We took a quick jaunt to the Texas Hill Country this weekend and decided to try some new roads, instead of the usual trip to the 3s.  Biker, his friend Dave and I set out Friday around noon in the blazing Houston heat and were ever so happy to have a cooling rain shower just north of Fayetteville mid-afternoon. The temp dropped 10 degrees to a tolerable mid-80s range and stayed that way as we arrived in Austin to visit Jake for a little home repair project.

Home repairs complete, we took Jake and his girlfriend, Jasmine, out for dinner and reprised one of our favorite pictures from an Arkansas trip a few years ago. This one’s for you, Misty.

 

After dinner we headed over to west campus to have a beer, stopping first at Jake’s frat house for a game of beer pong. Jake and some random pledge barely beat the powerhouse team of Biker and Jasmine. Biker quickly got into his old fighting college form, seen here.

The next morning, Biker, Dave and I had superb breakfast tacos (thanks, Taco Deli) and set out to try some new roads. We had a great ride getting out of Austin. I love FM 2222 heading northwest out of Austin for its sweeping curves and dramatic bluffs, and Lime Creek Road offers great curves and views of Lake Travis. From there we wound our way to Marble Falls and up to Llano for lunch, then found some small goat-trail-like roads that took us through the middle of nowhere down to Fredericksburg and into Kerrville for the night. Sunday morning was a quick breakfast at the ever-tasty Cracker Barrel, then the usual trail home. As we hit the outskirts of Houston, we got pounded by some of the biggest drops I’ve ever seen. Made for a wet ride from about Katy to Highway 6.

Two thoughts on this trip overall:

1. The reliance on ride sharing and the shock when it’s not available.  We’ve gotten to be regular users of Uber – it’s great for heading to the airport and for going out to eat when you know you’ll drink and want to be safe. Imagine our surprise to find it’s not available in Austin. Uber and Lyft aren’t there. There are some smaller ride-sharing options, but we didn’t know enough about them, plus there were five of us which would make for a tight ride. So we actually rode a bus to go to the frat house and get back to Jake’s. A bus!  I haven’t ridden a city bus in  … well, ever. Seriously, ever.  Then, in Kerrville, we asked the hotel desk to call a cab for us, knowing we would drink margaritas at the restaurant and not wanting to ride the bikes back to the hotel. There is exactly one cab in all of Kerrville. One. And when the lady showed up, there was a baby in the backseat. I’m not kidding.
   See pic of me, Dave and said baby. He was a sweetie. But c’mon. That’s weird, right?
2. The importance of Velcro in motorcycling. It’s everywhere. It’s all over the clothes, it closes my boots fully, it holds the radar detector onto the bike, etc. I started to wonder how Velcro was invented. Was it what the inventor was TRYING to do? Or was it a happy accident? So I Googled it. Here’s what you need to know … In 1948, Swiss engineer and amateur mountaineer George de Mestral went hiking in the woods with his dog. Upon arriving back at his home, he took note of the burrs that clung to his clothes and he wondered if such an idea could be useful in commercial application. He studied a burr under a microscope and discovered that they were covered in tiny hooks, which allowed them to grab onto clothes and fur that brushed in passing. After more than eight years of research and work, he created what is known now today as Velcro, a combination of the words “velvet” and “crochet.” Made up of two strips of fabric, one covered in thousands of tiny hooks and the other with thousands of tiny loops, the materials gripped together firmly while still allowing easy release. While de Mestral’s invention became the source of much ridicule early in its inception, his perseverance allowed him to perfect the hook-and-loop technology for commercial use. He patented Velcro in 1955, and its popularity was set when NASA started using the product for all kinds of things, which led to Velcro’s popularity in all circles of life. So there you go.

That’s it for now. Another trip later this month. Happy travels!