of distance related to the phase of the moon I think. Of course, this system all depends on being able to read the road signs.

Got this turn on the third try - CR302 headed down to Cypress Mill.

You can tell from the Cypress Trees that this stream is usually wet.

No worries about high water today - this creek was dry as a bone.

As you cross the divide down into the Cypress Creek you get a nice view of the valley.

Looking south along CR 302 towards Cypress Creek.

Down below Round Mountain I cut Southwest on CR307 (Sandy-Round Mountain Road) – which is a great road – about half the distance to Sandy is nice well-graded gravel – the Blanco County grader operator who maintains this road should get a bonus – no washboard at all.

CR307 - nice high speed gravel road.

From Sandy I took FM1302 down across the Pedernales.

Pedernales Crossing at FM1302. The river is just barely flowing here.

I cut south on The Hye-Albert road, and then a jog on 1888, and down Crababble Road. This is a great road from the Blanco River crossing down into Kendalia. Great hills, no traffic (actually I probably only passed 2 cars this whole route).

Crabapple Road headed south towards Kendalia.

And finally to the Kendalia General Store. There’s no sign, but there are no other businesses really in Kendalia and the post office is on the other end of the building – so it’s not like you’ll spend an hour hunting it down.

Kendalia General Store Lunch Rush

And the burger was worth the ride. This is the Kendalia Burger – cheddar cheese, bacon, grilled onions. Excellent burger – fresh beef, well seasoned with salt and pepper, fresh fixins, the grilled onion was grilled in bacon grease. The paper it was wrapped in was transparent before I’d eaten half the burger  – always a good sign.

The Kendalia Burger at Kendalia General Store

Well fed, I headed back to Krause Spring to visit and hoo hah with the rest of the folks.

Dee Dee and Mike

Melissa and Jarrett doing a tune

Dan, Andy and Mike do what we do best

Michael channels him some Dylan

Mark's got the Lumen eye.

It was an excellent camp out. Here’s to Coleman.

Go ride.

Kevo

Took a ride with a couple of Ducatista buddies out to Washington Texas for one excellent burger.

We rode out 290 East and then cut south at Paige to run on some Farm to Market Roads then (hopefully) cut up through Round Top and follow the old La Bahia Road all the way to Washington.

It was a nice day – low 60’s in the morning when we set out – not a cloud in the sky.

A Russian and Two Italians  – I know there is a joke in there somewhere . . .

We made it to Highway 237 to run into Round Top, and the traffic was backed up as far as we could see – which is kind of unusual for a 2 lane road out in the middle of almost nowhere – so we hooked a U and tried to work around the jam. I found out that today my main tank had 170km of unleaded – and luckily the reserve had another 23km which got us into Carmine.

David decided that his Italian scooter would handle better with some good Russian air in the tires.

In Independence, TX there’s the remains of the original Baylor University chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845 As Baylor Female College. Here’s the columns from the original building. (check out info on it here: http://www.independencetx.com/BaylorPark.htm

And Mark and his Italian scooter

There are a few other ruins there on the site –

And you can still see the chisel marks on the stones that were dressed for the corners.

A bit farther down the road – almost to Washington (where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed) – is the B&S 105 Grocery and Gas —

They cook up a big,  mean burger, and excellent tater tots. The burger was fresh cow, hand formed, had to be over half a pound, fresh cut veggies, four friggin pickles, big thick slices of onion – definitely worth the drive.

Mark (left) and David wonder how they had survived so long without a 105 Grocery and Gas burger

After inhaling the burger we did a little loop over past Washington, and back to Independence.

And back down FM390 (La Bahaia Road). In Old Gay Hill (ok – more jokes), a neat old 1 lane brick arch underpass under the railroad. The arch is 4 courses of brick – my father-in-law was a mason – he would have been here two hours checking out the work.

We split up back in Burton and the Ducati boys flew their scooters home at warp speed.

I stopped at the Burton Farmers Gin. This is a working cotton gin and museum – they still gin cotton here using the old equipment – and gin cotton for other museums.  Nice cotton scale —

They run the gin on this 125 HP two-stroke semi-diesel engine – I would like to see this cranked up.

Here’s the clutch/tranny – with a no doubt about it shift lever – this would look good in a Ural.

The engine powers the shaft on the right – belts bring the power to the different parts of the gin. You can only see about a third of the belts here.

And here’s a little 4 cylinder flathead engine —

That’s the starter for this 6 cylinder beast

A nice 280 mile out and back. If you’re within a hundred mile of Washington, Texas, and consider yourself any kind of carnivore – get on your scooter and go eat one of these burgers. (B&Js 105 Gas and Groceries, 17255 Highway 105, Washington, TX)

Kevo