Camping Again

Now that it's finally fall and it cools off after dark and doesn't get really hot during the day, I've got a lot of riding and camping planned for the next few weeks. Saturday Grant and I did sort of a joint pre-ride, for a ride he's doing on the 2nd and my ride on the 15th, both going out to the hill country near Utopia. We went out, had lunch at the Lost Maples Cafe in Utopia, and then went over to Garner State Park to get some information for my camp-out ride. It had warmed up by the afternoon and I wanted to take my jacket off, but even though I had my sissy bar and bag with me, I didn't have any room since it was filled with crap for staying out at Camp Ben McCullough. When we got there about 6, there were a number of people hanging out. Grant went home and I set up my tent and then spent the rest of the evening drinking beer and telling lies. A guy some of us had met 6 or 7 years ago when he was visiting the US from Denmark was back again with two of his friends, as well as some Austin people I don't see all that often.
Sunday was the HOG chapter picnic, which wasn't all that well attended. I slept fine, but woke up a little rough around the edges when Jimmy left on his bike at 8. People started showing up about 11 and socialized for a while before starting the games around noon. Lunch was at 1 and it was quite tasty, chicken fried steak. People thinned out pretty quickly after lunch and skipped the rest of the games. I stuck around until everyone except Dave left. I had left my tent up thinking I might want to take a nap later, but it was actually kind of hot in the sun and when there wasn't a breeze. I packed up and left about 4:30.