Our Spring Tour began at the Fredericksburg Inn on Saturday morning, April 9th, when the 16 Porsches (and one Honda) assembled in the hotel parking lot to begin our drive around the Texas Hill Country.

 

Our route took us generally southwest through Kerrville on Route 16. After Kerrville, 16 becomes a windy track with a number of climbing and descending switchbacks.

At Medina, some cars split off to take the "fast loop" west on Highway 337 to Vanderpool, south on Highway 187 to the junction with Highway 470, then east to rejoin Highway 16 at Tarpley. The main route continued on east on 16 through Bandera, then cut northeast on Highway 46 with a final turn onto Tapatio Springs Road to the Tapatio Springs Resort.

The trip back went via Boerne and the Sister Creek and Grape Creek wineries, before returning to Fredericksburg for dinner.
Once the maps were checked for the last time, the cars began to file onto the road.

The first stop after switching back and winding around Highway 16 (and wondering how the two Class A RV's we passed heading the other direction were going to make it)...

...was in Medina - lots of cars and lots of people, and just enough time for a group photo of both.

We look good coming...

The cars split into two groups at Medina - the "fast group" took the "fast loop" and the rest of us "touring types" continued on 16.

...and we look good going!

Once we reached Tapatio Springs Resort after a couple of exporatory turns (OK, so who expects someone to build a fence across a public road and didn't the "No Dumping" signs add something to that dead ender just after the road we should have taken), we had two objectives

(1) eat lunch,
(2) take a look at the 356 Registry People's Choice Concours at the annual Porsche 356 Gulf Coast Holiday.

There were over 100 356 models in all conditions - fully restored, fully modified, restorations in progress, and restoration badly needed..

After lunch, we contined through Boerne on Highway 46 to Bergheim, then turned north on FM3351 to the junction with Highway 473. This took us west to Sisterdale and the Sister Creek Winery.

The winery proper is in an old cotton gin, which is open for tours and tasting (very much in moderation - we weren't done driving yet)!
The Lone Star Region was not the only group touring the Hill Country on April 9th. In addition to the Hill Country and Maverick Regions of PCA, there were antique car clubs and motorcycle "gang" galore. Fortunately, none of the Porsche clubs crossed tracks, and we always seemed to avoid the motorcyclers so that there were no "traffic jams" on the roads during the weekend.

The final leg took us from Sisterdale north on FM1376 to US 290. We made a jog to the east to the Grape Creek winery, where several members relaxed on the winery porch and shared a bottle of local production.

That evening, we met at Cuvee in Fredericksburg for dinner and a recap of the day. We filled the upper story of this historic building a short drive from the hotel.

 

And did we mention the spring wildflowers were in bloom?

 

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