Texas Hill Country

We had a hugely successful cycle tour of the Texas Hill Country starting and finishing in Austin. 7 days and 5 out of 6 nights under canvas and the stars. One day of dreadful rain (their first in about 8 months and badly needed) , but otherwise great weather and we were lucky with winds. Averaged 45 miles a day and some really wild and beautiful country.

Starting with photo immediately above

1 Back on the open road and loaded up .
2 Mary's Aunt Ruthie and Tom who happened to be up from Houston and on their way to their Lake house at Canyon lake 10 miles or so from where we camped on our first night near New Braunsfels . We sheltered with them for a couple of hours next day where they restored us with a brilliant breakfast and most welcome drying facilities.
3 Cocktails tentside at Lady Bird Johnson State Park outside Fredericksburg with our dear friends Dunham and Jill who came up from Houston to celebrate with us our 35 wedding anniversary . Facilities to keep champagne cool were limited but we made up for it with a superb dinner at a local restauraunt.
4 Mary's first cousin Jay Leigh who drove down from Marble Falls for an evening picnic with us at Padernales Falls State Park where we camped two nights.
5.The LBJ Texas White House where world affairs were much discussed in late 60's.
6 Some unpaved , but wonderfully quiet, ranch roads on the way to LBJ ranch.
7 Mary's first cousin Bill Edwards who met us in Johnson City and drove us up to his ranch and back again while we were camping at Padernales Falls.
8 Sunrise at Padernales Falls .

We chose the route based on an advertised Adventure Cycling tour , but because we couldn't get the maps from them , did it all with Google maps which , largely , were accurate and enabled us to avoid traffic other than on the odd occasion and of course on leaving and returning to our car in south Austin.