Day 5 - San Antonio to Austin

The final day of the WTXOL was to feature the wild flowers of the hill country and the town of Fredericksburg. Our hotels were close to the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio, so we took the opportunity to enjoy a short walk to breakfast.

Along the Riverwalk early in the morning

Lloyd, Jan, Lynn and David enjoying breakfast by the Riverwalk

For today's drive, we were joined by Don and Rose in their white Series 3 E-Type. Joel had to leave us in his XK-140 - a safe return home, Joel. Once out of San Antonio, we drove north-west on TX-16 to Bandera. From there we took TX-173 north to Kerrville, and then TX-16 again to Fredericksburg. From there we drove north towards Willow City and the "Willow City Loop" which is famous for it's wildflowers at this time of year. As we rounded a curve, we were greeted by the amazing sight:

The whole hillside pained blue by fields of bluebonnets!

OK. That fooled nobody! The sad truth is that it looked like this:

I guess the lack of rain took it's toll this year.

There were still a few bluebonnets along the roadside, but we found no fields of wilflowers.

Bluebonnets by the roadside

This photo is from the Willow City Loop in an earlier year. Note the lushness of the trees too, compared to this year

Lined up to view the.....

A little disappointed, we moved on. Unfortunately, a short while later we had a minor shunt when Lloyd ran into the back of Mile's car. Fortunately, the damage was only cosmetic, with the radiator intact.

Unfortunately, Lloyd has a project for the coming winter

We stopped at the "Knot in the Loop Saloon" for lunch and cold beverages. It was getting warm by now with temperatures in the high 80's, so this was a pleasant relief.

One of the joy's of this trip was that Jerry had done a lot of research beforehand on places to eat, so the food was always excellent. We probably all have a few pounds to loose as a result of this trip!

David's car patiently waiting for a shade-tree mechanic!

After an enjoyable lunch, we headed back into Fredericksburg for pie, and an hour or so looking around.

The famous Fredericksburg Pie Company shop

It was during this stop that a David noticed something curious when he viewed his engine bay with the engine running. There was a continuous stream of air bubbles in the transparent fuel lines from his filter to the carbs. Was this related to the hot starting problems? Curiously, when the car had cooled down for an hour, the air bubbles were no longer there on start-up. Very strange. There had to be a leak somewhere, but no smell of gas.

Fredericksburg was congested with traffic, so it took a while to get out, but eventually we were on the back roads driving on twisty roads. The roads featured water splashes, and lots of cattle grids and dips which resulted in bottoming out on several occasions. Mike lost one of his rear rubber bump stops on one such dip.

More trees that we had seen in any other part of Texas on the way to Opie's

And so, it was time for our final dinner together at Opie's Barbecue in Spicewood. Once again, Jerry had picked out a great place to eat. All too soon, it was time to go, and after saying our goodbyes we went our separate ways. Some of us will be meeting for a tour of Classic Jaguar in Austin on Saturday morning, before setting out for home. Thank you fellow Leakers for making this such an enjoyable trip, and especially to Jerry for his meticulous planning, and leading the way on every leg of the drive. I hope we can all meet again on a future xOL, and a safe trip home!