WOW – WHAT A GREAT MOTORCYCLING AREA

The weather started out really cloudy but by noon it was clearing and by late afternoon it was mainly sunny. Saturday’s low reached 14C and the high for Sunday reached 28.Great for riding!!

Here are some pics of the campground we took while checking it out.   

Pool with rental cabins

Looking over the pool - looks stormy but it was ok.

Medina River beside the campground

Nice view

We jumped on the bike right after lunch to check out the roads. We ended up going through Keerville  and stopped at Fredericksburg. This town is more of a tourist town. While walking the main street we noticed people were walking and drinking beer out of glasses and bottles. We dropped in a store that sold beer by the bottle refrigerated or warm off the shelves. They had all kinds of different ones, one was even pumpkin flavoured. We will be going back to check it out some more. Any way, it turns out the town has an ordinance which allows people to drink open beer on the main street back to the next parallel streets on both sides. This takes some time to get use to seeing. The one road we did take had lots of twists and even a couple of switch backs. (very cool! ). There were nice views of the hills and valleys along the way.  

Hope to check out all of these roads

They don't install bridges they just raise the road a little and put these measuring markers up to let you know how much water is over the it

Fredericksburg

 

 We arrived back at the campground and started checking out the map for future excursions. We were relaxing and having our own happy hour (force of habit now)

We noticed these 5 deer across from our campsite

They are smaller than the ones at home.

 All for now.....

ON THE ROAD

We were on our way by 10:30 after many of the neighbourhood gang dropped by wishing us a safe and great journey. They will be missed along with the great facilities at Llano Grande Lake Park Resort.  

 On the way after stopping for gas our good friend the engine light came on – Arrrrr!! We will be calling Ford once again.We also came across a highway check point complete with dogs checking things out.

Checking thing out.

 We travelled north still viewing the flat lands of Texas then as we got closer to the hill country the landscape gradually changed to having larger trees, winding roads and of course hills. This area has more of a winter atmosphere compared to the valley area.

Starting to get a little roll to the road.

Into some curves and hills.

Once we were more into the hills area we noticed beef ranches, some kind of dear and horned sheep, we will try and get more information on and some pictures of. We also saw two dead wild boars on the edge of the road. Not sure if they were road kill or shot. They were a large! We were also noticing the temperature dropping as we approached our destination.          

We arrived at Koyote Ranch in Medina around 5:30 and once set up we had a pizza at the restaurant for dinner. This is a motorcycle friendly campground, there are several motorcycles here and the campground is not very full.  The roads we took in the area are diffidently created for motorcyclist enjoyment.  We will be checking it out on Sunday.

Checking out the beer frig.

"The Sisterhood of the Travelling Shorts" - thanks to Linda and Bernie.

http://goo.gl/maps/ryTr0

All for now....

FRIDAY

We didn’t do anything to exciting as we had to get a few things packed up for our departure on Saturday. It was nice day weather wise with a high of 29C.

 Happy hour was held at Doc & Nancy’s and we provided some snacks to show our appreciation to all for letting us be a part of their neighbourhood. Doc provided some entertainment, telling all he had purchased a bean plant in Mexico which was a very fast grower. Right before our eyes he added a little water to the potted plant and in less than a minute it produced this plant.

Doc was disappointed it turned out to be a rubber plant. Cathy and Doc had a laugh over the angle of the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were invited over to Ron & Janet’s after dinner to have our final swaray with them, Don and Tanya and John and Catherine. It was a nice evening to sit out.

 Here are some additional pictures Cathy has taken and we never used.

This is the largest flea market in the valley area which is in McAllen to the west of Mercedes. The traffic was all jammed up around the area with people trying to get into it.

The dog park just recently had the agility features added. The dogs seem to like it.

Tomorrow we are on our way to Koyote Ranch in Hill Country of Texas.

The journey continues.....

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY

Sorry, couldn’t do the blog as we have been a bit busy. The weather was great again for both days with highs of 29 and 31C. There was a bit of flog both mornings which dissipated quickly.

For these two mornings there has been a flock of about 15 wild Red Crowned Parrots which roost in nearby trees for awhile. They are quite noisy and even squawk while they fly.   They have been appearing on the warm mornings only while we have been here. They are about the size of a amazon parrot (the parrot we had, Felix) with a green body, red patch on their heads and a yellow beak. They are endangered due to habitat loss and poaching.

As close a picture Cathy could get.

Picture from Cathy's I-pad for clarity.

 Wednesday, Cathy and a bunch of woman went shopping to keep the Texan commerce thriving. I stayed behind and went for a long bicycle ride throughout the resort and fixed the brakes on both bicycles, so they wouldn’t make a loud noise went applied. Then I relaxed and waited for happy hour where plans were being made for the refrigerator replacement for Doc and Nancy’s coach. They were replacing their current one with a household unit which was larger. We were to start at 9 am.

Thursday

Everyone was at Doc and Nancy’s bright and early. It is the typical setup when you get a bunch of men together – More Chiefs than Indians but it went very well.

New frig.

Window out

Supervisors

Old frig. ready to go out

Old fridge coming out the window

New one coming

Going in!

Rick explaining the facts of life to me.

Cleaning around the window frame getting ready for new weather gasket.

Window in, Done!

After doing my part for the extraction /installation Cathy and I decided to go to Los Ebanos, about an hour drive to the west to see the only Hand Operated river ferry on the border. This barge would carry up to 3 cars. It is very interesting to see and it was powered by 3 guys and a fourth would straighten the barge out as it approached the shoreline by pulling on another rope attached to the main line with a pulley to swing the barge around straight.  It took them about 2 minutes to get across the river.

New U.S. Border Station 

Mexican side

Leaving the U.S.

Gut with hat using pulley to straighten the barge

We ate at our first Whataburger - there are a lot of them here - McDonald competition

On the way home we stopped for groceries to stock up for our departure on Saturday when we will be heading for the Texan hill country. We are feeling reluctant on leaving this great resort and especially the fine people we have met here.  We had an outstanding time here.

 Stay tuned...