April moto-mayhem in the Texas Hill Country seemed like the ideal way to try out Jerry’s new 2015 Honda Repsol SP before he headed north to Denver for new Sierra Nevada and Rockies adventures. Friday morning, Jerry trucked and I rode Duca west outta Houston to Bandera west of San Antonio, where we took our bikes for a quick afternoon loop north of Comfort. (The Rever app is good for creating GPX files for my Garmin Zumo, but way overestimates time required for distance–4.33 hours to cover 111.13 miles suggests a school zone pace under 26 mph…on a motorcycle! Really, Rever?!)
After a night of dining and moderate revelry in downtown Bandera, the real ride began Saturday morning. Zipping up 16 to Medina, we turned due west on Ranch Road 337, one of Texas’ infamous Three Twisted Sisters. North of Vanderpool, we stopped to check out the impressive private collection of 60+ vintage bikes at the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum. Soon we rolled into Leakey, pronounced “lay-key” as locals have corrected me, not leaky as it appears…as that might suggest a need for another little Texas town, Sealy. 😉
Just west of Leakey is the Frio Canyon Motorcycle Stop, a must-stop for any passing biker seeking parts, accessories, apparel, food, drink and live music. Judging by the amusingly similar bikes and trikes populating the parking lot, Harleys with 2 or 3 wheels are the all-too-common choices of the rugged individuals populating Frio’s live band and bar area.
We bought a couple shirts and souvenirs and continued west before some of the under-geared and over-lubricated Harley boys staggered back to their hogs. At Camp Wood, we turned north on RR 335, the second Twisted Sister, zipped east on 41, and turned south on RR 336, our last and perhaps curviest Sister. After navigating an especially twisty part (a Butler Maps G1 road), I parked beneath a shade tree in Leakey and waited for Jerry…and waited. Just as I was thinking of riding back north, he rolled in and revealed he’d experienced a little gravity attack in the middle of a tight turn. Fortunately, no serious injury and most of the bike damage was cosmetic, but a little oil leak was big enough to leave the Honda in Leakey while we rode 2-up on Duca (sadly without photo evidence) to retrieve his truck from Bandera.
Thus ended our moto-tour before we could ride NE to Kerrville, but not our big Saturday night in Bandera. We had a tasty dinner in a little joint with cold beverages and hot guitar licks by the impressively excellent Jake Castillo Trio out of San Antonio. From Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jake handled classic riffs and solos with veteran ease belying thousands of hours blues-rocking south Texas clubs and bars.
An old friend of Jerry’s joined us for Sunday brunch before Jerry drove to nearby San Antonio for Easter with family and I rode Duca back east to Houston and home, having enjoyed one last Hill Country moto-weekend before Jerry became a Colorado mountaineer.
Moonday 