Today we had more Hill Country scenery, and a long lunch stop in Fredericksburg. This town is a destination for vacationers and is know for it’s German heritage, as seen by the many German restaurants. We did take a great lunch break at one and enjoyed some traditional German food, and one of us even had a pint of German lager beer.
After lunch I ran into a group of tandem bicyclists having lunch at an outdoor cafe, and we talked and shared a picture. It you read in my recent post, I stated Texas Hill country would be a good bicycle vacation destination, and that is what this group was doing. They were from different parts of the USA, so I assume this was sponsored by an outfitter company. I gave them the URL for this post, and would love to hear from any of them about their event a the nature of their group and potential outfitter company.
Early in the ride we road an interesting ranch road passing many cattle guards (metal rails on the road to act as a crossing barrier to livestock), On this road we saw a group of bighorn sheep, two curious lamas, sheep, horses and cattle.
A note to southern tier planners is to avoid the long stretch of Hwy 290 to Johnson City. Doug talked to a Fredericksburg bike shop owner who convinced us to reroute off of 290 to a more rural route north. We wisely took his advice for safety, by adding about 10 more miles to our planned route and many more hills (rollers). Finally arriving in Johnson City, I learned from a billboard that this small town is the birthplace of President LB Johnson. The town was already named Johnson City prior to his birth and was not named after his immediate family.
Another important siting was our first Texas Blue Bonnet wild flowers. I understand their bloom is quite the event to see every spring in Texas, so I look forward to larger fields of blue carpet.
Tomorrow we should arrive in Austin for a two night stay and Saturday rest day, with plans to check out some local sites. Rain is forecasted for the morning so we will delay start until late morning and easily arrive on time in Austin.
We enjoyed meeting you while we had an Italian Ice break at the of our tandem ride.
Continued good riding on your journey!
Dean, good to hear from you! I have added the group picture since your comment. Were you all friends/acquaintances before your hill country trip, or did you meet as part of a packaged company guide company? Thanks.