The ride today was eclipsed by the gastronomic, euphoric and mind blowing brilliant experience of eating at ROYERS ROUND TOP CAFE, courtesy of Jon Boy (JB) and Bud Royer… but more of that later.
As time passes by, we are becoming masters of bike ride planning! Religiously checking the weather.com website the night before setting out on our incremental reduction of the remaining 10,000 miles and taking the wind direction, speed and distance into consideration, we are now able to successfully and with military precision calculate the exact time at which we need to eject ourselves from bed, get ready, have breakfast, execute a limbering stretch, mount panniers on bikes, switch on Audrey and Margaret and begin cycling. It’s a complicated equation which is simplified thus: ∑Alarm sounds at 6:30am = [(Anthony gets out of bed) - (Kat remains in bed)] + √ Anthony gets everything prepared before waking Kat.
So this morning we began cycling at 11:00am knowing that we only had 52 miles to complete before reaching Tillworth Inn. Problem was we made the schoolboy error of excluding “TERRAIN” from the equation. Our expectation of a slow and steady pootle into Round Top, TX turned out to be a mammoth calorie burning, Jack Rabbit hill conquering and energy sapping exercise. For those of you who have no idea of what Jack Rabbit Hills are, it’s when the road decides to cram in a series of high frequency sinusoidal waves over a distance no more than 1 mile with wave heights of 30ft. Trust us, this is the worst type of cycling terrain you can experience, especially when it lasts for the entire 50+ mile journey. We didn’t speak much on this journey as most of our time was spent cursing every revolution of those damn pedals as we crested each wave … add an extremely strong cross wind, and a dash of bad road surface, and you’ve got the dish du jour.
Of course, we got to our destination just as the light was fading, and the black clouds were threatening to release a deluge. And what a destination it is! A big Thank You to Marilyn and Bernard, who are truly wonderful hosts. Not only did they make our stay the most comfortable we have had for a very long while, but Bernard drove us 2 miles to the greatest restaurant ever (ROYERS) and picked us up at the end of the evening after we had finished consuming Texan Viognier (lovely) and a selection of the best cooked food we’ve had for ages.
ROYERS is a small town restaurant with big style food. So big in fact that they have been featured on CBS News and the Food Network for their orgasmic pies, glorious cooking and hospitality second to none. JB the son of the owner Bud was our server for the night and before long we had sampled Shrimp BLT, Stuffed Quail, Red Snapper and Salmon and of course Apple Pie…if y’all are ever in Texas make sure you make your way to Round Top and visit ROYERS, you won’t be disappointed.
Weather looks pretty scary tomorrow…we may have to apply the equation: Tornedo Warning = no cycling today! But we’ll see what the morning brings.
Us x
Sure was a fun evening!!! Thanks for everything! Coolest people I have met in a long time and look forward to visiting you guys in London!
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good night! Thought you'd like to know it's snow showers again here and I have my washing out! L has been in his polar bear outfit today as it's so cold. When do you arrive in Austin, all being well?
Also, I had trouble with the pictures for a while and have found the quickest way to get to the most recent ones (ie so you don't have to spin through all of them) is to use MOSAIC and then you can select the last page.
I think there is a way of spinning through from the front of the pics using the mouse but I can't seem to be very accurate with that.
Hope this helps.
LOL SB xxxx
Don't go trying some new fashion, don't change the colour of your hair, you always have our undying passion (well, friendship), bla, bla, bla, we love you just the way you are, de, de, de-de, de, de, etc, etc, etc
ReplyDeleteSend photos of new hair ASAP and don't worry, turning 30 needn't mean grey hair, unless of course you have blue eyes and some Irish blood
Love MG & Tx