Texas Hill Country During the Coldest Week Of The Century

I wanted to visit my daughter and get away from the bitter cold in Kansas City so I headed south to Austin, Texas. I was going to ride but the day before I was to leave Mother Nature filled up the roads with snow and ice so I hauled my bike south.

I left Kansas City on Thursday, February 3rd and was to meet my daughter on Friday. This is normally an eleven hour trip but leaving a day early would give me plenty of time to stop at the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Museum in Oklahoma City and the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco, Texas. Because of the weather I would need the two days to get to Austin.

The highway was fine until Oklahoma City where I stopped to visit the Cowboy Museum. It was closed because of the snow and ice so I pushed on down the highway. From that point on the interstate was snow and ice packed. My speed got slower as I went south and the snow got deeper. It is not suppose to be that way. Texas is suppose to be warm.

I finally made it to Fort Worth for the night. The first place I tried to check in was $340 a night because it was the Friday before the Superbowl. I called around found Miss Molly’s B and B. I’m not a fan of B & B’s but its location was in the Stockyards area and the price was right. I checked in and when right to a late dinner. When I finally got to my room this is what I found.



Not large but it had its own bathroom but no TV. I was so tired not having a TV was not a concern.

The next morning I woke to this.



This is what I was trying to get away from and it followed me to Texas!

I continue on to Austin. Normally a 3 hour trip took 6 hours just to get to Waco, halfway between Fort Worth and Austin.

I discovered two things on my drive to Texas:

1. The state of Texas has no snow removal equipment or if that have it they don’t use it.

2. Texans have no business driving in the snow. They go into panic mode with a little rain, add snow and they all become idiots. Texans, when it snows stay inside! You are not equipped to handle such stress.

Once in Austin, I had a great time with my daughter. We went to San Antonio Rodeo and Stock Show and saw Toby Keith in concert and I was invited to go to a Superbowl party in the company of 15 pretty young ladies.

Before I get into more details of my trip I want to thank Richard Gibbens for his excellent book, “Hill Country Adventure” with GPS routes. His 1100 mile 5 day route was fantastic. It allowed me to ride some of the best the Hill Country has to offer without having to do all the routing myself. I highly recommend getting his book to anyone interested in riding the Texas Hill Country, for a day or multiple days.



You can contact Richard and order his guide through his website: http://www.texasadventure.net/

I left Austin early and it was about 45 degrees and would get to a high of about 65 degrees. This weather is why I come to ride in Texas in the winter.

I head to Llano for the start of the route. Along the way I stop at Hamilton Pool State Park. It is beautiful park where Hamilton Creek spills over a bluff creating a large pool.





Not far from the park was the set for the recent 2004 movie, The Alamo. I wish I could have gotten closer.



My next stop was Dead Man’s Hole where up to 17 boding of pro-union sympathizers were dumped.






I next stumbled upon these lonely graves.



They were the graves of two children from the 1880’s. What a solemn reminder of how tough life was back then.
This part of the route had a lot of blacktop but the scenery was fantastic (as it was the entire trip). There were a number of slick water crossing,



and beautiful scenery around every corner.





I rode by Enchanted Rock State Park. I regret now that I did not stop.



Crabapple Church, 1897



And of course stopped to look for Willie and Waylon at Luckenbach,



Great Roads,



And a Mansion near Comfort,



Does anyone know anything about that place?

I stayed the night in Bandera.

To be continued....

Stayed one night in Bandera after buying a bike from a fellow inmate in Austin. Went into the "old town" part of Bandera and found an old texas bar complete w/swinging doors to walk through. Later, on my way out the doors, I found tied to the hitchin post near the street was a horse-next to it was a Harley (old school/new school) pretty cool site. Wish I had a camera at the time- just a good memory from Bandera. Believe Jerry Jeff grew up there. Anyway...... great report so far!

very nice
looking forward to much more
thanks for sharing

You found white boots? You'll fit right in down in Austin.

Great pics Eddie, we are going down the first of May.

Wished I could have gone with ya, great time to go to TX.


Any video avail of ya wrestling the pig out of the back of the truck

I would sure recommend the book and the 5 day route.

The temperature was in the high 20 when I woke so I was in no hurry to get going. The forecast said it would warm quickly. At 9:00 it was 30 degrees so I took off. It was very windy but it did warm quickly eventually getting to the low 60's and sunny but the wind was constant at about 30 mph with gusts to 40.

Today's scenery was just a pretty as yesterday. The route had more gravel then yesterday and included parts of the Three Twisted Sisters.

Kyle Ranch Road:



Hondo Creek Crossing, This was a very neat crossing although like most of the Texas crossing they are very slick and if you are not extremely carefully you can end up taking a bath.





Along County Road 211, don't ask me the county:



Overlooking Seco Creek:



Along W. Sabinal Road:





Overlooking the East Frio River:



Cliffs along the Guadalupe River. The road that followed the river was beautiful twisty road:



This is the beginning of Kent Creek Road. This was one of my favorites but parts were not big bike friendly. About half a mile of the road was in the creek bed. There was no much water to deal with but many of the rocks were the size of grapefruits and even larger. Staying on the pegs and letting the pig roll around underneath me was the key to keeping it upright through that seciton.



Kent Creek Road about where you enter the creek bed, I did take pictures of the creek bed but they did not come out.




I ended up staying in Camp Wood for the night at the Woodbine Inn. http://www.nuecescanyonlodging.com/ They were very friendly.

All in all it was a beautiful day riding even if it was windy. I do a lot of riding in Kansas. I can handle the wind. However according to the weather forecast that wind was bring in some cold weather with freezing rain and ice. I figured if it was that bad I could also stay an extra day at Camp Wood.

Those were not my boots, the room was called the "boot room" and there were big boots, little boots, boot salt and pepper shakers and boot figurines everywhere in the room.

Regarding Austin-The most wacked out nut in KC would not even get noticed in Austin. He would not even be in the top half of the crazies in Austin.

Out is never a problem. Getting it in is the challenge. Loading it in the snow in KC was a real treat.

Jerry Jeff is a damn yankee...but a good musician. http://www.jerryjeff.com/EPK/ Check out his Bio on that page.

Sorry about the threadjack.

Thank you slowoldguy for information on the mansion. http://txgenweb2.org/txkendall/worth.htm

A few more pictures of the house:

Thanks for sharing photos of your beautiful trip, you hit some of my favorite areas. Do us a favor though. Next time, wait until summer to bring that Midwest weather down here. I personally moved from Misery to get away from that nasty, cold, white stuff

I guess we could spend big bucks on snow removal equipment and have it available when this happens again around the year 2040! Not a common occurance.

As for "Texans" driving, you probably didn't encounter a dozen multigenerational (exludes new immigrants and their children) Texans between FW and Austin. Mostly northerners or Californians who moved here when their states went to shit. (No disrespect intended)

Looks like you had a great time! Sorry you didn't get to see the Cowboy Hall of Fame. It is one spectacular western art museum! I really like the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame, too.

I'm not a big Austin fan, though.