Day 4, N. Houston to Kerrville, TX

We don't do the up at 5 and on the road by 6 on this trip, since we're taking the "relaxed" approach to our trip to lessen everyone's stress. We are normally up and ready by 8, but after we pack the bikes up again, it's normally 8:30 or 9 before we roll out.

Tricia started calling the host hotel to see if a room had been freed up by departing guests. At one point, she was told they had a single with King, but when Tricia told them there were 3 of us, they said the fire marshall wouldn't allow 3 per room, so we couldn't book that room. 2 seconds later, Janet called, and a queen/queen suite had opened up. We grabbed it, and were so happy. Now we had a room at the Inn of the Hills for Saturday through Friday, and we wouldn't have to go through the ordeal of loading/unloading the bikes again until we hit the road for home! We were moving in!

We left Chris' house about 9 AM after a light breakfast, anxious to complete the last part of our journey. We were not anxious to get back on I-45, so we used our old fashioned travel guide, aka a MAP, and help from Chris to plan an alternate route out of Houston. We went straight across 1960, and although it was busier, it was an easier ride. It ended in 6 South and after about 25 miles total, we found 10 W.

We had a nice uneventful trip from there to our next stop, San Antonio. We did have a beautiful butterfly land on my bike, and then on Tricia's. It stayed on both long enough for me to get some great shots of it.

Butterfly on my gas cap. 

Butterfly with it's wings open on my gas cap. A sign of good luck!

Even though Janet and I were booked on the Sunday evening bus tour of San Antonio's River Walk, Tricia wasn't going, so she wanted to see the River Walk. We had no problem making a side detour for that. She got directions at a gas station from a FedEx driver. He said to take 10 W to I-35 and follow it in to Chavez. We did just that. Ended up on St. Mary's and it was a loop. The main area for tourists was very busy, and I could tell parking was going to be a problem. We rode further away from the hub and as we came around the corner, there was a parking spot across from the library. 2 hours. Excellent. We parked the bikes, but knew we were quite some distance from the River Walk. That's a problem for Janet, but we decided to venture off and see if we could find a restaurant as we were all starving. Tricia asked a passing pedestrian where the River Walk was and he looked at her like she was a bit "loopy". We were standing on a road, that doubled as a bridge over the River Walk, and he pointed to the stairs and said, "Right there". LOL

We walked down the stairs and what a beautiful place we found. The River Walk is like a mini Venice. Sidewalks on both sides of the river, under the city, with planted flowers, trees, art work, benches. We found a bench under the first overpass we had just been standing on, and we parked Janet there! She was now a troll under a bridge, ha ha. We were up for the task of finding food! She was fine sitting a while and watching the river boats, taxi's really, float by. We promised we'd bring her back something for lunch.

Janet, under the bridge, at the River Walk in San Antonio. 

Off we went, back up to the street side of San Antonio. We wandered around a bit, but every place we came too in the business area, was closed. It was Saturday, so no business folks working. We asked a few folks that passed by where we could find a lunch place and they all said the same thing, you have to go back down under to the River Walk. Down we went, we walked a bit, enjoying the lovely underground/riverside area. Finally I spied a Mexican food place across from the Texas Theatre.

Front of the Texas Theatre.

Texas Theatre.

Texas Theatre sign.

We almost jumped across the river to get to the restaurant, we were so hungry. We had a quick bite to eat, and we got some take out to bring back to Janet.

My yummy lunch. I didn't like the dip though, black bean dip maybe? Bit harsh....

When we got back to where she was sitting, we asked if she'd had any trouble. She just smiled and said, "Oh no, one creepy guy sat on the bench, but I started swinging my can of mace around and he left pretty quick". Ha ha. She also said "There was a  pigeon that kept getting too close, so I finally told him, look I'm hungrier than you are, so unless you want to be my lunch, better move along." Gotta love Janet!

Nest with little birds that would peak out. They kept Janet company.

Tricia asked for directions out of the city, since we'd been turned around a bit, and the guy said just go out through the library and up a bit. We did, and 10 W was less than 2 blocks up ahead. Meaning we could have gotten right off 10 W to get to the River Walk instead of coming in on I-35, but hey, once again we figured it out and we on our way.

We left San Antonio around 4 or so for Kerrville. Maybe a half hour after leaving San Antonio, maybe less, the hill country started. We were pleasantly surprised to see this hills in Texas. The further west we went, the hillier the terrain. It was gorgeous and we were so excited.

I think we arrived at the hotel around 6 PM. We got checked in and everyone showered! Once again, showering was the best part of our day! We'd done it, we had arrived. Woo hoo.

Lots of other folks had already arrived, or were arriving, so we wandered around and did a bit of socializing. We stopped into the Inn's restaurant and had supper. Janet and I just shared a burger. Then we went to the pub to watch the band. We sat with Sherry, a MM I had met at PMS weekend in 2012 in Ohio. She told us her fiancée was arriving tomorrow and that she was moving to Indiana with him. She was so cute and happy he was coming. We watched a couple on the dance floor that were amazing. A "young at heart" couple, in their seventies, or maybe even their eighties. What fun they were to watch.

The cowboy in the band was cute....cowboys everywhere.

Saturday night band.

This guy is a bit older....but he had all the cowboy gear....

Someone told me in the pub, you can tell the difference between ranchers and farmers...I couldn't tell, probably just takes experience. LOL

Everyone had had a long day, but we were all relieved tomorrow we didn't have to pack up and ride anywhere. We left the pub ready for a good night's sleep and excited to greet folks arriving on Sunday from all over North America!