Easter Hill Country Tour

I was looking forward to a nice long story about our favorite annual road trip. We did go on our Easter road trip but there is not much to write about. Three of us loaded up our bikes and headed from McAllen to Kerrville for the Easter Hill Country Tour. It started out well. We had good tunes and a full tank of gas. We hit San Antonio and dropped off a delivery of Art Glass at a gallery and then headed to the Performance Bike Shop. We did some careful sale shopping and then got back on the road heading for Kerrville. Just about the time we hit the San Antonio grid lock, Mike discovered his 10 speed cassette had only 9 cogs. We went back to Performance at an average speed of 20 mph.

(Note to self: Next time we unpack his bike and let him ride back to the store.)

There was a silver lining. We were all hungry and hit Rudy’s BBQ in Boerne a few minutes before the dinner rush. Things went well from there, we were running late but got our packets picked up, our new gear on the bikes, and our heads on the pillows.

Friday morning we had a cardboard breakfast at the motel and headed to Fredricksburg for the first ride of the weekend. We could not have asked for better weather. (Actually, if I thought it would have done any good, I would have asked for a little less wind.) We headed out with Team McAllen and proceeded to get mildly lost inside the city limits. Once we were back on track we promptly got a warning from a nice officer not to roll stop signs. The first climb broke things up pretty good and by the time we got to the first rest stop there were just the three of us. It was a pretty la-de-dah ride from there on in. Lots of flowers and the usual pushing and shoving in fun.

We regrouped, cleaned up, had dinner, said hello to friends and made tentative plans for Saturday morning.

6:30 AM Saturday Morning; The parking lot is silvery and there are little pitty pats. No one gets out of bed.

8:30 AM: A decision was made to go to breakfast. It was still raining and 34° degrees. The predicted high for the day was 40° and sleet and freezing weather for Easter. We did the sensible thing, we bailed out and hit the bike shops in San Antonio. We also ate some more. Not too bad for a rained out weekend, and there is always next year.

Bourgesois Scourge

Golf Carts. I hate them. True there was a time when one of my life goals was to drive a golf cart. Been there, done that. I was the photographer for an amateur golf tournament, The Kumquat Open. They put a keg on the back of the cart and I shot the first nine holes without film in my camera.

Golf carts in the morning. It is 6:30 AM on a Saturday and I am heading down a dark road, trying to avoid a head on collision with a golfer trying to sneak on to the links before dawn. Cheap SOB. This is not a one time event. It happens all of the time.

I have watched them run stop signs without slowing. Few, if any, are legal to be on the road. No brake light or signals. Some decide to get around this by driving on the sidewalk. Not even slightly cool. The other day I was heading home from the grocery store with a heavy backpack. The road I travel is so busy, it is four lanes and no shoulder, that I am forced onto the sidewalk. Now I always yield to pedestrians but what am I supposed to do when a frigging golf cart decides to play chicken with me? I took my six inches of gutter pavement.

I am all for electric vehicles. Lessen global warming and free us from dependence on oil, good idea. Golf Carts on streets and sidewalks, the rotten idea of a lazy bourgesoises. Not only that but they are too damn quiet and keep sneaking up on me.

So, if you happen to see some guy with a ponytail and a big green lumpy knapsack screaming at a golf cart, don’t turn and run. Join the struggle to clean the streets of this scourge.


Contributions for a front end loader are welcome. (Original "Itaian Job")