2017 Fall Trip -- Johnson City, TX

On Saturday morning we left Doug and Janet's and headed west.  Along the way we stopped at Buc-ee's for gas and lunch.  I counted about 30 islands with 2 double sided pumps at each one.  It was mind boggling.  And the convenience store was the size of a grocery store.  It had it's own candy making section, a bakery, a sandwich bar, a BBQ section and a wall of soda machines.  Texas, only in Texas!!

After getting gas we continued west, then north to Johnson City.  The link to google maps below shows where we are today.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=30.26983,-98.39697&ll=30.26983,-98.39697&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1 

Sunday dawned with clear skies and promises of almost 80 degrees.  We took the van and headed back east to Austin.  We started at Circuit Of The America's.  COTA is a 3.425 mile motor racing track south east of Austin.  It was built for both Formula One and Moto GP at the highest level; the European series for both cars and motorcycles.  The track was the first in America to be purpose-built for Formula One, with the layout conceived by F1 promoter Tavo Hellmund and 1993 Motorcycle Wold Champion Kevin Schwantz.

We arrived at 9:50, just in time for the 10 am tour.

 After driving around the Grand Plaza, we headed to the Turn 16 bridge.  Here we got out to see what it's like when there is racing.  Today was motorcycle track day, with people working to improve their skills.

A shot through the fencing as a bike goes by below us

 A shot of the fencing on the bridge

 The tower is 25 stories tall. Usually open for tours, it is having maintenance done at the moment.  Darn!

 Our next stopr was a holding lot of cars ready for their track day.  Oh my!

 We continued around the track to the back side.  Here we got out again.  This is by far the place to see the most of the track.

 The S-turns of 3-6

 The tower from across the track

 Turn 1, showing how hilly this course is.

 Next stop was the Main Grandstand.  We could see the pit garages across the track.

 Only about half the pits were actually open today.

 This is race control.  It allows for quick, efficient response to any problems on the track.

Our last stop was the pits and track store.  After the 2 hour tour, we headed to the campus of  the University of Texas and the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum.

It is really too bad that the horrors of the Vietnam War over shadowed the good that was accomplished during his administration.  Johnson saw things the nation needed, and tried his best to deliver.

"In a land of great wealth, families must not live in hopeless poverty. In a land rich in harvest, children just must not go hungry.  In a land of healing miracles, neighbors must not suffer and die untended.  In a great land of learning and scholars, young people must be taught to read and write."  LBJ Inaugural Address, January 20, 1965.  

Looking up the grand staircase at the many floors of the archives 

President Johnson's vision for a great society reached far beyond equal opportunity, civil rights, and fighting poverty.  Creating a great society called for changes in education, health care, immigration, the arts, the environment, safety, foreign aid, crime prevention, and other areas across society.  Ignoring any of them undermined the benefits of progress in the rest.

He had very lofty goals and the opportunity to effect so much

I never realized when the Medicare Bill was signed into law.

After we left, Wayne and I talked about why all this surprised us so much.  For some reason in my mind I credited JFK with things like the space program and civil rights, and Johnson with the escalation of the Vietnam War.  It was a real eye opener to see everything he accomplished.  One thing I came away with was that because he didn't run for a second term it was Herbert Humphrey that the Democrats sent against Richard Nixon. If Johnson hadn't decided to devote himself to ending the War from outside the Oval Office, maybe we wouldn't have had Tricky Dicky, eh?

Then it was back to Johnson City for dinner.

 The Blanco County building

 We had dinner at the local brewery, no surprise there!

Texas sunset

Monday we started our ride by going to Blanco the long way.  Here we went to the Napa store for a motorhome part and the Post Office to pick up our mail packet. 

Here is our route

 We found this old cabin along the way

 Then we headed northeast toward Austin, turning to go around gigantic Lake Travis. We stopped at Sandy Creek Park for lunch.

 This was still on Lake Travis which looks like a serpent on the map!

Then we went north west to Llano and around the edge of Inks Lake. Then south to camp.

Tuesday we went south of Johnson city. 

 We started about 10 miles from camp at Pedernales Falls State Park

 The water is so low that it left this nice hole.  Unfortunately swimming is restricted for the 3 miles around the falls.  Wayne thought it was so sad that you can't swim here.

 We learned that flash floods are really common here.

 Not much fall action going on at this time of year

 Neat rocks at the falls

 We hiked down to the rocks

 On one of the back roads we found this water crossing

 We rode along the Guadalupe River on the River Road.

 It was a nice little back road

We found this on the Little Blanco River Rd. 

Once we were back on US 290 we headed east to camp. On Wednesday we will move to Boerne.

2017 Fall Trip -- Lumberton, TX

On Wednesday we moved the 300+ miles southwest to our friends in Lumberton, TX.  It was so nice to spend the holiday with friends.

 We started our day with a walk, as a food coma and football would be on the schedule for the rest of the day!

 There is a small lake down the road 

On Friday, Doug and Janet, Wayne, Woody and I went for a ride to Galveston for lunch.  We headed south from Lumberton, hit the gulf and headed west.

 Twenty eight miles later we were at the ferry dock

 For those Puget Sounders, the ferries are free!

 Doug's neighbor Woody rides a Harley, we let him ride with us anyway!

 Doug said this line of tankers can stretch out as much as 20 miles.  They are full of oil from the off shore platforms but the refinery tanks are full.

 This hopper dredge is the Glenn Edwards out of Seattle WA.  It uses a trailing suction hopper dredge to remove silt from the waterway channels.

 Galveston in the distance.  What a beautiful day for a ride.

 The Strand is a section of old town just off the wharf.  Lunch was at the Hubcap Grill.

We left the island on the I-45 bridge and through the massive oil refineries. We tried to walk the boardwalk at Kemah, but at $8 a bike for parking, we decided to pass.

However we did stop in a no parking zone long enough to take a picture of the wooden coaster and watch one group scream their way through!  What fun!

We worked our way through Baytown and edged around Houston on the east.  At Dayton we turned east and headed back to to Doug and Janet's house, arriving just as darkness fell.

We had a wonderful visit with friends and a great ride.  Thanks so much, Doug and Janet.