Well, we were blessed with unseasonably warm weather yesterday. It was 74 (f) with blue skies. Top down weather for a Christmas drive!

I just love the fact that many, many ranchers decorate their gates and entrances for most holidays. There is nothing like riding around in no man’s land and all of a sudden seeing signs of civilization.

One of my favorite ranches (vary, very large) has an entrance and exit marked with large, locally sourced rock…carved with the associated ranch name. The gold on this one is in fact gold leaf which is reapplied every year, imagine you are driving an old country road surrounded by mesquite and open land, you make the corner and BAM there you are greeted with this sight.




And as homage to Graham here it is with the requisite Jag in the photo.




Another special sight is this tree,




And requisite image though flaired quite a bit.




Happy holidays folks.

wj

 

Nice weather! Don’t know anything about Texas society, so had to google that ranch name. So if I understand correctly, the dude lives on the ranch with the ex-wife’s name, and she lives elsewhere?
With that much money, think he would have changed the name of the place.
Oh, and hey, Happy Holidays to you too!

 

Maybe I'll drive by someday and see a new name...maybe not.
The grounds are beautiful, the air strip not bad, the horse 'barn' has that OMG wood everywhere.
wj

 

Please send the weather too.

It was blowing a gale here in the north of England on Christmas Day but we went out for a walk in the direction of the pub before lunch. Unfortunately the wind was joined by horizontal rain when we were a couple of miles from home. Should have taken the XK.

Graham

 

Love Texas, thoroughly recommend a visit for all the Brits here. Especially Texan BBQ, Peach Cobler, and the River Walk in San Antonio. Only occasional need for winter tyres i should think !

 

Winter tires in Texas are your summer tires with a dusting of snow on them. Anything heavier (or more likely ice) and nobody is driving anyway.

 

Or not for long. I remember interviewing for a job down there, many many moons ago, and was informed that a quarter inch of snow shuts everything down. No snow removal equipment either.

 

Sorry to say but there are so many people that think, 'I can', the roads aren't safe.
They speed up because they 'know' they can't stop for that red light. They slip and slide everywhere looking for a good spot to hit softly. They cause car pile ups on freeways...I could go on and on.
My first encounter with winter weather (snow) when first moving to Tx from Penna was to get in my car and check out how the snow looked on the surroundings. Thirty minutes later I was shaking from fear as the people everywhere were trying to slide into me and my corvette. I got myself and car home, decided to walk around instead.
wj

 

All the states where snow is an infrequent occurrence are like that. I moved from the mountains of Colorado to Washington DC, where they looked at my rear wheel drive Firebird and said "That's rear wheel drive -- what will you do in winter?" Come winter I was still tooling around in the Firebird with no problem, while the people in front wheel drive and all wheel drive vehicles were skidding through the intersections and spinning out into the ditches.

 

I read an on-line article (Road and Track I think) the other day in which a FWD Audi and RWD BMW were compared in regard to performance in snowy conditions at a Finnish test site. Similar size and power cars. Performance was similar but the RWD did edge out the FWD. A good set of snow tires are key was the recommendation.
https://apple.news/AvQF8kaR0S0q-j8YLTQpv-A

 

I lived in the D.C. suburbs for years, and I lived in Moscow for years. As noted, D.C. is paralyzed by a couple inches of snow, every time; it's a regular thing (I used to joke with my Russian counterparts they missed their chance to invade D.C. during every snowstorm). In Moscow, the one or two times the roads weren't completely ready for morning rush hour after a major overnight snowstorm, the mayor was on TV apologizing to the citizens by 10 am.

Also, shout out from San Antonio!