Bastrop State Park Review

This Weekend we decided to get away for a little while before Christmas and we visited Bastrop State Park. This is a Park located about 30 miles southeast of Austin and is in an area of the hill country known as the lost pines.
This is a really pretty area in the Winter time because it is still green and the forest floor is covered with a blanket of pine needles and makes walking in the woods quiet.
The real reason for our trip was to ride the 12 mile park road between Bastrop and Buescher State Parks. We rode this route out and back for a ride of about 26 miles including the loop around the parks on both ends. This is a very hilly ride with constant up and down, Make sure your bicycle has the right gears for the climbs. While fairly steep the climbs are not long and the descents are fun, traffic was very light and the narrow winding road was in good condition with the exception of the 3 cattle guard crossings.

Michele rides in the Piney Woods

Sometimes Sprocket our rescue dog thinks he is a sled dog
Since it is Christmas maybe he thinks he is a reindeer

This park also has 2 hiking trails , the Bueshcer trail which is 7.7 miles and another loop at Bastrop of 8 miles. We did the 7.7 miles and saw only one hiker the entire time, very nice trail with gentle climbs and smooth terrain. We plan on returning and hiking the 8 mile lost pines trail next time.

The Town on Bastrop is a trip back in time to small time America and they had the walk on the Colorado River decorated with thousands of lights and every few feet the decorations had a different theme, it was a great Trip

On Christmas we went to my brothers house and about 20 family members were there, after a nice lunch we went to Michele's mother's house for coffee and dessert, it truly was a great Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Dennis and Michele Starkey

Sailing a small boat

Tuesday I did The TEBR with the bike club (Tuesday evening bike ride) and it was a spirited ride. We do various routes ,all after dark so we use lights. I have a strobe taillight and a 10 watt halogen headlight. the 10 watt is OK but the guys with HID light like the night rider brand are maybe 3 times brighter but cost 3 or 4 hundred dollars. Until I can make myself spend that kind on money on a light I just stay close so someone with a good light, if I pick someone faster than I am it is motivation to keep up

During the middle of the week I did get to do some sailing with a small boat. This is a boat I built from a kit some years ago, it is an America's cup miniature called the Victoria. The first time I took it out the motor that controls the rudder came off its mount and I had no control and had to walk to the boat and retrieve it off of the rocks. When this happened I had a visual off this happening on the bigger O'day 272 and how dangerous it could be too loose steering and control off the boat, I was helpless. After the repairs it sailed very good and I could sail it right back to me.
After about an hour of tuning and sailing the boat a couple came over and said they enjoyed watching the remote control sailboat in action and visited with me for a few minute about the boat, that was nice

This weekend we have planned to go to the Austin area and do some hiking and cycling at some of the State Parks in the area.

I am a Pirate 200 years too late

Dennis Starkey

Sunshine at last

I took off work early Thursday and got a nice 30 mile ride in and then on Sunday I met a group of friends for a randonouring ride. In the picture we are heading out of Dallas on the highway 80 service road and are going across the 8 lane I-635 and looked down ----------and this is what we saw. a multi-car crash. What a rotten start to someones Christmas.
We had a great ride on nice country roads on a Sunny 50 degree day for a little over 40 miles. On the way back in the traffic was heavy and we had to stay alert, it was nice to have 7 riders as you are a lot more visible. We took one short restroom and drink stop and finished the ride. Thanks to Paul who took these pictures and is not in any of them. While we were riding Michele rode with her friend Lugay and got in a little over 30 miles and did some pretty hard hill climbs, this along with the Monday night spin classes are making her a strong rider.

On the sailing front the weather has not been conducive for sailing with friends on their boats but I have done some more sanding on the bottom of the O-day 272 and should apply the epoxy repairs and barrier coat after the 1st of the year. I really need 70 degree dry weather to do this, but may have to wait, all because of the delay due to the spring flooding and high water preventing hauling the boat. I guess the longer I am landlocked the more I will appreciate sailing again.

Doing better than I deserve. (if you recognize this statement That I have plagiarised then I must tell you that yes we are.)

Dennis Starkey

Global Warming

We had a great bicycle ride on Saturday with a high in the low 80's, then Sunday morning it started in the 40's and then dropped into the 30's and has been there since.
For the bicycle ride I did the GDBCLUB Airport ride which is about 55 miles plus I ride to the location for some extra miles. At about 20 miles I had a flat tire (first one in 2000 miles) , this is no big deal, I just removed the piece of offending glass,installed a new tube and proceeded to air it up with a co2 cartridge and blew the tire off of the rim exploding the tube with a report like a gunshot. I carefully installed and pressurized my last tube and made it fine the rest of the ride and back home. This is a nice club to ride with and they patiently waited while I changed the tube twice and only received a little grief from the other riders.

Sunday was so wet and cold we started a nice fire and just relaxed and worked some on Christmas stuff. Now I don't really know that much about Global Warming but we do recycle and use the least amount of electricity and water we can. We do this for our pocketbook as well as the environment so it is a win win situation.

Proud People Don't Litter

Dennis Starkey

Boat work and work work continue

Work on the O'day is still going on at a slow pace, what with the weather and the Thanksgiving Holiday. I have been able to install a new 360 degree light on the masthead, the old one had quit working and was so badly crazed it crumbled when I touched it. Since working on the mast is so much easier when it is laying down I also replaced the jib halyard. This was a difficult job as I had to remove the entire top of the mast and push a long hard wire through the mast and then pull the new halyard through. I used an electricians fish tape (used for pulling wire through conduit) to do this and now can fly a Spinnaker or use a head sail other than the one on the roller furling. In a moment of brilliance I had pulled the bitter end of the old halyard into the mast and for the last year or so had been without this halyard.Of course being self employed work still goes on, this is a 30 ton Carrier Packaged Heating and cooling unit with a variable frequency drive, the unit is larger than my truck and was not running.

Let me see, what could it be, man there are a lot of wires and controls in here. This is an ever changing business and old school doesn't work any more.

Over Thanksgiving we had about 20 family members over for lunch and took all the kids to the park on a cold windy day. This picture is of my dad Clyde Thomas Starkey and one of his Great Grandsons Colton Thomas Stone. It was nice to have everyone over, it will also be nice to do this at my brothers house on Christmas.

The bicycle rides have been plagued by bad weather making it hard to get in any miles over the last few weeks. This year our cycling club (GDBCLUB.com) is putting on a weekly spin class and has helped keep up the conditioning, these spin classes are as hard as you want to make them and having other people working with you helps the motivation.

This weekend I decided to go ahead and ride outside and got rained on Saturday in the cold and had 30 mile an hour winds on Sunday afternoon, I still got in 70 miles and just acted like the wind was a long hill climb.

Doing better than I deserve

Dennis Starkey