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Ride to the Berclair Mansion, 27 Jan 08 Chapter U made its second annual journey south to visit the Berclair Mansion outside of Beeville. As the mansion is only open the last Sunday of each month, the GoldWings and a few Harleys met in the corner of the WalMart parking lot to meet, greet, and hear a safety and route briefing! The skies were fairly clear and though some of us were wearing a LOT of layers, the day promised to warm up and be just the type of winter riding weather we enjoy here in south-central Texas. We quickly organized into 2 groups with Brad and Jill Severe and Charlie and Candy Brown leading, and Mike Mills and Court van Sickler pulling drag. Large group at the Wal-Mart meeting point! Heading south, we had a successful rolling pick up in Poth of Bill and Jane Johnson and JD and Millie Kvapili! Adding one bike to each of our two groups, 11 bikes headed towards Kenedy for an early lunch at Barth's. Our timing was great; we had an entire side of the parking lot to ourselves and we had lots of the tables in the back of the restaurant waiting for us. Barth's features a buffet that had great fried chicken and turkey on it today! Just Arrived at Barth's in Kenedy. Mike, Candy & Charlie, Sue & Brent
Judy & John and Bill & Jane Court, Cora & Dave
J.D & Millie Archie & Sharon Ken & Connie
Had a little time to kill before heading south to Berclair
Stopped south of Pettus for the trail riders. Gas stop in Beeville After lunch, Dave and Cora Lonning headed back toward San Antonio, and the rest of us wing'd south to fill up on gas and make it to the Berclair Mansion in time for its opening at 2:00 pm! Again, we found prime parking in front of the mansion under magnificent old trees. Again the mansion did not fail to awe and impress us with its fine furnishings and original contents from Miss Etta and her 5 sisters. What is super about this particular mansion is that the contents of the house are original and often displayed in the way they were found after the house had been closed and left vacant for 25 years! The tour covers the front hall, dining room, music room, kitchen (with both wood burning and gas stove!), bedroom after bedroom (I lost count but there were 5 sisters' bedrooms, a guest room, and a room for a young niece and probably some more), as well as 5 bathrooms, an attic, a cedar closet or two, and two grand halls! All had the original furnishings and personal contents found in the house and rooms and reflected different periods of time the house was occupied. Oh, I forgot the sewing room with 5 machines (one still in the crate) with dresses, patterns and buttons from the 25 years plus one of the sisters had lived in the mansion! One dress mannequin still had a dress being fitted on it! If you like grand old European antiques, this is a mansion to visit and the Beeville Art Association does a fine and enthusiastic job of giving tours, even abbreviated ones for motorcycle groups that are burning daylight on a winter afternoon! Bikes lined up in front of the Berclair Mansion
Heading inside Great group of folks!
Required DQ stop!! Trail riders on their way to San Antonio After taking some pictures, we were soon heading north, and after taking in a quick DQ stop in Pettus and watching more of the horses and wagons headed to San Antonio for the annual rodeo, we arrived in San Antonio to say and wave our good-byes as bikes turned off towards home. For the second time, Chapter U had a great ride to the Berclair mansion. We had a great chance to ride some super roads, enjoy some good fun and great company. We were glad to have some riders and co-riders along today that we hadn't seen for a while as well as those who are able to make riding with Chapter U a regular event. It was also fun to have Chapter V2 from Victoria join us as well. As always, we are glad to have anyone join us who wants to be "Friends in Fun, Safety and Knowledge!" Jill Severe
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