Bikers, Beetles & Boot-Scootin' Boogie

Hi Blog.  Today is Saturday, April 20, 2013.  The day started out pretty cold at 41 degrees, but was expected to reach the upper 70's by afternoon.  After hiking all day yesterday, we decided a bike ride was in order for today.  Turns out, we're only 5 miles from the World Famous Luckenbach, Texas.  (We know, we never heard of it, either, before coming here.)  Folks around here told us that Waylon Jennings made it famous when he wrote a song about the town.  We went out on the internet and found it - Luckenbach Texas Song. Sounds like our kind of place (as in Gen-u-wine Texas), so off we go.

Just so you know, Luckenbach is an out of the way Texas hill country hamlet preserving a rich piece of Texas history, while promoting music, history and folklore.  Luckenbach consists of a post office, general store, dance hall and beer joint - that's it - the entire town.  It's 10 acres, but most of that is parking lots and fields.  Here are some bikers and tourists hanging out in front of the post office - which just proves that bikers are tourists, too.  Just don't tell them we said so.  By the way, old bikers never die, they just come to Luckenbach!

We also heard there was going to be a bike rally in Luckenback this Saturday, so we rode our bikes.  I think we misunderstood.  Ours were the only bicycles in the parking lot.  They must have meant some other kinds of bikes.

It didn't take us long to settle in with some grub and suds.  Nothing beats a pickle on a stick after a long hot bike ride.  Did I mention the cold beer?

The musical entertainment this afternoon was provided by Whitey Morgan and the 78's, a honky tonk country blues band based in Flint, Michigan.  In 2010 they signed a recording contract with Chicago based Bloodshot Records.  They performed a few standards for the crowd, but by far, their own song, I Ain't Drunk (I Only Been Drinkin') got the most crowd involvement.

After the first set, the band took a break and we decided to do a little shopping in the General Store.  There was a huge Volkswagen Beetle invasion.  Beetle after beetle came streaming in.  There were old ones and new ones, big ones and small ones.  My arm was getting sore from all the punch buggies (no punch backs)!

We stopped and asked a beetle driver, "Hey what's up?"  He explained that this weekend is the annual Volkswagen Rally in Fredericksburg, Texas.  The main event is on Sunday, but for those that came early, they planned a ride from Lady Bird Johnson State Park to Lukenbach and back again.  No one knows the exact number.  Everyone just got in their VW and drove.  We can reliably report that they came to Luckenbach by the hundreds - if not in droves.

We determined that, just like old bikers, old Volkswagens never die, they just come to Luckenbach.  Here's one of many old Volkswagens that appeared at the event:

There were just so many cool bugs that we could have filled the whole blog page with photo after photo, but settled on this little cutie because she had eyelashes.

After two sets of entertainment and more bugs (the vehicular kind) than we could count, we headed home on our bikes.  Luckily, it seemed more downhill going home than it did cycling to Luckenbach.  Possibly it was because the return trip was fueled by Shiner Bock Black and Pedernales Brewing Co.'s Lobo Negro.

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Epilogue

Katie to Kathy & David:  "NO DRUNK BICYCLING!!!!"