2021 Texas Hill Country Gathering (2020 rescheduled)

Started by MPlayle, September 25, 2020, 02:19:22 PM

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MPlayle

We did not have outright rain, but lots of the mist/drizzle for the first half of the drive.  Dry but cloudy for the second half.

The consensus became to cancel the Friday drive as more rain is forecast for Friday.  Bruce and Craig headed home this afternoon.  Brad and I will head home tomorrow (Friday) morning.  Jeff and Natalie will head out either tomorrow or Saturday.

Thanks you to everyone for showing up.  I enjoyed leading the drives, just wished the weather had been more cooperative.


Scargo

What a sweet retirement gig.

Drive around in someone else's car all over hells half acre, spending other people's money on gas, food and lodging. And when it rains you get the day off.

Where do I sign up?

Brit_in_TX

Michael, thank you for organizing.  I had a great time meeting everyone and actually driving my mini.

Jeff and Natalie, sorry I did not get to see before I went.  It was great to meet you both. 

Willie_B

Yes, thank you Michael. Had a fun time meeting up again and driving some fun roads.

About half way home. Between weather and traffic I didn't get as far as I hoped today.

jeff10049

It was great to meet Brad, Bruce, Craig, and Michael. Also great to see Dave again.
Had a lot of fun riding along and seeing some hill country Natalie thought it was great as well.
Thanks for taking us along.

We found by accident a cool little lunch stop for future hill country drives I think this was near your Monday drive to enchanted rock as I saw signs just down the road from this place for enchanted rock.

It's called Altstadt Brewery down the road from Fredricksburg they have food plenty of bathrooms and a way cool tractor museum with some steam-powered stuff it's small so a 5-minute look is all it takes but very nice place with good prices for lunch items.


Jimini II

Sounds like you guys had a great time a shame it was cut short with the weather.
Its always good to get out and drive your Mini.

BruceK

Here's a photo of some of the group parked outside the Stonehenge replica. 

Not sure why there was a big statue of John Kerry there...

;D

1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

Willie_B

First time ever stopping at a Buc-ees. Wow, don't stop if your in a hurry. Can't say I would become a regular though.

BruceK

#83
Quote from: Willie_B on May 01, 2021, 12:04:39 PM
First time ever stopping at a Buc-ees. Wow, don't stop if your in a hurry. Can't say I would become a regular though.

They have just a few gas pumps to choose from.   I took this video to show my granddaughters who didn't believe me that Texas had some gas stations with 100 gas pumps.

1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

Willie_B

Made it home no problems. Did not see my mirror anywhere though.

BruceK

That's great Brad.  All in all, a missing mirror isn't that bad. 
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

MiniDave

#86
I made it home yesterday afternoon.....thanks to everyone who came, it was great to see everyone and meet new peeps!

On my trip home first I went to the Eagles Canyon Raceway outside Decatur to meet up with Dave and his Sprite - who's engine I had built. What a fantastic track this is.....it's still being upgraded by the new owners but they've done a terrific job already and you can see how good it will be when they're done. The track layout is wonderful, with lots of elevation changes, a couple of off camber turns and plenty of straights.

We had a bit of a rough start on Friday, the car ran fine but was leaking oil - we ran the first two test and tune sessions  in the morning, then went to change oil, retorque the head and reset the valves - and that's when inexperience raised it's head - not to mention weather problems - as it started to rain. Dave had forgotten his torque wrench, and he also forgot to bring a new oil filter.

We got all these issues and more settled eventually, and a run into the closest parts store got him a couple of filters - he's learning....

The oil issue turned out to be simple - he was overfilling the pan!

I didn't stay for Saturday's run, and the weather guessers said it would rain all day so we weren't hopeful. However, Dave called me around noon and said it didn't rain a bit and he ran both morning sessions with no incident - the car ran flawlessly and no oil leaks as he had corrected the level when he changed to race oil. He'll run again today and then he'll have two more full weekends to get his license.

He's thinking he might upgrade the safety equipment on his Lotus at some point and start running it instead of the Sprite, but for now he's having a great time!

After a weeks absence the boys were happy to see me, for sure! Too bad I missed their birthday, but I doubt they noticed..... ;D
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

tsumini

Sounds like everyone had a good time. Would like to have made it but had other committments.

Dave, My son ran Eagles Canyon several times. He didn't like it because it was so rough and needed re-surfacing. I believe ir was for sale last ttime I went there 10 years or so ago. Sounds like its being improved. One of the shops up the hill had a dynamometer service.

MiniDave

What I heard was that it was under new ownership, and the new guys had money and were investing heavily in  upgrading the facility. It's been completely resurfaced and a new section added, also a number of new garages and other facilities have been added, and some terrific bleachers so you can watch, that had some very comfortable Adirondack style chairs instead of the usual bench style bleacher seats. Construction was ongoing while we were there....
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

tsumini

Talked with my son today. He said yeah new owner doing a lot of work on it. He said i was hard on brakes needing hard braking in several places. He had a membership which was basically pay when you used it. Now it's about $250 per month so the membership is paying for it? Sounds like a big improvement.

BruceK

Jalopnik has just published an article and video featuring many of the roads we drove during our recent Hill Country event.

https://jalopnik.com/you-are-now-a-dodge-charger-srt-hellcat-speeding-down-t-1846919503
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara