John, Greg and I went to Leakey, Texas again on a motorcycle ride. Check back later, I should have John and Greg's photos added sometime this week. John has a whiz-bang camera, and Greg works for Kodak, so I expect both of them to have better photos than I do. We stayed at the Whiskey Mountain Inn in Leakey, and if you head down there, it is the place to stay. We sat outside late both nights, gawked at the milky way, had a nice little campfire, and in general, chilled.

***Update - you can view Greg's photos here. ***

***Update - You can view John's photos here.

*** Update - the aspect ratio of the photos was messed up. Fixed. ***


On the way there, we passed this place. I didn't even know it existed. This ex-racer from Australia has a bunch of vintage bikes, and figured what the heck, he'd open a museum. For you locals, this is not to be missed. Head down 16 from Fredericksburg to Kerrville. Take 27 west from Kerrville, the 39 south. You'll see the place, and the ride there is great along the Guadelupe River. Finish reading this, then call your riding buds and say, "I know where we can go next weekend.".


This is what caught our eye, and drew us in.


John surveys the collection as Allen, the owner, approaches.


An R69S. "S" for Sa-weet!



Beauty.


Here's Allen. Super guy. If you go, you MUST try the Australian meat pies. Delicious.


1948 Whizzer.


1960 R26.


It's a veritable Bike-o-rama!


Finally we reached Leakey. The Texas National BMW rally was in Fredericksburg this weekend, so there were lots of Beemers out and about. I met a guy from MOA, DanOBeemer, and that was nice. He rode down from Lubbock, and made incredibly good time, riding with the Dust Bowl Beemer club. I won't say how fast they made it down so this can't be used against them in a court of law. Suffice it to say, they cruised at what for me is about my maximum speed. Woooo!


Bunch of guys on BMW RTs heading out for some fun. Note the full gear, helmets, armor, etc. This is known as ATGATT - all the gear, all the time, and it's a smart way to be. I think that as a group, BMW riders are the smartest about wearing full gear. They also ride their bikes to rallies, as opposed to trailering them there.


We drove through Bracketville, Texas, home of the movie set used in the John Wayne Alamo movie. Not to be confused with the Alamo set in Austin, used for the latest one, and of course, the real Alamo in SA.


We got to ride on a nice long gravel road. Nerve-wracking, at times, because every so often I'd end up in deep gravel, and one wrong move with the tires I've got, and the inexperience I've got, and I'm down. I didn't make one wrong move, and I managed to remind myself to stay loose and weight the pegs to keep the CG of the bike lower.


John and his whiz-bang camera.


There it is, one of the fake Alamos.


Greg took a picture for these ladies. They were from San Antonio. Read that again. Yes, San Antonio. These women live in the city where the *real* Alamo is, and they drove all the way to Bracketville to see an artifical one. Unbelievable.


So apparently at the Alamo they had these earthen ramps to run up and shoot at invaders/indians/people petitioning to put Ralph Nader on the presidential ballot. I'm guessing they could also pour boiling oil on invaders, and Legolas stood up here with his bow shooting orcs. Anyway, I've got a theory on why the Alamo fell...


Too dangerous! It was risky to run up these little hills because they were slippery. I can see Davey Crockett thinking, "Crap, we better put up a sign, we're going to get sued if anyone slips on this gravel!" So no one could get up to defend the place!


As if things weren't bad enough, the Mexican frontal assault could not be repulsed because the stair to the lookout/shooting area was not built to code! So the defenders sent a runner back to get a carpenter, and in the meantime, every was killed. The rumor is that the carpenter was union, and sabotaged the projects he did in the south.... get it?


I was screwing around, and slipped off the edge into this well. Greg was kind enough to take my photo, while John was yelling, "Throw me the key to your bike! I'll take good care of it!"


I made it out. Here I am taking photos while riding the bike. This is cool if it works, and stupid if I crash. The whole trick to this is to realize that if anything happens, you MUST toss the camera. Nothing happened.


Greg and John leave me in the dust.


Greg hot on my tail. (Later.)


This bridge was done enough for us!


Wow.


This is the BOWL of bacon at the salad bar. Looking at it now, it looks like dog food. It was full when we got there. Mmmmm, bacon. (I didn't eat *all* of it, but people were heaping it on their salads.)


Jackalope.


Texas-sized chickens.


Longhorns.


Horses that were bad, and got put in horse jail.


Adult Texas chicken.


Ok, this one kills me. The road is damaged, and do they fix it? No, they put up what seems to be a PERMANENT sign, informing you that the road is messed up. Nice. This is wrong on so many levels.


End