24 May Impromptu Ride
Summer heat seems to have set upon us very early this year, so the ride planned to Burnet to take a “Vanishing River” cruise was changed to an Saturday, Memorial weekend, impromptu ride. You never know what you will experience on a Chapter U ride and this impromptu ride did not fail to live up to the Chapter U reputation of FUN and SAFE riding!
Just arrived at the Sunset Cafe. Plenty of parking!
Lined up very nicely!
Lots of room inside! All stuffed coming out!
So many ways to eat a Sunset Cafe pancake!
Congregating at the Exxon at 281 and 461, the group waiting met the group arriving from the Chapter meeting point at YOSA. Seven bikes and 11 hungry people sorted out the need to ride to breakfast before making any other significant decisions so a quick consultation led to the decision to travel up 281 north to Blanco to eat at the recently reopened Sunset Café. After a leisurely ride up 281 in beautiful 70-something degree weather, we pulled into the Sunset and found a long table available for us. We only had to pull the tables out a bit to get more room for people sitting by the wall! Settling down to peruse the menu, we started out replenishing our fluid levels and soon plate after plate of yummy food (and large pancakes) appeared, cutting significantly down on the meeting and greeting that had been going on at the table to that point! A good way through my pecan pancake, I happened to look at the plates around me. Lo and behold, I noticed that the pancakes around me didn’t look at all like my pancakes and not because they were buttermilk or blueberry whereas mine had been pecan! What I noticed is that people eat their pancakes differently. Mike and Ako had a similar, but not quite the same, grid-like eating approach. Larry Read, used to much thinner pancakes it seems, ate the “top” off his pancake. Then there was the eating all the way around the edge of the pancake to “work your way into the center.” Across the way was the orderly “eating your way across the pancake.” Last but not least was my approach to eating pecan pancakes where I eat into the center “and then eat the part of the pancake with the most pecans!” Well no one can say we are all alike in Chapter U! Variety is the spice of life!
From the inside out! Start from one end!
Eat the top off first! From the outside in!
Cut into strips! Set up a grid and eat a section at a time!
Now that I had learned a lot about eating pancakes, we adjourned to the parking lot with some having to go back to “honey do” lists or needed activities. It sure was great that Court Van Sickler and Larry and Elizabeth Read were able to join us for at least part of the day!
Mike and Ako Mills, Ken Jordan, Olin Gover, Steve and Susan Ochs joined Brad and I as we headed up to Marble Falls to ride Park Road 4. Yes, the castle is still there. We also took the loop to the picnic area to look at the scenic vista and, no, there aren’t enough picnic tables nor any facilities to have a chapter picnic there! Park Road 4 was a blast as usual and we then headed toward Llano to cut south to Fredericksburg for our first-of-the-season impromptu “peach run.” I am happy to say I stayed in my seat on the back of our Gold Wing as we wound our way up and down Marble Falls, and we were delighted to see wildflowers start to crop up along the way. The closer we drove to Llano, the more the wild flowers. We would our way through town, glimpsing a cute festival that we may want to check out next year and the Wells Fargo stagecoach being pulled by horses through town! The sun had been climbing and the temperature rising all morning so we didn’t stop…this time but we will next time!:)
As we headed out of Llano we were delighted to find fields of yellow flowers and mile after mile of wildflowers. Pulling into Fredericksburg, we let “super peach sniffer” Olin Gover, who had been our “Drag” all day, lead the way to the best peaches available that day in Fredericksburg. Olin has helped our Chapter buy peaches before and they are always the yummiest for the best prices. If you get a chance to do an impromptu fruit or veggie run with Olin around, take advantage of it! We ended up at Vogel’s, eating peach butter ice cream, and buying peaches, tomatoes and blackberries! Peach butter ice cream sure makes a good lunch! Revived and refreshed, we headed back to San Antonio using scenic side roads. As Gold Wings parted company, we all knew it had been another great FUN, SAFE ride with Chapter U.
Pit stop in Marble Falls. Another pit stop in Fredricksburg.
Stop at Vogel Farms for ice cream and peaches!
Great motorcycle parking! cactus in bloom!
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