Lone Star Cruiser Roundup, Texas Hill Country and More (1 Viewer)

[wngrog]

I've been trying to get out to the Roundup for a few years now but with it on Spring Break week its just not happened. I miss the pink granite, the stubby oak trees and of course the food and people of Texas.

I mentioned it to LarryB a few weeks ago and he said he wanted in on the trip and wanted to know what the plan was.

Unlike all of my other trips, this one was full on no plan other than we were leaving on Wednesday.


One thing that is different about a Texas trip is that there is no cooking allowed. Food Safari is the primary objective and the day 1 target was Rudy's BBQ in Tyler.

Smashed up on Rudy's we took off cross country taking photos and taking in the sights

Way back when we did our last Big Bend trip LarryB hit Colorado Bend State Park and he wanted to show it to me. We were trying to time the day around the next food stop so we finally turned south from the brutal 30 mph headwind and ducked into the Hill Country

Colorado Bend was the first taste we got that it was Spring Break in Texas and the park was very crowded but i would love to check its interior out one day in the off season. Ill mention this again later but one of the major limiting factors to a trip to Texas is lack of public land to camp. If you need to get a quiet spot you will likely need to find some private property......

Bend Texas has a great store and live music if you ever go to Colorado Bend

 

[wngrog]

A few months ago @under_psi sold his beloved Green Goblin to a feller from the Hill Country named Clayton Everette. He was Texas personified. Big hat. Big truck. Big voice. Awesome dude. He gave me the quick version of his background and told me he had a ranch he ran in Llano that had been in his family for 6 generations called Stillwaters Ranch and that I should come check it out.

Im not much into visiting normal folks houses but getting an invite to see a generations old ranch was too good and I let him know we were in the neighborhood.

He recommended we his Cooper's BBQ on the way to his place and of course, that was on the safari already and we did.....

If you ever get within 100 miles of Cooper's in Llano......you gotta go and you MUST get the beef ribs......

Clayton said he was ready for a sunset cruise of Stillwaters so we took off south by southeast to the ranch.

Overlooking Llano from the mountains to the south we drove through the high fence into the center of what was once a 10,000 acre ranch.

Clayton let us jump into the Goblin and we took off for a tour of his 1000 acre and his brothers 700 acre ranches as the sun was setting

 

[BMThiker]

major limiting factors to a trip to Texas is lack of public land to camp. If you need to get a quiet spot you will likely need to find some private property......

Truth

 

[wngrog]

The wind was still really bad and it was cold. Clayton took us to a nice spot on his ranch where one of his great great grandparents had lived to camp. We ducked inside one of the old buildings with no roof and fired up the solostove ranger in a perfect out of the wind spot

We called it quits around 10:30 and no one moved until 8 am......

 

[wngrog]

I was up a bit earlier and wanted to walk around a bit before waking up Laird. Here are some of the shots. I saw deer and pigs and dove and turkey.

The neighbor to the north was killing hogs via helicopter and it sounded like Mogadishu starting about 9 am

 

[wngrog]

BBQ and Brisket are followed by Burritos to round out the true staples of the Texas Hill Country diet. Clayton directed us to the best place in town and Chorizo was the plan.

The bridge at the Llano River at Llano is superb

Another stop along the rambling route to Mason was to go see my buddy Phil Waldron's new Distillery/Brewry in Dripping Springs. We were about an hour north and i managed to pick out some truely awesome roads along the way

Phil and his parents have been trying to beat the economy with this place that was signed into life one year ago to be greeted my the covid s***. They wave survived it and things look good for the future. He let us taste all of the vodka, rum, scotch and beer and Im not lying. It was unreal good.

We moved out toward Mason about 2:30 with a couple of light heads.....

I would LOVE to drive these tracks we made during a good rain storm in the Hill Country.....


We left pavement at Round Mountain on the first of MANY miles off highway via some great routes my friend @Tulip shared with me and Laird

 

[wngrog]

Random Photos as we work north by northwest toward our next destination........Mason Texas

Its been 11 years since I attended a Lone Star Roundup. That was the year the weather went from 70 degrees to snow overnight and wrecked all the campsites of CottonLand. Its a great tale better told by others since I was in a hotel in Mason and woke up to it all the next morning.

One tale I can tell is that there is a TEXAS staple that does not start with a B that is very well done in the Hill Country and on the Mason square. Chicken Fried Steak !

Willow Creek is legit......

 

[SWRanch]

Looks like a pretty damn good Texas tour! Good seeing y'all!

