Sunday, March 13, rode to Tarpley Texas with wife
Teresa on back of R1100RT and son Brian on VStar-650. Really nice day, this
time remembered to bring suntan lotion. At the last second, son Joseph decided
to come and we transferred helmets & jackets and other gear to our car and
he would follow us. Tarpley is about 50 miles from San Antonio at interesection
of FM463 and highway 470 (Texas Hill Country Trail Road). Our stop
was the "Steel Horse Cafe", run by the Rutledge family. We left San
Antonio late, about 4pm and did not attempt the ride on to StoneHenge II that
we originally planned. Bunch of photos here.
We
went about 8 miles past the Steel Horse Cafe before turning around. The most
scenic part of that "Texas Hill Country Trail" is
just beyond Tarpley
and we wanted to see that before eating and heading back to San Antonio. Valerie
and her husband Dan showed us around the place and took our photo to add to their wall
collection. The house adjacent to the cafe is 110 years old and Vice President
Gardner once stayed there. Their food was excellent, hamburgers and BBQ with a
real smoker in the rear for the BBQ. One of the menu items was
"Sportster
Special". I asked what that was and it turned out to be a senior citizen
portion at 1/2 fare. Since a true HD
Sportster is 1/2 the motorcycle but for
twice the regular price that menu item might be considered incorrect. We
thought the Steel Horse BBQ was far better then the Harry On The Loop BBQ although the
Willow City Loop was more scenic than 470. Maybe in a month or two the
wildflowers will be blooming. A picture and story about MasterSgt Rutledge was
on the wall, he was a survivor of the Batann March during WW2. I
cannot say any
more about the food except it was excellent and easily worth the 2 hour ride. The walls were full of motorcycle pictures of riders who stopped there to
eat. My son Brian spotted a sign "Please do not throw butts in the urinal,
they get soggy and are hard to light". We felt
that easily beat the Willow
City Harry's on the Loop "Use trashcan and feel free to recycle tissue if
we are out" sign. When we left it was cold and we discovered neither the
jackets nor the helmets had made it into the car so Terri rode back in the car
and I donned my raincoat top to keep warm. We stopped alongside a huge Cross
that was on the top of a mountain (Texas size hill) and you can see it in the
background. Bandera Texas was another stop and we took a few pictures there before
it got dark.
