the Ride: start HOTT's house (north of Houston) at 6:00am (that's 6:20 Phaser-time) and take back road twisties towards San Antonio. Kwix rode his ST in from Fort Worth Friday afternoon and Phaser on his trusty 1200 came from downtown after work and a nap (what's with that guy and sleep?).
the Mission: Get to Luckenbach by 11:00am to enter the Condor and the 1200 std in the Show. iPhone drive time says... 4hrs. 45min. Kwixdraw says 'no problem'.
the Weather: tropical storm off the coast. Chance of heavy rain, strong wind gusts to 30mph.
the Clothing: motorcycle jacket and blue jeans ('God hates a coward..' Patton?)
We left in the dark with mist in the air. A little stretch out I45n and we were headed west on nonstop back roads to rt290 towards Austin. With smatterings of rain here and there HOTT was determined to dodge raindrops to keep the pristine Condor show ready (moron). Back roads again to the south side of Austin and the skies opened up, stinging rain and slippery roads that haven't seen moisture in weeks. Not to worry Bob 'Kwixdraw' never let us get under 80mph (remember the Mission). Past Austin into the rolling Hill Country of central Texas. Beautiful even with over cast skies. The wind was hammering. The kind that lifts you up out of the saddle at the same time pushing towards that guardrail. Awesome! Pulling into Stonewall (last town before Luckenbach) things calmed down (weather wise) and a large contingent of machines were coming in from all roads. It was going to be a good day. Kwixdraw got Phaserburn & HOTT there with 20min. to spare. We rolled the 1200 std and the Condor into the park fermme and wiped the ride ins dirt off.
We strolled around looked at all the vintage iron and then back to the parking lot for some real moto-gazing. A 1000+ bikes not counting a few hundred in the campground.
After the show our Trio cruised on into Fredericksburg. A quaint little tourist trap and home of the Admiral Nimitz Museum. A quick fill-up of hand dipped cake dough ice cream we were off to get some snappy twisty-turnee motorcycle ridin' done. After a brisk ride we came upon Enchanted Rock, a geological anomaly only duplicated by Ayers Rock in Australia.
COOOL. The Sun was starting to fall, time to head back to the party for some complementary BBQ (with the price of admission). Just in time for a movie under the stars on a 70ft inflatable screen ! Some old Ducati racing footage and a campy Brit flick called "TT Racer" (or something) Yeah baby.
Smoothe talkin' HOTT was able to scrounge up a cabin (read box) over BBQ thus saving a 60mi. trip back the highway. Morning time and time to bolt.
One more time through the Fairgrounds, some eggs,coffee and more BBQ? We didn't leave hungry.
We headed back to the fork in the road at Johnson City (281 & 290) and after some coffee and fellowship, we sent our friend Bob north and home. Jeremy and I split paths further on down highway 290. Was it an epoch ride of magnificent length? No. Just a good chance for old & new friends to meet and ride motorcycles.
We just build up more speed to the next turn 
