What If Jeff and Pete Cycled The Hill Country Again?

The Road

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The best pics were of the road itself.. The light worked great for us this year, and some of these pics weren't from the bicyles but from the car when we rode the route the night before to scout it out.

We did our best to contribute to global warming this year, not only did we drive hundreds of miles to cycle when we have a much better cycling route (or safer) at home, but we took the beamer instead of the hybrid so we could spend a couple hundred bucks on gas :)  That's why I think we need to drill the artic refuge, because of important decisions like this.

 Soaring

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When you are cycling through the country you spend a lot of time staring at the only thing moving, which is the vultures soaring above the horizon.

It really is an intensely captivating thing, watching them hang on the updrafts for what seems like forever.

This trip, we took the time try to photograph them in action, including the time on the ground that supports the rest of the behaviour.

Got a couple hummingbirds too.

Fields

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The views of the fields from the roads is exquisite in this area of the hill country. We had a great time just pedalling through mile after mile of beautiful countryside.

Windmills

I started taking windmill shots early in the first day and it got to be a bit of an obsession. "I can quit any time Jeff, I just want to get this one more shot." I don't think he wants to stop for any more wind mill shots if we go again next year.

Man Made

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Everything in the countryside has a flavor of it's own, buildings and other man-made objects especially.  This was our second year in a row on the same route so we kinda had some stuff from last years pics we  wanted to cover again.  

Then there is the stuff you just don't expect, like the shot of this meat cooker from the volunteer fire department in San Saba. If this couldn't feed 3000 people, I'd like an explanation why. Which is a pretty interesting thing given that San Saba has a population of less than that. I guess they're all coming to dinner on the same night.

There is a nice shot of a couple enjoying their front porch on a nice summer night outside their manufactured home.

 A few shots from Cherokee, a very small community where we went both years to have the proprietor make us sandwhiches and sit with the locals who look at us as if we were from Mars or something.

Jeff and I also took a lot of pictures of metal buildings. No kidding, there are some really pretty metal buildings out there, in a kind of simple functional way.

The great churches buildings could teach some city folks about the beauty of simplicity, but how would I know - since In ever step inside one in the city or the country ?

Jeff and Pete

Then there are the compulsory human pics.

That's us, we're the humans.

Jeff was operating the video camera this trip so he got all the still shots taken of him.

I like the one of me sitting with the rest of the locals in Bend Texas at Bad Bob's

You'll notice a lot of shots of Jeff from behind. This isn't hard to figure out, I spent most of my time on this trip following behind. One look at the size of Jeff's legs and it makes sense. He is especially devastating on the hills. I didn't even try to keep up.

Also check out this truck bearing down on us at the bottom of that hill. Those guys are serious. We made a decision to not get in their way.

Texas Sky

Big sky.

Welcome to Texas.

Lake Brady

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On our second day we got sidelined by previous day's flats and less than enthusiastic about getting run over by aggressive trucks, so we drove to Brady Texas and rode around Lake Brady.

The traffic was a lot friendlier, and the views of the lake were spectacular as one would expect. We got there right after dawn.

Rivers

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The nice thing about rivers when you're cycling is you can just stop right on the bridge and take a picture.

We got some sweet ones in this batch, the light was being nice to us.

There is one seemingly useless pic to take the place of the snapping turtle shot that I would have gotten if he hadn't swam away while I was getting out the camera. These turtles are actually very dangerous fellows, so I've been told. This one seemed like it was pretty close to a couple feet across.

Last Year's Trip

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I never posted last year's trip so here it is for posterity.

Especially note the pics from Bad Bob's in Bend Texas. This is not to be missed, if you are cruising through the area. Bob advertises the burgers as bad also, and I am here to tell you he is lying, they are great.

You might also note one of the crumbling barns in the photos. In this year's photos it is almost gone, interesting to see the course nature takes in a year.

Last thing to note is the big old thunderclouds in the last few shots. These guys opened up in a serious way and dumped a lot of rain on us as we rode into San Saba from Cherokee. It was a real treat to get cooled off right in the hottest part of the day.