33 Hill Country

January 11

     We continued past Utopia on the road to some popular motorcycling roads referred to as the three or twisted sisters.   If you are checking our progress with the gypsy tracker you will notice we do a lot of U-turns and backtracking.    Sometimes we miss things, sometimes there are arguments about what we seen and sometimes we are just lost.  We seen coyotes hanging on a fence in several places, we found out later the trapper on that ranch was basically proving to the rancher that he was getting the job done.
We turned around one time because Ruthie had said we had passed a dead cow.  I disagreed.  Obviously I was right this time because I'm posting it.  It was a large white dog sleeping by the fence.  Here you see his cousin.  They are Great Pyrenees, we seen several of them on this ride.  They were imported from Europe as live stock guard dogs.  The story we were told was that they are raised with the sheep as puppies and become their guardians.

  .  We were not disappointed in any of the roads that day.   We seen prairie grass with rolling hills in the background.  Rock filled pastures with small bushy tree's with sheep and goats grazing with their watchful protectors.  I was surprised at all the sheep.  In the westerns I watched as a child the cattle ranchers hated sheep ranchers.  Now I find out they were here before the cattle.  Were Roy and Gene lying to me?

        As we approached the three sisters which are comprised of RR ( ranch road) 335, 336 and 337.  The terrain was becoming much more rugged.  We entered 337 from the East at what we will describe as the bottom of a triangle.  It was a nice introduction to what we were about to see.  Pleasant scenery, tree lined water ways, it was a real treat.   Often we turn our little rig around to take pictures or just sit and soak up the scenery.  As we started up the West side of the run it ran along with #55 we missed where 335 branches off from 55 and continued on to Rocksprings Texas.  It was still a great ride the curves were getting tighter and the view from the road was getting more panoramic.  At times there was no shoulder only rock lined passes that you could have reached out and touched.

      When we hit the top of our run we turned East to catch 336 on the other side of the mountain   Part of the road was on open range.  You were made aware of it as you crossed over the metal livestock guards.  Now besides the rock barrier on one side and a drop off on the other you have not only the native animals to be aware off.  You might be speeding up to a herd of cattle,sheep or goats.  I do not want my obituary to say.  Done in by a  goat.       This country is wonderful, I still keep wondering about the settlers and the hard ships they endured.  You wonder if they could admire the country they were seeing with broken wagon wheels, harness's stretched to the breaking point and bodies raked with pain and sickness. 

    These motorcycle roads were everything we had been told.  One of the roads that had free ranging stock on it had a warning telling how many motorcyclist had been killed in the last few years.
    One of our new neighbors at the camper village had told us about a popular fish fry in the village of Medina.  It sounded like he was going to attend so we thought it would be nice to meet him there.  We had been riding the hills all day and were a little tired but we hate to pass up anything.   Key Madina into the GPS. Done!   It was now late afternoon and we were on the last leg of the run.  The sun and shadows were giving us more depth to our view. 

     It was around six when we arrived in Madina we really hadn't intended to be out after dark but we thought we were close to the fish fry location.  We made a pass through town and didn't see any place packed with cars.  Matter of fact there didn't seem to be much going on at all.  Looking around for someone to get directions on, we found two men still working on an old truck in a garage.  They said the place we were looking for must be ten or more miles up the road toward Kerrville beyond the Children's home.   This was going to be a longer day then we had anticipated and we knew we would have to ride back to our little camper home very carefully because of all the deer in this area. We finally arrived at Koyote Ranch for the meal.   Nice place, campground, lodge and country restaurant.  It was obvious to all the regulars we had know clue what the procedure was.  They directed us to the buffet line, helped us gather our beverage and "Jerry" invited us to sit with him as he was alone that night.  Jerry was the almanac that answered our questions about the coyote, white sheep dogs and then a bonus.  He said that if we wanted a pretty ride we should ride from Lajitas to Presidio Texas along the Rio Grande river.  He was sure we would like it.    He had gave someone else the same information a few years back and after the ride they complained about all the Mexicans they seen.  Jerry's reply.  "What did you expect, Chinese?  Your 50 yards from Mexico."   Yup, part of it is the ride and scenery and the other is the people we meet. 

   I have another picture to post of today's adventure but I didn't want to spoil the mood and I really need to get Ruthie's opinion on it.  A safe cool ride home with our milk house heater to keep us warm.  Another great day we will always remember.