One of the things I like best about
my riding group is its informality. We have no officers, no dues, no meetings except to ride (and/or eat) and we don't restrict ourselves to a specific type, brand or configuration of ride - or of rider for that matter. We have riders that like to ride fast and enjoy the turns. Others live for the scenery and take things slowly. We have V-twins, opposed sixes, Silver Wing scooters, antiques and shiney new rides. About the only thing we don't have are crotch rockets, but that's not by our choice. We just can't keep up with 'em.
Anyway, all that is to say that our
Hill Country Ride this year reflected our group's diversity. We arrived at our base camp (D'rose Inn) from Thursday afternoon through Saturday night and while we were there, we set out in small groups on a total of three separate group rides, two tubing trips, a hiking trip and a bat flight outing. And all this not including the rides to and from Leakey. Quite a trip for a thee day weekend. If you went on this ride and didn't enjoy yourself, I just can't figure out who you could possibly blame. There was something for everyone.
A note about
D'Rose Inn and its Inn Keeper Deb Rose. All the rooms and cabins at the Inn are clean and well appointed. No sagging beds or clinking pipes in this place. Most, if not all rooms have a microwave and fridge. There is no TV, no phone, no internet in the rooms. Not a bad thing if you ask me. Each room is cooled by a window style AC unit that provides cool air along with white noise to help drown out any traffic from the highway or loud pipes arriving after bed time. I actually like that sort of background noise and I slept like a log.
Deb is re-modeling the rooms and cabins and is about half done. My room had a stone wall, wood ceiling and fresh new paint. All of the rooms and cabins h
ave been recently painted, but not all have the decorating touches that mine had - but they will. Deb is "living her dream" (her words not mine) and is passionate about the comfort of her guests. One note for our friends of great stature. The shower in my room was 3 ft square. If you are 4 ft square, be sure to tell Deb that you'll want a room with a regular size tub and shower.
D'Rose Inn is rated #1 in Ride Texas Magazine and it is well earned. We wish Deb continued success.
The ride over was about 350 miles avoiding all interstates. Lunch was great at the Salt Lick BBQ resturant in Driftwood, TX. We also enjoyed a brief stop at Canyon Lake to watch the water skiers and browsing deer.
Alvin, TX and winding a leisurely rumble through the evening cool. Ok, it's July in South Texas, but I gotta dream of cool weather sometimes.
We left the Shell station in Alvin (528/35) @ 4:15pm. Seems many had not been on some of these roads and CR316 out of 4 corners was a first for me also. I heard some good comments about the roads and selection so guess we did good. The resturant is called On the River, 919 West 2nd Street, Freeport. The "river" is old lost river and this resturant used to sit on the other side of 2nd street years and years ago. Capt Elliotts fishing fleet operate across the street from current location of the resturant. Turns out that I was the only one to have ever eaten here before. Bet it won't be the last time for this group! Our waitress was Audrey and man was she good. She ever took all of Todds BS and came back for more. The corn bread you'll just have to try and the home made cole slaw, too good to be true. Really TALL glasses of ice tea and water to quince our parched bodies and tasty food was consumed. We decided to take the Blue Water Hwy down to Galveston and then asked Todd to lead us to "The Spot" on the Seawall. There we took part in some creamy ice cream for dessert. More visit time then Todd took us via the Strand to Harborside to 45 and home.
