Hill Country Heaven



Finally, the four of us take a putt on President's Day. From left to right, Blaze, Ding, Hol, Bill, Deb and Charro. Outside of a pit stop in Bandera, Texas - beautiful hill country and we had absolutely perfect weather.

DATELINE GRAY COMPOUND, HONDO, TEXAS --- How many people can say their holiday weekend consisted of a surprise makeover, cooking bear roast for dinner, adding a world-class African safari guide to the list of service clients, and taking a zen motorcycle ride with good friends in the most glorious of sunny, warm hill countries? Moi, said Miss Piggy.

After spending what really was the first ever stretch of "gal time" with Deb on Saturday - think garage, rock and roll blaring and a great meatloaf comfort dinner, we whizzed out in her little SUV to her son and daughter-in-law's place in the deeper country. What I thought was going to be a quick cut to kill the dead ends (trying to clean up before my Ma comes to Texas this weekend) turned into "let's pretend Holly is Barbie." Apparently, I had become a bit too long-in-the-tooth, as they say. A sparky, opinionated, wandering cosmetologist named Anita snipped and dried and ironed, and put makeup on a face that hasn't received war paint in, ahem, probably 20 years. The mirror "reveal" was actually rather remarkable. Suffice to say, Don asked me on a date later that evening. Enough said,

The bear was a present from a buddy in Northern Colorado. I slow cooked with veggies and it came out tasty. While many a Smokey can be overly fatty, this roast was good. I won't lie, I was glad we had gravy and vegetables. Hey, I even got the Gray grand-kiddos to try a bite, which I foisted on them after a plate of oven-warm cookies.

That interesting couple we met at the Massacre who run African safaris, as well as an exotic game ranch here in Hondo, have become clients and, I hope, riding pals and friends soon. Ding and Billy are working on the husband's custom Jesse James motorcycle here at the compound and I will detail it later this week. We also finished the work on Mr. Mumme's (pronounced Mummy) bike and visited with his great wife Becky recently.

Last but truly the best was Monday's ride. We set out after 1 p.m. and stopped at the local DQ for a snack. Then it was off to the hills. From Hondo, we rode through Tarpley, and then on to Medina, Bandera, Kerville and back. We passed beautiful, giant ranches with names like Circle M and Running R and flying this and lazy that. The oak-lined roads curved and pitched and the entire run was sun-soaked with occasional cool breezes. It felt like a late summer evening in southern Arizona or a fall sunset in Botswana.

It was Texas Hill Country and it was perfect.

More soon....
Hol, Ding, Thumper and Bob