Texas Winter Trip - Utopia

January 25-26, 2006.
Today is the first day that we didn't use the truck for anything. We did a 50 mile ride out of our door. It was the Utopia-Vanderpool-Leakey loop. Its a challenging ride with two substantial climbs plus a number of other hills.

Our lunch stop was in Leakey at a deli-grocery store next to the hardware store. The food was very good. I had a burrito and the deli manager made Kay a cheese sandwich. After lunch, on FM 1120, we encountered fresh tar which really gunked up our tires. Rocks, grass and everything else just clung to to tires. I had to clear them off on the route and then more substantially when we arrived back at the ranch.

After the ride we ran into John and Jessie, the ranch house owners. John is the quintessential Texas gentleman. Takes off his hat when he greets a woman and is very cordial. We've come to know him a bit by way of our multiple visits to his ranch,. He let us know that the roads are being widened to accommodate bicyclists and growing auto traffic. We even saw two people surveying the low water crossings and taking pictures. John and Jessie have three dachshunds, one had passed away a year ago.

Weather was great, high tempts were in the mid-60s.

On Thursday the 26th we did a 24 mile out-and-back ride to Vanderpool. We needed to drive to Aubrey (North of Dallas) and start heading north.