It’s official, I’ve decided to fundraise for the Bike MS: Rock’n Hot Ride in Arkansas which takes place September 12th and 13th. The ride goes from Little Rock to Hot Springs and back. I’ve always wanted to spend some time in Hot Springs, so hopefully we’ll get to do that in September.
I’ve been riding a good deal, weather permitting (and sometimes not permitting), this spring to start getting ready for training season which I officially kicked off last weekend. I’ve done three event rides: the Easter Hill Country Tour in Kerrville, the Red Poppy Ride, and the Real Ale Ride, all of which I highly recommend.
The Easter Hill Country Tour is a 3 day ride with a variety of lengths that takes place every Easter weekend. This year, we talked some friends into accompanying us out to Kerrville and we had some great riding.
Our first day riding was Friday and it started out quite gloomy.
Jo
Sheep
But after awhile, the sun came out and treated us to some gorgeous hill country riding. And that was the last time we saw the sun that weekend, but at least it never rained on us!
Randy
Ranch road
Goofballs
Jo and a Texas ranch
Carl
Jo and Randy coming up a big hill
Randy
Carl
On Saturday, it was even gloomier and kind of cold. I rode by myself since I planned to ride 60+ miles.
Small dam in a river
Oh yeah, it was windy!
We took a short drive over to a replica stone henge, complete with Easter Island head replicas in Ingram TX.
Sunday was quite gloomy as well. Carl and I rode the short loop together and then stopped for lunch in Fredericksburg with Randy and Jo.
Carl
I also rode the Red Poppy Ride again this year. Much nicer weather this time around, if a bit windy of course.
Yellow wildflowers
Fields of Indian Paintbrushes and Bluebonnets
The orange flowers are Indian Paintbrushes
So much yellow
Roadside pink winecups
Small Texas road lined by wildflowers
Big white prickly flowers
Purple and yellow
On a nice weekend in May, we took a ride up to a winery in Comanche. I rode my bike straight north, shadowing 183, to Briggs Texas where my husband picked me up. It was a great day to ride north, with a 20 mph tailwind. Apparently I just missed a good little rainstorm in Austin. I saw the dark clouds as I was headed north west.
Way out on Ronald Reagan Blvd
I love the white flower stalks (a type of yucca) – they have bell shaped flowers on them.
Very large red yucca
Old, falling down stone house near Florence
White and yellow flowers
My GoPro unfortunately ran out of batteries for the Real Ale Ride, but I did get one important shot to prove I was there. Carl and I both got flats on that ride, and then I went ahead and followed that up with another flat the very next day. Hopefully flat season is behind us!
Laura Makes 