We left early that morning to head out to a couple of roads called the “Twisted Sisters”.  These are basically ranch roads in the middle of Texas that are fun as…well just about as fun as anything.  To find them, do a Google search for a town called Leakey, Texas.  Then trace look for Ranch Roads 335 and 336.  Both run north and south and are full of twists, curves and elevation changes.

Our day started by heading south on 16 towards Kerrville.  We stopped for gas and then breakfast at the iHop.  The iHop had a senior citizens convention going on in there so we fell right in with the group.  Our waitress was nice and efficient and soon we were full of protein and carbs ready to hit the road.

Continuing south on 16 gets into some pretty cool twists and turns.  Take your time and enjoy the scenery.  It’s nothing like what I’m used to up in north Texas.  South on 16 to Medina and then hang a right on 337.  I actually think that 337 can be just as fun as the other two mentioned above.  Once you hit Vanderpool take a bit of a jog north and then left back onto 337 out to Leakey.

On our way to Leakey, we passed tons of cruisers of both the Harley and non-Harley variety.  We also ran by a few patrol cars so be care of your speed.  We were not being too careful, but with the radar detector and dumb luck we made it through with no incident.

Ok, I know you are giggling each time I write the word Leakey.  Some say it should be pronounced more like Lakee.  I prefer the Leaky version myself.  If you need gas, about a half a mile south on TX83 is a great Texaco convenience store, subway sandwhich shop and of course gas.  Lots of bikers pull in there.

Continue west on 337 to Camp Wood, then turn north on 55.  As we were going north on 55, we passed a road named after one of the guys I was riding with.  We had to stop and take a picture.

After a very short trip on 55, you will find the first of the twisted sisters 335.  We headed north on this road and had a great time with zipping around the turns.  At the north end, hang a right on 41 to head east.  It was at this point that my other riding buddy announced he was getting low on gas.  Unfortunately, we were no where near a gas station.  This area of Texas is pretty barren.  It’s owned by some large ranches and there is basically nothing out there.

We continued on and turned south on 336 the second of the twisted sisters.  This road was nice, but there were some issues to be very aware of.  Whomever owns this or the state of Texas, not sure which, has decided to flatten the turns.  There is very little banking so be careful!  And, just to make it interesting, they decided it would be a good idea to leave some gravel laying around in the turns too just to heighten the adrenalin of us bikers.  Yes, leaned over in a flat corner and then hitting gravel will get you excited.

336 takes you back to Leakey and we went immediately to the gas station mentioned above.  After we were gassed we decided to hit the other major attraction in Leakey, the Hog Pen.  They make great BBQ and one of the gals that works there is nice to look at.  After a beer, some food, a couple of conversations with other bikers and a couple of sneak peeks at the aforementioned gal, we were ready to roll.  Oh, one other thought, the typical biker that goes there is more of the hard core Harley riding variety.  You will find lots of leather, bandanna’s and extremely tan arms littered with tattoos.

We then headed back east on 337 to Vanderpool.  Dang that 337 is a fun road.  Once in Vanderpool, we headed north on 187.  About a mile or so before the Lost Maples State Park, you will find the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum on the left.  The parking lot was basically empty except for a lone car and a loaded down bicycle. We decided to stop anyway just to see if it was open.  It was and after $10 each we headed in.  Inside you will find a bunch of old Indians, Nortons, BMWs and a few Harley’s.  They were very cool to look at.  I was amazed at the few I saw where their backstory included speeds up to 150-160 mph.  Amazing bikes that were very old.  Worth the stop.

They also have a nice front porch to sit on so we availed ourselves of the amenities and sat there for a bit.  As we sat there for a bit a sudden realization came over us.  It was quite out here.  No, no, I mean REALLY quite.  No road noise, no background airplane noise, no noise of any kind.  About the only thing we heard were some grasshoppers or crickets out in the field.  Other than the occasional car or pack of bikes going by, that was it.  Very relaxing.

After a bit though, that noise was broken by a group of bikes.  When I pulled in, it was a big empty lot and I just sort of parked the bike in the middle in such a way that would make it easy to depart.  My riding buddies lined up along side.  That started the big line as this gaggle of bikes did basically the same thing.  Here’s a picture of us getting ready to roll after our visit to the museum.

What about the loaded down bicycle?  That guy?  He was crazy.  He had a bicycle fitted with saddle bags on the back and on the front.  He was carrying a huge amount of equipment including a gallon of water on the back.  He said he was traveling around Texas just camping.  That’s very ambitious of him and I’m impressed he would do it.

On up 187 to 39 back towards Kerrville.  This is a very nice road and goes along the Guadalupe river.  Some very nice properties along this ride.  In addition, it was somewhere in here were we saw the bike accident.  Well, we saw the aftermath of the bike accident.  By the time we rolled through, the Sheriff and another county vehicle were still there waiting on the tow truck.  One cruiser type bike was down in the ditch and a crotch rocket was leaning against a sign post.  Someone definitely made a bad decision and ruined it for someone else as well.  You’ve got to be careful when your out there.

After sitting through all of the traffic in Kerrvile, we finally made our way back to Fredericksburg.  Back home we had a beer or two and just sat on the front porch enjoying the weather.  We argued about where to go for dinner for about 30 minutes or so and when we couldn’t decide we ended up just ordering pizza for delivery.  This turned out to be a wise decision for two reasons – one, the pizza was awesome.  Some of the best I’ve had in a while.  And, two, it allowed us to meet Tina and Julie [ Names changed to protect the innocent ].

WHAT?  Who are Tina and Julie and what do they have to do with motorcycling in Fredericksburg?

Well, being that we were full of pizza and beverages, we were just sitting on the front porch minding our own business, yucking it up to this wise crack or another and just generally having a good time.  We saw these two come bicycling down the road.  Being from Texas and right neighborly of me,  I yelled out – “Howdy, ya’ll want a beer?”  They initially declined and kept riding.  Pretty soon they were back and asked if we could take their picture.  Certainly and one of my buddies went out to take the shot with their camera.  We convinced them to come on up on the porch and hang out for a bit.

We offered them some beverages and one of them decided she would partake and the other declined.  Apparently they had been at some festival and were still fairly intoxicated from the days sampling of wines.  They were from north Texas like us and we just sat there continuing to yuck it up.  We did convince one of them to go harass our other buddy who had gone to bed.  He was a party pooper and while we had a good time, he was having nothing to do with it.

Soon it got dark and as they decided to head out, one of them thought it would be a good idea to run with her bike.  It wasn’t and before she knew it, she was feet up, butt down in the gutter.  Luckily, and like most drunks that fall down, she wasn’t hurt any more than her pride.  We laughed some more, helped her up and this time they took it a bit more slowly finding their way home.

We too decided it was time to retire after a long day of riding and having fun.  Day 3 was great!!