Over the Memorial Day Holiday we rode down to Fredericksburg TX, the mecca for motorcycling in Texas (perhaps even the Southwest). Weather was great, but turning hot. We rode down to from Dallas to Cleburne as fast as we could (boring highways) then wound around on Farm to Market (or Federation of Micronesia if you own a Garmin) roads over toward Glen Rose. Beautiful area that we had just ridden the weekend before on bicycles. FM2005 is a great little find from Hamilton to Goldwaithe. We picked up TX-16 and headed down to Fredericksburg. Although 16 is a state highway, it's really scenic and lightly traveled.
Overnighted in Fredericksburg, then the next day took on the fabled 3 Twisted Sisters, a series of FM roads near Leakey / Camp Wood that are technical and exhilarating. We even took in a local tourist phenomenon, the Stone Henge replica near Hunt.
Hunt also has an awesome camp store that has great food, and featured a good live band out of Austin while we were there. Lots of vacationers down on the river there.
That evening we rode over to the "bat cave" an old railroad tunnel that hosts a large colony of bats. It's now an official nature center, complete with a small viewing amplitheatre and a ranger on staff. We've never been there at the right season where the bats are there (the migrate to Mexico in the colder months). Even though they were there, their flight started at dusk, and it was too dark for me to spot them (although the ranger kept saying he could see them down the valley).
Monday we were eager to get back to Dallas before the afternoon got too hot, so we opted to go the most direct way back. We did stop over in Glen Rose for lunch at a bookshop / cafe that was great. It's in an old car dealership and adjacent to the local bicycle shop. If you are in the area, be sure to drop in. http://storiebookcafe.com/ They even have live music on most weekends.
Over all trip: 888.8 miles over 3 days, roughly 300 miles each day. Not for the faint hearted, and had we had more time off of work, I would definitely recommend stretching it over 4-5 days.
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