Second Annual Carmine Ride

Thanks to James Press for the write-up

Our second annual Carmine rides have come and gone, and, by all accounts I received, everyone had a great time! The weather cooperated beautifully, so both the Saturday breakfast ride and the Saturday main ride were right on schedule.

Here’s a rundown on the weekend’s activities:

Leroy and Doris Beicker arrived early, so James Press and the Beickers rode to lunch at the Burton Café on Friday. That ride was about 20 miles round trip.

All the Friday arrivals went to The Oaks Restaurant in Warrenton for the evening meal. I don’t think anyone went away hungry—great food!

Saturday morning, we rode paved county back roads over to Round Top (www.roundtop.org) to Klump’s for breakfast. After breakfast we took to the paved county back roads again, enjoying lots of scenic rolling hills, horses, cattle, an occasional splash of wildflowers and deer, through historical Winedale (http://www.cah.utexas.edu/museums/winedale.php) and back to Carmine.

After we got back from breakfast, we enjoyed Jane Press’s cookies, waiting for the Saturday drive-ins to arrive, until time to start the main ride at 10:30. We then struck off on the scoots through Burton, skirting Lake Somerville for a great view of the lake while crossing the dam. We arrived in the town of Somerville for a leisurely lunch (maybe too leisurely—service was slow) at the Windmill café. After lunch we headed out to Independence, where Baylor College (Later moved to Waco to become Baylor University) campus was first located. On this leg of the ride, we got an interesting challenge to race: A fast jack rabbit hopped up along the fence line. You could tell when he was accelerating—his ears flopped back. He would coast with his ears up, and then lay on a burst of speed as he flopped his ears back again. This guy/gal was actually pulling away from us as we were cruising about 40 mph.

From Independence, we took Scenic SH390 back to Burton. This leg was my favorite, with its good road surface, lots of curves, rolling hills and outstanding scenery. Once in Burton, we stopped at the Cotton Gin Museum (www.cottonginmuseum.org ) for a tour of the only still-operational cotton gin in the country. The highlight of this tour was the firing up of the old 1923 Bessemer engine, which powers the gin. What a slice of history!

From there, we headed back to Carmine. Those of us staying over went out to eat at the Brazos Belle restaurant in Burton. As you can see, we lived up to the adage “ride to eat, eat to ride.”

Those in attendance were:

Leroy & Doris Beiker Seguin

Jerry Krenek Columbus

Brett Lindsey Bastrop

Jimmy & Sue Martin Abilene

Wayne Naumann Columbus

Don Paige Abilene

James & Jane Press Carmine

Larry & Karen Rose Gustine

Ross Schillaci New Waverly

Paul & Sandra Smith Seguin

Larry & Joice Vickers Baytown