The cool and dry weekend before Thanksgiving was perfect for moto-touring through the Texas Hill Country. Carlos and I headed out of Houston Friday morning, zipping west to San Antonio on I-10 and on to Uvalde to spend an evening at America’s Best Value motel. After paying $90 for a 20th century tube TV, a bug-covered bathroom sink, a broken toilet handle and a very cold shower, I’d argue the motel was not much of a Value, much less the Best Value in America. But, it added “flavor” to a guys’ bike trip, and set us up to hit the notorious Twisted Sisters roads from the south via Leakey (pronounced “lay-kee”, not “lee-kee”, as I was corrected).
As we headed north from Uvalde to Leakey early Saturday in the cold morning air, I thanked the Italian moto-gods for heated grips. After some breakfast and much-needed coffee at a roadside taco truck in Leakey, we headed north on RR 336, west on 41, south on RR 335 to Camp Wood, and east on RR 337, returning to Leakey within 2 hours. We saw perhaps one other bike during that entire loop, headed the opposite way as we approached Leakey again, near the Frio Canyon Moto Shop that appeared closed. (Butler’s oddly ordered color-coding in the map above shows the twistiest, most technical roads in yellow, the next step down in red, and the next level of sweeping turns in orange.)
As we sat again at the same taco truck enjoying more tacos and coffee, a white-bearded older man in overalls chatted with us, ultimately offering us his condo in Leakey and cabin near Medina to rent for future hill country moto-tours. In response to the obvious question, “Why not advertise on AirBnB?”, he expressed his desire for greater selectivity because he “didn’t want that Harley crowd trashing things,” which made me laugh as he definitely looked like a Harley guy, not the more refined BMW and KTM biker he claimed to be (can’t judge a book…). So, instead, he scouted out nice bikes and riders he deemed “professionals” for in-person, targeted advertising. Not a bad approach, as I’ll likely contact him the next time I ride west of San Antonio.
Fully caffeinated and taco-ed, we headed east on RR 337 and north on RR 187 to the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum. A $7 entry fee enabled us to browse the private collection of over 60 bikes owned by Allan Johncock, an Aussie motorcycle enthusiast who moved to Texas. The several bikes sporting #346 were his personal race bikes, which he didn’t start racing until in his 50’s (never too old…).
We continued east on RR 337 to Medina, where we saw more bikes than in the morning, though all headed west, the opposite way. We had to stop for apple/cinnamon/maple ice cream (oh my) at The Apple Store before continuing to make our way east and north on various twisty, rural roads, finally ending up at the famous, original Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood for a most excellent, smokey carnivore dinner (oh my!).
Based upon the surprisingly few bikes we saw all Saturday, I’d say veteran hill country rider Carlos had a good approach for avoiding crowds on the Twisted Sisters:
- Start very early in the morning at Leakey (grab some tacos from the truck), and ride counter-clockwise around the left loop in the above map. We saw almost no one this far west on Saturday morning.
- Then hit the right loop, also counter-clockwise (stopping for ice cream at The Apple Store in Medina), as riders who start nearer San Antonio will be just arriving from the east, westward bound.
We spent Saturday night east of Driftwood, south of Austin, splurging for rooms at Studio 6, the “upscale” Motel 6…no Ritz Carlton, to be sure, but far better than ABV in Uvalde! The ride east to Houston started in dense fog Sunday morning, but was otherwise an uneventful cap on a nice hill country moto-tour weekend. Kudos to Carlos for joining the weekend tour, quickness through the twisties, and sage suggestions along the way (not counting ABV)!
Moonday 