Day Two: Springtown, Texas, to San Antonio.

Approximately 300 miles.

Friday dawned clear and sunny. We were anxious to hit the road, but reluctant to leave the good company of the Hecks and the Villhauers.

After a 600-mile ride the day before, I probably could have slept late. But Denny’s dad, Jerry, rose early and started brewing a pot of coffee. It’s impossible to lay around in bed after the aroma of coffee wafts through the room.

We drank several cups before we turned our bikes down the driveway, waved goodbye to the Hecks and Villhauers and ambled south down Texas Highway 51.

It was a bright, sunny day and the roads were awesome. We turned further south on U.S. Highway 281 and rode through some mighty pretty county.

We stopped to gas up and grab some lunch in a small town called Hico (pronounced high-ko). Legend has it that Hico is the birthplace of famous gunfighter William H. Bonney, or Billy The Kid. In fact, a statue of The Kid guards the town’s main drag.

To be blunt, you couldn’t tell the statue was Billy. It looked more like an old man in an overcoat walking down the street on a windy day.

I was much more interested in the billboard advertising next month’s Annual Steak Cookoff. Of course, thinking about steak jump-started my appetite and soon we were looking for a place to have lunch. About a half block away from the statue is a restaurant called “Jersey Lilly’s” and we decided to give it a try. Most of menu was Mexican food – a constant in Texas – but Lilly’s did offer passable hamburgers and sandwiches. We all choked down a Hico-burger or Lilly-burger and mounted up again.

We stayed on Highway 281 through Evant, Hamilton, Lampasas, Burnett, Marble Falls, Johnson City and Blanco, right through the middle of Texas Hill Country. Eric Keith took a side trip to ride near Austin, but the rest of us were anxious to get off the bikes for the day so we rode straight through to San Antonio.

We arrived in San Antonio and found a hotel near the downtown area and, while the rest of the guys took turns at the sink and shower, Denny and I rode to the nearest convenience store for beer.

A few hours later, we walked a few blocks to the Alamo, which was closed for the night, and continued on to the River Walk.

The River Walk has to be one of the seven wonders of Texas. If you’ve never been, it’s worth a trip. Basically, it’s a huge mall, convention center and entertainment Mecca constructed underground with shops, restaurants and bars. A river runs around it and barges carry visitors on sight-seeing tours.

Dave Lau kept us in stitches most of the trip. He’s a pretty imposing figure at 6-3 or 6-4. And with a doo rag and bike leathers, he can look downright intimidating.

Dave on The River Walk was no different. Every time a tourist boat would sputter past, Dave would rush to the edge of the walk and yell “Everybody wave!” and, naturally, everybody in the boat would wave as Dave snapped their picture.

Dave also posed for snapshots with complete strangers, some of whom probably wondered who this huge guy was and why he was leaning into their picture.

We took in the sights of the River Walk, ate a good meal at Joe’s Crab Shack, drank beers and cocktails at a couple of the bars and trudged back to the hotel, exhausted.

There was more snoring that night… but I was too tired to care.