 

[wngrog]

We strolled into camp with about an hour of daylight to spare. The Kruse family opened up more camping across the creek and luckily LarryB and I snagged a spot way in the back with relative quiet and low dust. We left his truck to piss our spot and then went to hunt down @frismanis and @orangefj45 to unload the trailer full of parts I had just hauled 800 miles in the maiden voyage of the handbill Saudi trailer that miraculously survived 3 owners before I got the OddBall80

We dumped all the parts and shook some hands and hugged some necks and then snuck back into our hidey hole and fired up the solo stove Ranger. LarryB FILLED the trasharoo up with perfect little pieces of seasoned oak and soon we had heat then soon we were asleep again.

The next morning we ran to town to fuel up and eat more Chorizo before hooking back up with Tulip for a personal Hill Country tour.

We stuck out south by southwest to the little town of London TX for the beginning of what would be 135 miles off road in the southwest part of the Hill Country

 

[wngrog]

Looks like a pretty damn good Texas tour! Good seeing y'all!

Thanks again sir. Your place was magical. We could see in on our route back from Round Mountain that took us in the valley to the south. The radio towers help spot it.

 

[wngrog]

Tulip is a great trail guide. Slow and steady. We took in sights with a little back track to see them. All the highlights were seen and the tracks were long and beautiful with tons of water crossings and vistas.

Photo dump......

The Llano River was again a big part of the trip both at the beginning at the end...

 

[wngrog]

Creeks....rivers....back to creeks. Again, man, Id love to see these with the water flowing hard.

Random bovine chewing its curd......

Speaking of curd, LarryB and I bought spare Chorizo and Egg burritos and had them about this time as we kept rolling and seeing

One of the most amazing things I saw out in this area of Texas was all of the high fence exotic ranches. We saw 2000# antelope, buffalo, and even zebras

More rivers.....more creeks.....

 

[Godwin]

Looks like a great trip.

 

[wngrog]

We turned back north late afternoon for Mason with another stop at the Llano River before splitting up with Tulip for the day.

This spot is next to Kruse's residence south of Mason and our on Shane of K2 fought and won to keep this beach open to camping and driving. One beautiful spot that's not in a campground in the Hill Country

We had dinner at another crazy cool spot on the square in Mason called Lea Lou Co-op and broke the BBB rule with some great thin pizza and some fine margaritas. It was a good diversion and my colon thanked me.

We had time once we hit K2 to toss up the tent and go walk camp and look at Land Cruisers. I will say, this event has some serious Cruiser eye candy.

 

[wngrog]

We hung out with the MEO and CottonLand dudes for a while at the edge of the band. Bodean was dead center of the band and I could see the head bobbing and the hips swaying. Heather ran me down and showed me this real cool TEQ grill I was about to buy until I rounded the corner and saw this apparition from heaven on the edge of the pavilion

Its called a smudge pot and in my 53 years I have never seen one. They are used (or were used) in California and Florida orchards to keep fruit trees warm. They run on waste oil or diesel and holy hell. What a beast. I immediately went to camp and ordered one on eBay.......

 

[wngrog]

We woke up about 7:30 to the sound of @frismanis running his FJ40 to make coffee.........I kept wondering what the hell that was until I saw it on Instagram

We packed up and slipped out of camp to great another couple routes from Tulip that would get us moving back to the east a little closer to home for Sunday.

This first section was all off road and took us from Mason to Colorado Bend

We popped out at Colorado Bend still full from breakfast so we moved on through San Saba to pick up the west side of Tulip's Regency Bridge route.

 

[wngrog]

When we got to the Regency Suspension bridge it was closed but it was still very worth the effort to visit

This thing is over the Colorado River and up until recently, open for vehicular traffic. Im told you feel it big time as you drive across.

From here we were on our own with a destination on the northeast edge of the Hill Country near Lake Whitney so it was time to think about dinner

 

[wngrog]

Hard Eight BBQ in Stephenville is one of my favorite spots to eat in Texas. Roll up. Order meat. Eat.

First we had to get there without going through any towns.......from Regency we picked a route that got us there over 80 miles without passing a single gas station

Brisket, Ribs, Jalapeño Poppers and beans.........oh and I had cobbler too.......

 

[wngrog]

We still had time to kill so to add to the Kudu and Zebras and such, I took LarryB to see some dinosaur tracks in Glen Rose at the Dinosaur State Park.....

We ran down the Brazos River all the way to Lake Whitney passing all sorts of great scenery

Bridges. Old Iron. Like our Toyotas they remind me of a work gone by when craftmanship meant something. These old iron giants are art.

 

[wngrog]

We rolled up at my buddy's ranch in Whitney at last light. They greeted us with some cold whiskey and we got caught up on stories of the lost year of covid.

We rolled through their pasture and set up on a tank and fired up the last of the never ending wood LarryB packed in the trasharoo

I killed my handle of Four Roses and we drifted off to the sound of coyotes in the distance

We managed to turn a trip from Mason to Whitney into a 230 mile off road adventure and it really sealed the deal for the trip. We woke early with one last food destination in mind ....